Servite High School

One day he was practicing for a big football game. The next Michael Carter was tackling the legal system, eventually claiming in a lawsuit he was wrongly kicked out of his all-boy Catholic high school for accusing female teachers of "femi-Nazi tactics." Carter says it's a matter of free speech.

The subject of conversation at Estella Rubio's manicurist table in La Palma these days isn't the Donald Trump-Marla Maples affair or Oprah's diet. The ladies are talking Servite High School basketball. They're talking about Rubio's only son, Eddie, who helped Servite win the Southern Section Division III-A title last weekend and will be in the starting lineup at 7:30 tonight when the Friars play Estancia in the Southern California Division III Regionals at Cypress College.

In the end, even James Christensen's impressive size--300 pounds, 6-foot-4--couldn't save him. He went down with the rest of the Servite High School football players--whipped by electric clippers that left them looking like a team of Kojaks. About 30 football players from the all-boys Catholic high school in Anaheim, and just as many parents, siblings and girlfriends, crammed into Salon Russo in Brea last week for the second annual buzz-off.

Three Orange County high school basketball teams, trailing a horde of frenzied rooters behind them, came here for state championships Saturday, and two of them grabbed the brass ring. Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana hung on for a 62-60 victory over Riordan High School of San Francisco, to become the best high school basketball team in the state. Servite High School of Anaheim, playing in Division III, handily defeated Mt. Eden High School of Hayward, 67-51.

All that Nick-John Haiduc wants is a chance. An opportunity to show a coach that he can play college football. Haiduc figures he proved himself worthy as a wide receiver at Servite High School. He set the school's single-game reception record with 15 catches against Edison in a Big Five Conference playoff game as a junior. He averaged 22.5 yards per reception this past season to lead Orange County receivers.

Elphamous Malbrue III remembers being a wide-eyed kid, with a football tucked under his arm. Chasing him were players four and five years older. Malbrue, then 7, didn't care. He just ran. "It was the first time I ever got to carry the ball in a game and my whole family was there watching," said Malbrue, now a junior at Servite High School. "I figured this was no time to tippy-toe. Before I knew it, I was flying down the sideline."

It's 2:09 on a Friday afternoon and two buses carrying the Servite High School football team are creeping along the Santa Ana Freeway amid a sea of brake lights. It is said that by the year 2000 the average speed on Southern California freeways will be 17 miles per hour. Presently, the two buses are moving about 15 m.p.h. as they head toward Mission Hills in the San Fernando Valley, where the Friars are scheduled to play Alemany. But that's more than five hours off.

Servite High School made an improbable run through the 1990 boys' basketball playoffs. After finishing the regular season 13-10, the Friars won eight of nine games in the Southern Section and state playoffs, including a 67-51 victory over Hayward Mt. Eden to win the State Division III championship at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Their reward? Well, to the victors go the bills. The two-week spree in the state playoffs left the school with a debt of $5,583.56.

Adam Anderson wasn't sure what to think when he arrived for the first day of freshman basketball tryouts at Servite High School in 1988. He sat on the sideline, nursing a collarbone injury from football season, as 44 other freshman boys raced up and down the court. Anderson was just a little intimidated, and frustrated. "I wasn't sure if I would get any playing time on that team," Anderson said. "Eddie Rubio and Angel Barrios (who is now at Buena Park) were on that team.

Rarely does a day go by that a basketball player can walk through the halls of Servite High School and avoid the question that irritates Coach Richard Smith more than a turnover. "Hey guys, you gonna repeat?" That's what everyone's asking the defending state Division III champion as it prepares for Friday's opening-round game in the Southern Section III-A playoffs. The second-seeded Friars (18-6) will play host to the winner of the Costa Mesa-San Marino qualifying game.