Why you've never heard of Simi's best basketball team
Many residents might not know of Stoneridge School, but major college recruiters sure do
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

ADAM DAVIS/Acorn Newspapers TOP FLIGHT- Guard Angelo Johnson of Stoneridge drives by a South Kent defender during a game at the Stoneridge Holiday Prep Classic, held last month at Calabasas High School.

National and local media are rapidly converging on Stoneridge School, a learning institution located off Tierra Rejada Road between Simi Valley and Moorpark that's home to 50 students and seven parttime and full-time staff members.

Although Stoneridge has been in existence since 1965- it started in Calabasas as the Marie Cutler School before moving to Tarzana and finally settling in Simi Valley several years ago- the institution for middle- and high-school students has generally flown under the radar in terms of publicity.

So what are big-time media reps looking for in this quiet place? The answer lies a few miles away, at a basketball court inside 24 Hour Fitness in Simi Valley.

Hoops at a whole new level Andrew Schranze just got his first car, and he's stoked about it. Schranze, 18, is a senior at Stoneridge. He's been at the school for six years and gleefully claims to be the secondlongest tenured student in the place.

Mike Mahoney

On Tuesday he was finally enjoying the freedom that comes with having his own automobile, and the first place Schranze wanted to take his new car was 24 Hour Fitness.

Schranze actually belongs to a different gym, and he didn't come to 24 Hour Fitness to work out or to change his membership. He was there to watch his school's basketball team: the Stoneridge Panthers.

"It's a privilege to be here with these good coaches and these good players," Schranze said. "I rarely get to see them play because they don't play in the state too often. I just wanted to see it for myself. It's terrific."

It's also eye-opening.

Sevenfooters- three to be exact- from Senegal, Mali and France are running the floor and throwing down monstrous dunks in their purple Stoneridge jerseys. Charles Boozer, the younger brother of Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, is on the court, as is Mychel Thompson, the son of former Lakers star turned broadcaster Mychal Thompson.

This is the Stoneridge basketball team- a collection of international athletes, national names and role players all looking to earn Division I college scholarships. Many are high school juniors and seniors, others are post-graduate students who no longer have highschool eligibility. Some are working to boost their SAT scores without using up NCAA eligibility at a junior college.

Photos by ADAM DAVIS/Acorn Newspapers TALL ON TALENT- Stoneridge senior Boubacar Sylla, above, a 7-foot-1 center from France, goes strong to the basket during the Stoneridge Holiday Prep Classic last month. Charles Boozer, below left, brother of NBA star Carlos Boozer, flies under the rim.

Stoneridge does not compete in the California Interscholastic Federation- the school was banned from the CIF-Southern Section Division V-A playoffs in 2003 for using ineligible players. Instead, Stoneridge plays a national prep tournament schedule, primarily against East Coast schools.

"Being the only prep school around this area allows the kids to have the college atmosphere at the same time," said assistant coach Amadou Koundoul, who was born in Senegal.

"Traveling, flying, going to the hotel, it's just a privilege to be here. It's a very different experience for these kids here."

Stoneridge doesn't have a home court to practice on, so the school approached 24 Hour Fitness and asked permission to work out in the basketball gym early in the afternoon when it's less crowded.

Danny De La Rosa, the company's senior vice president of sales, said Stoneridge was given a special high-school rate to use the Simi Valley facilities. After making sure club members didn't have any concerns, the gym gave Stoneridge the go-ahead to play ball.

"As part of our community service toward youth sports that we have at 24 Hour Fitness, we thought it would be fine," De La Rosa said. "We checked to see if it would create any member upset, but the members like it.

"So far the members are happy, and we're very happy to be involved with the local high schools and colleges."

Synergy

Mike Mahoney is a savvy businessman from Manhattan Beach.

While in his 30s, Mahoney ran a successful computer software company. He later turned his attention to business consulting before slipping into semiretirement.

"My background is looking at business opportunities and seeing openings," Mahoney, 53, said.

Mahoney's latest business model came to fruition several years back while searching for a prep basketball program for his son, Shane. At the time there were no prep programs west of the Mississippi River, he said, although the idea of "going west" had been unsuccessfully attempted in the past.

Prep school basketball was, essentially, an East Coast phenomenon.

"I dropped $350,000 into the program, and most people aren't going to want to do that," Mahoney said. "Other schools that have tried to do this- or get off the ground- didn't realize that it's going to cost this amount of money.

"It costs us $75,000 or $80,000 just to travel."

The merger of Mahoney and Stoneridge came after the school's former basketball coach, Ron Slater, was let go in September 2005. According to a report in The Washington Post, Slater was dismissed when his players stopped coming to class. When Slater left, he took his players with him to Calvary Christian School in San Fernando, leaving Stoneridge without a team.

About the time of Slater's departure, Babacar Sy, a former coach for the Senegal 18andunder national team, was having his own problems in Florida.

Sy had been recruiting international players- many of whom were from Africa- to play at Florida Prep. But when the school couldn't afford to house and feed the incoming recruits, Sy had to find a new home for his guys.

Mahoney knew Sy, and the two started talking. After researching Stoneridge and engaging in discussions with its owner, Maria Arnold, Mahoney and Sy agreed to bring the players to Simi Valley in October 2005.

After that, prep basketball on the West Coast was off and running.

It's not all fun and games

Today the Stoneridge basketball team has 13 players. Four are from California, two are from France and two are from Africa. Five players are on scholarship. The others pay $25,000 per year to attend the school.

The players and coaches live together in a 5,000-square-foot home in Simi Valley. The rent is $4,000 per month and is paid for by Mahoney. In fact, Mahoney is the team's only investor, and he fronts the majority of the bills.

The team's highesttouted recruit is 7-foot center Mamadou Diarra from Bamako, Mali.

Diarra, a senior who speaks four languages, is rated as the third-best prospect in the state by CalHiSports.com. He has scholarship offers from USC, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Fresno State.

Like the other African players who've attended Stoneridge, Diarra hasn't visited his homeland in several years. When the others went home for the holidays, Diarra and his teammate Ibrahima Thomas stayed in Simi.

"It's been three years," Diarra said. "I miss them so much- my family. I call them sometimes and talk to them on MSN (instant messenger)."

In the classroom, the basketball players are treated like all the other non-sports students at school, said teacher and administrator Jeannette Noble. The international players, she said, add a unique cultural perspective to the curriculum.

"They are extremely dedicated students," Noble said. "They come out of the French system, and they're expected to master different languages every two years. Their only challenge is transferring their very rich educational background into English."

Schranze said he's already learned a lot from having the transfer basketball students in his classes.

"My priority is to learn about them. That's how it should be," Schranze said. "I want to learn a lot about them. I want to know where they're from, what the weather's like, their parents, their friends. That's what makes culture."

Because the squad is on the road so much- Mahoney estimates the team will travel 25,000 miles this year- much of the players' classwork must be completed outside of school. There have been academic issues in the past, but Stoneridge is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges as well as the National Independent Private Schools Association.

"I supervise it very closely," Noble said. "They get their makeup work from their teacher, and anything else that needs to be reinforced I pick up the slack for."

Several months back, as part of an ongoing effort to crack down on socalled basketball factories that give little or no credence toward academics, NCAA investigators visited Stoneridge and quickly gave the coursework a nod of approval.

"They walked in unannounced in their suits and I showed them around," Noble said. "I showed them the textbooks, the work, and chatted with them. Everything turned out okay."

Building for the future

Within the next several years, Mahoney hopes to expand the number of teams in the Stoneridge basketball program. He has plans for an on-campus housing facility and athletic complex.

Ideally, the number of players on scholarship will drop and more will pay tuition to attend, he said. That would mean less funding out of Mahoney's pocket and a healthier long-term future for the basketball program.

"Our model is that we want about four international kids, we want three or four kids from everywhere else, and we want four or five kids from Southern California," Mahoney said. "We're not a Westchester Prep. We're looking to have 100 percent inner-city kids. We want this to be a national draw."

As for the media rush, it's expected to continue into the near future. KCAL was on campus Tuesday, and a crew from ABC was there Wednesday afternoon. This weekend, Stoneridge is expecting a visit from HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

It's a lot for a small school to deal with, Noble said, but visitors are always welcome.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with my teaching, I'm more than welcome to befriend anybody who wants to come by."