Santa Margarita Can Count on Gloger to Play Any Role

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — Contemporary sports is big on “role playing.” Does that athlete fit a certain spot, a certain mold. Where does he fit in the pecking order? Is he a bench guy, a starter or a star?

Brad Gloger has played all three of these roles on the Santa Margarita boys’ basketball team.

Last year, he was a starter until the first Sea View League game, but was asked by the coaching staff to be a reserve as the Eagles completed their run to the section Division II-AA championship. Now, as one of two returning seniors and the most experienced player Santa Margarita has, Gloger has been asked to be The Man, the leader, the guy the Eagles look to when they need a key basket or rebound.

Gloger, 6 feet 4, has done his part. He leads the Eagles in scoring (17.1) and has accumulated the most rebounds (102) on the team. And he’s doing it out of position. Normally a shooting guard, Gloger has had to move to small and power forward because of injuries to teammates.

“We ask him to do a lot, and he’s done the things we expected,” Eagle Coach Jerry DeBusk said. “He’s the type of kid who is good to be around. He’s low maintenance, meaning I don’t have to worry about him. He gets it done in the classroom and the court; he just takes care of business.”

More important, he has steadied a sophomore- and junior-laden squad that got off to a 5-4 start but is now 13-6 and 4-1 in the Sea View League--second to Woodbridge--as they prepare to face Newport Harbor in a key matchup Friday. The Eagles also play Nevada state champion Las Vegas Durango in the Nike Extravaganza II Saturday at the Bren Center.

While enjoying the challenge of a midseason shootout against a top school, Gloger eyes a bigger target: positioning Santa Margarita for another championship run.

“I think we can repeat, although now we’ve moved into Division I-AA,” Gloger said. “I think we’ve learned how to play better as a team. In the beginning we were inexperienced, but since the Orange Holiday tournament we’ve progressed a lot.”

Not that there haven’t been lessons to learn. Like the first-round upset loss to Kennedy in the Orange tournament. Or the 30-point defeat to Villa Park, where the Eagles scored six points in the second and third quarters combined.

The toughest lesson may have come a week ago, when Santa Margarita’s 17-point halftime lead against visiting Woodbridge dissolved into a seven-point loss.

But if the Eagles haven’t always been on their game, Gloger has rarely been off his. He is consistently in the 15-22 point range, with a season’s best of 30 against Ridgecrest Burroughs. And Gloger is also solid down the stretch; in a game against El Toro he made 17 of 20 free throws.

“He’s both poised and aggressive,” Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst said of Gloger. “He’s not a pure shooter, but rather a scorer who knows what he wants to do as far as helping his team win.

“They lost several quality kids [to graduation], including Allen Krist and Dennis Keene. But once your program sets a standard like they have, the younger kids want to maintain that. And Brad is helping to keep that beat going.”

It’s not as easy for Gloger as he makes it looks.

He admits he struggled last season as a reserve after beginning the year as a starter.

“It was tough,” Gloger said. “But it was a senior-dominated team and seniors get the time. Coach [DeBusk] has always been that way. So it’s better to go with the program. . . . and we did win the championship.”

This season, Gloger understood he was expected to be captain and a leader. He said he’s found a good way to motivate the younger Eagles. Every time they get lax in practice or wonder aloud about the demands being made upon them, Gloger gets out his championship ring and makes sure every team member sees it.

He is joined by point guard T.J. Williams and Dekker McKeever, the other returning players.

“When you understand what you have to go through to get [the ring], you know it’s worth it,” Gloger said.