Thomas gave Servite reason to believe

ANAHEIM - Troy Thomas knew the job was open. He also heard Servite had called John Barnes. That, he assumed, was that.

Thomas was coaching Crespi, his alma mater, up in the Valley, and he was the athletic director as well. It was small, comfortable, competitive with the powerhouses, even with 31 players.

He wasn't particularly happy, for reasons he won't specify, but he also was boxed in. Accustomed to small, all-male Catholic high schools, and the rigor and the ambition within, Thomas really had no place to go.

"Then John decided to go back to Los Alamitos," said Frank Talarico, who is now the CEO at JSerra but at the time was in the Servite administration. "And then we started getting applications."

That was in 2005. Thomas arranged his resume. Servite hired him, and the rest is history, at least the history that Servite alums yearn to repeat.

For the first time in 14 years the Friars are playing for a Southern Section title Saturday night, this one the Pac-5 championship against Edison, the only team that has beaten them.

"I've been a little shocked at our reactions to big wins, like Poly and Mission Viejo," Thomas said. "It was like, fine, but we're playing for something bigger."

Servite went from 2-8 in 2004 to the CIF Division I semifinals in Thomas' first year. Since then the Friars had done everything but (A) get to the biggest game and (B) beat Mater Dei.

There were years Servite should have beaten the Monarchs, but placekickers hit uprights, and Matt Barkley threw lightning bolts from end zones, and Bruce Rollinson's "red magic" always prevailed.

"He kept talking about the power of the three stripes (on Mater Dei's helmet)," Thomas said, laughing. "But whenever we played them, I didn't recognize my team. They kept doing things they never did before. This year it was a matter of taking care of business."

Servite did so, winning 30-20, for the first time since 1988.

"I have to admit, I didn't recognize what that rivalry was all about, but it didn't take long," Thomas said.

Servite hired Thomas after it got a no-thanks from Matt Logan, the coach at Centennial of Corona. But Servite president Pete Bowen called it "divine intervention" after he interviewed Thomas.

"He has been tremendously respectful of the Servite traditions," Talarico said. "He also had to come in and take care of our young men. The winningest coach in Orange County history (Barnes) had stood before them and told them he was their coach. Then he changed his mind. Coach Thomas had to come into that situation and reassure them."

The Friars still live in the gym during the first week of practice, and they still shave their heads beforehand, which is not a problem for Thomas anyway.

They attend Mass before every game and they say a Hail Mary after each game, and they do the "hut" drill, which the Friars perform with breathtaking, military precision.

There are also a lot more of them. Thomas says there are 245 players in the program, counting varsity, JV and freshman teams. That's in a school of 900 boys.

The freshmen practice together but are split up to play different schedules, and there are 90 JV's, and everybody plays at least a little. Despite that constraint, the team only lost once (to Edison).

Thomas said he just had to remind the Friars who they already were.

"I came here and took one look in the weight room and saw a lot of size, talent, bodies," he said, laughing again. "But for some reason they didn't believe they could win. I had to keep telling them how talented they were."

Perhaps it's a matter of authenticity. Thomas has lived the Catholic school life and adamantly defends the all-male stance. He says it makes for deeper bonds because "you can be yourself, you're comfortable" and points out that four of the groomsmen in his wedding were Crespi classmates.

He also relates to his assistant coaching days at Hawaii, when he was nobody's altar boy.

"I was playing free golf, had my own car, my own place, and I wasn't making good decisions," Thomas said. "I could have gone either way. At some point I realized there was something more. The whole process took a few years, but it led me back to Crespi.

"There is a lot of opportunities today to go down the wrong road. My dad died when I was 16. I wish I'd had a strong male role model at that point to talk to. Beyond everything else, that's what our role is here."

Stuff beyond the scoreboard, in other words. But don't be confused. As you'll surmise when you see the black-sweatered throng barging into Angel Stadium, Servite does keep score.