Basketball Is a Family Game : Four Mendiola Children Compete at El Toro High; the Others Cheer

LAKE FOREST —  With their brightly painted placards, T-shirts bearing the family name and, at times, an overabundance of exuberance, the Mendiola family is hard to miss at El Toro basketball games.

And they have lots of games to see.

Senior Fabrizio Mendiola is a guard for the boys’ varsity team. His sisters Gioconda, a sophomore, and Giuliana, a freshman, are guards for the girls’ varsity team. Lucciano, Giuliana’s twin brother, plays for the Chargers’ freshman team.

All this keeps the close-knit family scurrying from gym to gym, crisscrossing the county in caravans.

“We support each other. We go to everything,” Marie Mendiola, a sister, said. “The only time we don’t is when we’re playing at the same time. Then, we have to split up.”

Edgardo and Alicia Mendiola, both 53 and immigrants from Peru, wanted to have 12 children, but settled for nine--five boys and four girls. Each has attended El Toro High School.

Marie, 28, is the oldest. Lucciano and Giuliana are the youngest at 15. There are nine grandchildren.

Fabrizio is a regular at his sisters’ games. Gioconda and Giuliana don’t like to miss their brothers’ games. Throw in a nephew or two, a sister-in-law and maybe a distant cousin or close family friend and it’s not uncommon for the Mendiola crowd to number 30 or more at games.

“We should get a bus,” Alicia Mendiola said.

The admission charge at the gate for the Mendiola family alone must provide a small fortune for El Toro.

Last week, the Mendiolas were out in force when the Chargers girls’ and boys’ teams had early-season showdowns with Sea View League rival Woodbridge. They were supportive, boisterous and fanatical at both games, though both teams lost.

On Friday at Woodbridge for the boys’ game, the Mendiolas arrived early and added their support to the standing-room-only crowd with signs, among them one that read: “FABulous.” A day earlier, for the girls’ game in a half-packed El Toro gym, the family took over the place in raucous fashion, shouting instructions and encouragement and second-guessing the referees.

“It’s rare in this day and age that you find parents so supportive,” said Vincent Avitabile, the Chargers’ first-year girls’ coach. “How many parents come to games anyway? And they are at every game, summer league, spring league. It must mean a lot to their kids.”

How tight is the Mendiola family? It’s no secret why Fabrizio and Gioconda wear No. 13 and Giuliana wears No. 31, the mirror image of 13. Their mother wore 13 when she and three sisters played basketball in her native Peru and later, when she came to New York and played on traveling women’s teams in the early 1960s.

“For me, it is my lucky number. All my children wear it,” Alicia said. “Even my house number adds up to 13.”

The Mendiolas stand up for what they believe in. Last season, Alicia pestered Carol Murphy, former girls’ coach, about playing time for Gioconda, and when Giuliana was named to the All-Century tournament team last month but Gioconda wasn’t, their mother made an early-morning telephone call to Century Coach Jeff Watts to complain.

“Nobody could believe [that both my daughters weren’t chosen to the all-tournament team], Alicia said. “They both deserved it.”

Murphy said the family has so much love for each other that sometimes they are blinded by their feelings.

“They only see one side of things,” said Murphy, now an assistant at Woodbridge. “They can’t see the other side. There is so much love there, they will do whatever it takes for the family.”

Basketball wasn’t always the sport of preference in the Mendiola home. After emigrating to Peru from Italy as a youngster at the end of World War II, Edgardo became a fine soccer player. He moved to New York, where he met and married Alicia. The couple moved to Orange County in 1970 to be close to Alicia’s sister.

Edgardo, who works as a cook and a waiter at two restaurants, continued to play soccer in adult leagues. He also coached his older children in youth soccer leagues.

“With my older kids, it was all soccer,” he said.

When Fabrizio, 17, entered grade school he took a liking to basketball. That suited Alicia just fine. Edgardo wasn’t so sure. The family dinner table came alive with debate.

“I wanted basketball for my kids,” Alicia said.

Edgardo blew off some steam and then finally relented.

“One thing I tell my kids is to play their hearts out,” he said. “The technique and movements in sports are alike. Natural talent comes out.”

But it wasn’t easy for the 6-foot-3 Fabrizio, a left-footed soccer player, to adjust.

“He started out on the second freshman team,” said Todd Dixon, first-year El Toro boys’ coach. “So, he has come a long way.”

Fabrizio worked hard on his shooting and has become the off-guard at El Toro. Sometimes he fills in at point guard.

“He is a very crafty player,” Dixon said. “ He distributes the ball well and shoots the ball well.”

Shooting is a family trait. In fact, when asked what position she played in her day, Alicia said: “Shooter. I was the shooter. All over the place.”

Indeed, she has groomed her four basketball-playing children to follow in her image. Fabrizio is averaging 21.2 points and has made 40% of his three-point tries and 81.6% of his free-throw attempts.

Giuliana, point guard on the girls’ team, averages 24 points. Like her brother, she shoots a lot. She scored 35 points in a 73-64 victory over Irvine Tuesday. Gioconda is averaging 14 points.

Some think the Mendiolas shoot too much. Avitabile discredits those complaints. He’d like the girls to take more shots than they already are.

“Gio is an off guard who can shoot, but she brings very good defense to this team,” he said. “Julie is the type of kid every coach wants. You want everyone to practice hard, but these are the type of kids who practice hard because they love the sport.”

Dixon says he bases his offense around the types of players he has. Fabrizio has the green light to shoot, Dixon said, as do point guard Mark Wulfemeyer and third-guard Josh Rupprecht.

“If I didn’t have shooters, we wouldn’t be shooting the ball,” Dixon said.

Both El Toro basketball teams have made impressive turnarounds this season. A year ago, the teams had a combined record of 20-35 and won only five league games between them. So far this season the girls have fashioned a 14-3 mark. The boys are 14-4.

Alicia admits her family has been criticized for its enthusiastic support of one another. Donna Brown, president of the Charger basketball booster club, said there is merit in the criticism.

“Sometimes they can get everyone up when nothing is going on,” she said. “Once in a while they have a tendency to overdo it.”

The Mendiolas say they are just one big happy family that isn’t bashful about making their feelings known.

“The younger ones supported us when we were playing soccer,” said Giovanni, 26, at halftime of the boys’ game at Woodbridge last week. “Now it’s time for us to give some support to them.”

The support goes beyond the playing field. When Lucciano and Giuliana were promoted from sixth to seventh grade in 1994, the family took up two rows of seats in the multipurpose room at Aliso Elementary School and shouted their approval when the children’s names were announced.

And you can bet they will be out in force again tonight at 7:30 when the Charger girls’ team plays at Santa Margarita.

El Toro Principal Jack Clement knows of the Mendiolas and their enthusiasm.

“I have the highest admiration for the players,” he said. “They work hard and represent the school well, and the family is very supportive.”