Coach Says Mater Dei Will Leave Bren Center

Don’t expect to see Mater Dei back at the Bren Events Center any time soon.

Monarch Coach Gary McKnight said his team will not play at the Irvine facility--where Mater Dei has hosted many of its home games since the early 1990s--because of increased costs and a lack of flexibility in scheduling.

McKnight said the Monarchs proposed four possible playoff dates to the new Bren Center management, which was unable to accommodate Mater Dei for a single postseason game. As a result, the Monarchs played all of their home playoff games at Ocean View’s overstuffed gymnasium.

That left McKnight frustrated, he said, because previous Bren Center management had always been willing to work things out to accommodate his team.

Also, total payment to the Bren Center was up 150% this season from a year ago, according to Patti Glaub, Mater Dei’s vice principal.

“We’re not playing there anymore,” McKnight said. “We’re done.”

Bernadette Strobel-Lopez, who took over this season as director of the 5,000-seat facility, said it was impossible to host Mater Dei on short notice with an increasingly booked schedule.

“The competition for use of the facility has increased,” Strobel-Lopez said. “We have a variety of groups requesting the facility and we’re very excited about that. Some book it two to three years in advance. It makes it more and more difficult for someone like Gary, who has to schedule [a playoff game] within a few days.

“Mater Dei’s a very good client. All the Bren is doing is fulfilling its obligations to the clients who booked it first.”

The Bren Center has become a magnet for everything from rock bands to high school graduations, including Mater Dei’s. In fact, facility management had to turn down a recent request from a group that was attempting to host Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Strobel-Lopez acknowledged a rate hike but said the rates “are commensurate with other arenas in the area.”

McKnight won’t have to worry about finding a home if Mater Dei constructs its proposed 3,000-seat on-campus arena in three to four years. That would give the Monarchs the fourth-largest gym in Orange County--by available seating capacity--behind only the Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim Convention Center and Bren Center.

Until then, McKnight said, the Monarchs will continue to play at their own gym (capacity 1,000) and Ocean View (2,400). McKnight is also looking into playing at Concordia, Chapman and Santa Ana College.

WELCOME BACK?

Regardless of whether he is retained as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton--an unlikely proposition given Coach Bob Hawking’s recent resignation and the fact that new coaches usually bring in their own staffs--Richard Bossenmeyer said he is ready to return to the high-school level.

Bossenmeyer, 34, who compiled a 90-59 record at Orange High in the early and mid-1990s before moving on to be an assistant at Chapman and Cal State Fullerton, submitted an application for the Tustin vacancy last week.

“I’m just looking forward to getting the opportunity to return to the high-school level,” Bossenmeyer said. “I had a great opportunity to work under Mike Bokosky at Chapman University and Bob Hawking at Cal State Fullerton, and I owe a great deal to those two men. However, at this point in my career I truly miss being a head coach and being at the high-school level.”

Bossenmeyer’s best season at Orange was in 1994, when he led the Panthers to a 23-4 record and the quarterfinal round of the Southern Section playoffs.