Sideline reunion working at OCC

Barry column on OCC women’s hoop coachesSome old married couples have spent less time together than Mike Thornton and Steve Popovich.

For more than 30 years, they have forged a friendship that borders on brotherhood, with basketball at the forefront.

They were acquaintances in 1975 when Popovich hired Thornton as his assistant coach with the Marina High boys’ basketball team.

They coached together there for 13 seasons, most of which came after Thornton became head coach of the Vikings’ girls’ team for nine seasons, pulling double duty with both programs.

But even after their coaching paths diverted -- Thornton is in his 17th season as the Orange Coast College women’s basketball coach and Popovich went on to work as a men’s assistant and women’s head coach at Saddleback College -- they ate lunch together every school day at Marina.

“We talked about the same stuff every day,” Popovich said. “We talked about sports, the world, our families.”

As one can imagine, they also talked about their teams.

This season, they have only one team to talk about, as Popovich has joined Thornton as an assistant at OCC.

“He had not been coaching the last three years,” Thornton said, “but I could see he wanted to get back into it.”

Popovich said he had been getting his “basketball fix” watching his son, Mark, coach the Tesoro High junior varsity and assist with the Titans’ varsity.

“One of Mike’s assistant coaches was leaving and he asked me to come over and help him out,” Popovich said. “I was still enamored with the X’s and O’s and being in the gym. I love my teaching job at Marina, but the basketball stuff is still a part of me.”

With Thornton having retired from teaching last spring -- bringing an end to their daily lunchtime engagements -- their sideline reunion also helped keep the two best friends connected.

“We were in each other’s weddings,” Thornton said. “We live about a 1 1/2 miles apart in San Clemente, and we talk on the phone almost every day. He’s close with my [three] kids and I’m close with his [two] kids. He’s basically like a brother to me.”

The two coaches, as well as third-year assistant Leigh Marshall, have helped the Pirates to a 14-1 start and the No. 6 ranking in the state coaches’ poll, No. 4 in Southern California.

“[Popovich] is like having a co-coach,” Thornton said. “He really helps me and I think he enjoys being an assistant, not having to deal with all the things besides coaching. He has great rapport with the players. I think they realize he has been around a while and when he talks, they need to listen.”

Popovich, who helped develop nine-year NBA veteran Cherokee Parks at Marina, has been crucial to the improvement of 6-foot-3 sophomore center Madison Parks, Cherokee’s sister, Thornton said.

“[Popovich] was a forward at the University of Wyoming, so he has great knowledge of inside play,” Thornton said. “He has made a big difference in Madison’s play.”

Thornton said Popovich also lends him an experienced set of eyes.

“When you’re the head coach, you have to watch everything,” Thornton said. “[Popovich] is really good at watching what our team does, and what the other team does, so we can make adjustments.

“Assistant coaches make suggestions and the head coach makes decisions. But I would say I use about 80% of the things he suggests.”

Thornton, a former baseball and basketball star at Cal State Stanislaus who was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1969, is rather proud of one suggestion he believes Popovich has heeded.

“My four passions as a sports fan are Stanford, Illinois, the Chicago Cubs and the Angels,” Thornton said. “Steve used to be a USC fan, but I got him to see the light and now he’s a Stanford fan.”

Popovich, however, mildly refutes Thornton’s version of the story.

“He thinks he [converted me to a Stanford fan],” Popovich said. “He doesn’t know that I’m still a stealth USC fan.”