Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Note: Colin is stage left, Griffin is stage right, behind Robbie…

Which one is you?

I started my day by noticing my wife had rearranged my desk again, revealing the black and white print of our championship team, from 1981, in the locker room, one of us wearing a net around his neck. 

There are 16 young men in the picture.

I was both #13 on my jersey and the last man on the end or the bench, or, rarely, into the games, the thirteenth man.

For this photo, the playoffs, we promoted four sophomores. That makes 17 not 16 — someone is obscured or chose the wrong time to drain his bladder.

From stage-right to stage-left we have or had:

Griffin Bonini, about 6 foot 3, a sophomore, did not get into the playoffs but got to do layups with us and practice about two weeks after completing his sophomore season. He is now a judge in San Jose, father of a college professor, a Bellarmine dad and I will apparently see more of him this winter as he and I will both be assistant volunteer coaches for Gunn Titans. 

I sent him a copy of this picture about an hour ago, with the subject line “which one is you?”. Actually, its a picture of my left hand holding the photo, and you can see my wardrobe in the background and my bare feet.

David Peters, my classmate, about 6 feet —very athletic, a good baseball player, a funny punny guy; Have not seen much of him since then. He liked to shoot from the corner. 

Andrew Hargadon, 6 feet 5, our starting center. Son of the Stanford dean of admissions. Now a college professor of business and organizations at UC Davis. He did a year at Dartmouth although I did not hang with him that year. I remember leaving school early one morning to drive him to urgent care to get some stitches after a collision at practice. 

Richard Nielson, 6 foot 4 – really more of a tennis player, varsity doubles when Gunn was world class – it broke a national record with 210 or so consecutive wins. But a great athlete and we are so lucky he joined the program that year, his senior season He was 7th man, In reality, there was a 7-man rotation all seniors and none of us six juniors were much of a factor at all; I scored one field goal all season and two free throws. I guess Rich had about 150 points for the season; we were 25-3. He became a type of judge in Colorado and flew back for our reunion in 2006.

Kent Lockhart — 6 foot 4 – -the greatest player in the history of Gunn High. La Machine. Two-time CCS Player of the Year.  Considered an all time great in three basketball communities: Palo Alto, El Paso and Melbourne. At his funeral Tim Floyd said that he spent years looking to recruit another player like Kent Lockhart but never found one. He said it meant a lot when Lock called to congratulate him about becoming an NBA coach. In Don Haskins’ memoir that was the basis of the Hollywood movie “Glory Road” which was about the 1967 Texas Western champions, the Bear also listed Kent as an all time great among the Miners. I fantasize about a new verse to the Marty Robbins song about taking a bullet, staggering out of Texas, landing in Melbourne down under, meeting ANOTHER beautiful girl, coaching, playing, teaching art and then falling at 59 in your garden. 

John Ehrlich 6 feet but built like 6 foot 2 — in 8th grade, he and not Kent was the scoring leader for Wilbur Warriors; as fate would have it, John spent five hours with Kent the day before he died, in Melbourne, discussing much of what I just said in the preceding 600 words and much, much more. John was also a standout catcher in baseball for Cubberley but was lost in the shuffle of the Gunn Cubberley merger on the diamond. He played small college football. He missed our reunion although 10 others came, class of 1980, 1981 or 1982, and he has been pretty active among us since then. I saw his son George on a skateboard a couple years back. 

Mark Weiss — that’s me. I was the worst player on the best team in school history. But I am one of only 35 men in the 60-year history of the school to be a league champion in hoops. Gunn won league in 1980, 1981 and 2009, 28 years later. (In football, 1969, 1971, undefeated 2019 spring Covid season). I was editor of the Oracle, and I think coach — Hans Delannoy – -kept me mainly because our coverage kept the fan base interested which maybe added a point here or there or maybe a win. Going 25 and 3 means avoiding losing early in the CCS and wondering if we were actually better than our record. Maybe we were as good as St. Ignatius who beat us but we feel like champions even in the loss, in front of 5,000, at Maples, with Gunn and Paly kids rooting us on, against the private boys school from the city. As I said, Muff and I — and six others in this photo only did layups before the game and then cheered on our brothers to win, win, then lose by 2. When I watched the tape of this years later and didn’t immediately see myself in the introductions I briefly wondered if it was all a daydream. No, it was real. 

Danny Brown, 6 foot 5 but with a large frame so he played like 6 foot 7. Went to Hawaii on a football scholarship, a tight end. He lives in Las Vegas and has a son who looked a lot like him play high school ball up in Sacramento. When he signed his letter of intent, myself and a photographer from the student paper shot and ran a picture of he, his coach and his very proud and loving mother.

Phil Wessells —6 foot but crafty like 5-foot-11-and-three-fourths. Son of a business school professor. He has twin boys who were swimmers. I saw him at the airport when Stanford finally returned to the Rose Bowl. I forget the rest of the story but he rode motorcycles with Antonio Banderas on Mount Tamalpais, recently.

Interlude: with a guy named Trae from Colorado who suggests indirectly this subhead: I AM GRIFFIN NOT COLIN BONINI SO PREPARE TO DIE

Ok, back at the ranch, pooch on the lap, Huskies in town and miles to Davis before I get yelled at or sloop

Brian DiBiaso — played D1 for Oregon, not heard from him in a while. 6 foot 4 but was only 6 feet here. His father coached for Stanford which seemed to place a lot of pressure on Brian. 

Derek Leith — one of the sophomores who suited for CCS but did not play. Died too soon. Rest in power. Oh, I should add that my high school career ended when, during those two weeks, I found that I could not score one-on-one against Leith and could not stop him either.

Jerry Chang – -Kent’s closest friend on the team. Only 5 foot 8 but very powerfully built. Still works out and plays. Lives in San Diego, works in tech as an engineer. We called him “Rice” — Brown called me Rice not Weiss but that’s ok, too.

Brian Evans — probably my closest relation here. Friends since 5th grade. Some call him Bubba. Teaches at Foothill. Economics. Has two kids and a wife. We started a fantasy football league in 1978 that is still running. 5 foot 8. I tell young people that they should enroll at Foothill to take his course.

Alan Ng — a back up center, 6 foot 1. Was quarterback for Wilbur in 8th grade, our only loss, So went from adversary to teammate. Quiet. Not seen him in a while. 

Rob Peterson – -6 foot 2 now but 6 foot then. Scored 30 or more several times in either junior high or frosh soph. Intelligence off the charts but maybe too creative at times. Bub, Rob and I were classmates and teammates from 5th grade on. Scored a key bucket when Frosh Soph upset or came back against Cubberley the night they also announced at school board meeting that Cubberley would close. In a weird way, he, I and Lock might look alike. Curley hair, white guys. 

Colin Bonini – -now a state senator from the right in Delaware which is more left than he. I think Colin was also my teammate 8th grade football. It is quite possible that I have transposed Colin and Muff/Griffin, left and right but am certain that they both think of themselves politically as right not left. Fourteen of the 16 of us are still here, two have left. God bless. Shabbat shalom. Go, Titans. Thanks, guys, for being my teammates.