Mike Hess, Millennium Hall of Fame

In the right place at the right time, and playing the right

position under the right basketball coach, former Corona del Mar High

point guard Mike Hess landed on top of the world in 1981.

Hess, who was never flashy, could’ve played in the movie “Hoosiers”

with Gene Hackman and fit in perfectly with the style of play.

During the peak of the Coach Jack Errion era, the Sea Kings were

stacked with Mark Spinn, Jeff Pries, Steve Moore and two guard Chris

Lynch.

But the late Errion, famous for his man defense and conservative

offense, wanted a change at midstream and called up Hess, a sophomore,

from the junior varsity, and Corona del Mar went on to capture the CIF

Southern Section 3-A title, finishing with a nine-game winning streak and

22-5 overall record.

“I think that team might have won CIF, anyway. I was just happy to

have a chance to go up,” Hess said from Barcelona, Spain, where the

latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame (celebrating the

millennium) is working on a PhD in business from the University of

Navarra.

Hess, a former UCI standout and German professional player for ART

Dusseldorf in 1991, was actually called up from the Sea Kings’ JV his

sophomore year and played on o7 twof7 CIF championship teams.

In baseball, Hess was a shortstop, and when the versatile Pries moved

from short to the pitchers mound, CdM Coach Tom Trager needed a reliable

glove to fill in without disrupting the balance of the lineup, and the

Sea Kings won the CIF 2-A championship.

“I’d like to think both CIF titles were because of me, but I think

Jeff Pries was a little more of the reason,” Hess said of the CIF 2-A

baseball Player of the Year that year, who later pitched for UCLA and was

drafted No. 1 by the Yankees.

Hess, a 6-foot, 180-pounder who now speaks English, Spanish and German

and hopes to become a university professor, was an exact match for

Errion’s ’81 squad that also won the Sea View League title.

“(Errion) never mentioned anything to me before,” said Hess, who made

his varsity debut after CdM lost to Costa Mesa, 51-48, and quickly

adapted to Errion’s way.

“That team was so mature and talented, it was easy to step in. We knew

who the stars were. Those guys made it so easy to play. I just played the

right position at the right time.”

In the 3-A semifinals that year, the Sea Kings defeated La Quinta and

Johnny Rogers, 48-29, in a stellar defensive effort, as Spinn kept Rogers

at bay with only six points.

“I never let (Rogers) forget that,” said Hess, who would later play

with the 6-foot-9 star at UCI. Rogers’ Aztecs had beaten CdM the previous

year in the CIF 3-A finals, and again early in the ’81 campaign.

Hess (CdM Class of ‘83) played two more varsity basketball seasons,

earning first-team all-league and All-CIF 3-A honors both years. As a

senior, Hess was voted Sea View League Player of the Year by the

circuit’s coaches and signed with the University of Texas.

CdM won Sea View League co-championships in 1982 and ‘83, but lost to

St. Bernard in the ’82 CIF 3-A semifinals, 34-28, and was bumped out in

the second round by Cerritos the following winter.

“Typical Errion style ... that should have been a halftime score, but

it was the final score,” Hess said of the semifinal verdict against St.

Bernard at the Long Beach Arena. “Following a CIF championship, it’s

tough to top that.”

Hess, whose offensive numbers weren’t large because of Errion’s style

of play, set the tempo for the Sea Kings in league in 1983 when he sank a

jump shot at the buzzer to beat Irvine in overtime, 49-48. It was the

first of three overtime games in league that year for CdM.

When Hess accepted the scholarship offer from Texas, he didn’t realize

the Longhorns’ coach at the time was a former Bobby Knight assistant who

wanted to be just like Bobby Knight, and, well, “there’s only one Bobby

Knight.”

After Hess got out of high school, UCI didn’t need a point guard. But

when he left Texas, Anteaters Coach Bill Mulligan was looking for one

and, once again, Hess seemed to make a perfect fit.

“For me, (the UCI experience) was a great time,” said Hess, who

redshirted one year, then played three seasons for the Anteaters, backing

up future NBA player Scott Brooks in 1986 and ‘87, then starting his

senior year in ’88.

In his sophomore year, UCI faced UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in the first

round of the NIT and upset the Bruins, who were led by Reggie Miller and

Pooh Richardson. “But it wasn’t UCLA’s best team,” said Hess, who enjoyed

his best game as a collegiate player.

After a successful playing career, Hess stayed at UCI as a graduate

assistant for two years while working on his MBA, then the opportunity to

play overseas came up and Hess didn’t hesitate.

“It was a lot of fun (playing in Dusseldorf). It was like being back

in high school again,” said Hess, who played in the second division and

was expected to be the team’s best player, handling, essentially, the

one, two and three positions.

Foreigners were always thought to be the go-to guy. If not, team

officials would “find somebody else.”

With the players’ skills a little less developed than those in the

U.S., Hess felt the games were “a little like Hoosiers.”

Hess, who has fallen in love with Europe, worked for adidas in Germany

for three years, before starting his doctoral program full time.