Note: Information for this story was provided by Len Scaduto’s family.

Longtime basketball coach Len Scaduto, who led upstart Oak Lawn to a second-place finish at the 1971 IHSA state finals, died on May 13. He was 93. 

Scaduto led the Spartans for 29 years (1962-1991), winning 411 games.

After retiring from Oak Lawn, he spent three years as an assistant coach at Division II powerhouse Chaminade in Honolulu and 12 seasons as an administrative assistant at the University of Hawaii.

Scaduto, who was the Spartans’ frosh-soph coach for five seasons before moving up to the varsity, produced 15 winning seasons in a 17-year period at one point during his Oak Lawn run. He won five regional titles.

Scaduto’s 1970-71 Oak Lawn team, which finished 30-3, was led by starters Brett Arnold, Jim Bocinsky, Bob Carr, C.J. Kupec and the late Tom Dubetz. The unranked Spartans fell to powerhouse Thornridge 52-50 in the last one-class state title game. 

“We had the hardest road of anyone to get as far as we went,” said C.J. Kupec, who went on to star at Michigan before a pro career that included stops with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets before a long stint playing overseas. “We got used to playing the role of the underdog. We took it game by game. … We just went out and played hard.”  

Although unranked, Oak Lawn was soon on everyone’s radar in March of 1971 after defeating defending state champ Lyons 67-61 in a regional final in LaGrange.

The Spartans beat Proviso East 61-58 and St. Patrick 51-48 to capture the Hinsdale Central Sectional. A 66-54 win over New Trier East in a supersectional at Northwestern University’s McGaw Hall punched Oak Lawn’s ticket for an Elite Eight berth.

Oak Lawn beat Benton 71-58 in the quarterfinals and downed Springfield Lanphier 69-65 in the semifinals.  

Scaduto always regarded Oak Lawn’s run in ’71 as “a once-in-a-lifetime” experience. “We had to pinch ourselves to believe we were playing for the state championship,” he said in an interview in 2024. “We never saw ourselves getting that far. If we won our regional, we thought we had done our job, as that was as far as we thought our talent could take us.” 

Scaduto and Oak Lawn had begun the 1970-71 season with only one returning starter from a team that had gone 20-7 the year before.

Carr was among the key contributors from the 1970-71 team who had to wait his turn. “One of the things I respected was that (Scaduto) always rewarded the seniors who stayed with the program,” Carr said. “I always respected that and the guys ahead of me. That was his philosophy. C.J. (Kupec) was really the only one who played before he was a senior. The rest of us went up through the ranks. It was part of the culture that Len had created.” 

Basketball’s popularity multiplied in Oak Lawn in the years before and in the immediate aftermath of the 1971 season.  

“Back then, Oak Lawn basketball was just a dynasty — there was a huge tradition,” former player Don Wesselhoff said. “We were really into basketball when we went to Covington (Junior High). We had a good team and had been playing basketball together on the playground for three or four years. Len caught wind of us, and he came and spoke to us about playing at Oak Lawn. We’d never experienced that.” 

Over 200 kids began enrolling in Scaduto’s Summer Basketball Camps, while the white T-shirts given to campers displaying the phrase “Future Spartan Basketball Player” became a staple among youth in the community.

Scaduto also set up a youth basketball League in Oak Lawn to promote interest in the sport and his program. The games were played on Saturday mornings at elementary schools in Oak Lawn’s District, with members of Oak Lawn’s varsity team serving as coaches. 

“Five different schools fed into Oak Lawn,” Scaduto said in 2024. “If you took the top three players from each school, you would have a heckuva program.” 

During his own days as a student-athlete, football had been Scaduto’s best sport. Raised in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, he attended DePaul Academy, where he competed in basketball, football and track. When a knee injury ended his football career at DePaul in the fall of his senior year, he recovered in time to take up boxing for the winter season of 1950. He would advance all the way to the Chicago City Championship, where he suffered his only defeat. 

During his grade-school years, Scaduto became a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. His home on Cornelia Avenue was only blocks from Wrigley Field. “When I was in the sixth, seventh and eighth grade, and the Cubs were in town, a group of us would often race to the ballpark after school,” Scaduto said. “We would usually see the last 2½ innings.”

Despite his season-ending injury on the gridiron at DePaul, Scaduto earned a football scholarship to Northern Illinois University. He graduated from NIU in 1954 and spent two years teaching and coaching at Marmion before arriving at Oak Lawn in 1956. 

Scaduto retired from Oak Lawn in 1991 and moved to Honolulu. Scaduto’s three years as an assistant coach at Chaminade (1990-1994) were highlighted by upset wins over Providence and Stanford at the 1991 and 1992 Maui Invitational Tournaments, considered among the school’s greatest victories.  

During Scaduto’s time at Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2002. Scaduto was an assistant coach at Farrington High School in Honolulu in 2008, when the Governors captured a Hawaii Division II title. He also coached at St. Louis School as well as with the Hawaii Swish, a semipro team, until the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. 

Related

LeBron James is offering a theory this week about the changing landscape of youth sports.

Speaking on the latest episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast, the Los Angeles Lakers star James spoke about what he sees as the biggest issue in youth sports today. James said that he believes that kids these days focus too early on playing just one sport and ultimately get burned out as a result.

“Me and my guys, we ran track and field as well, when we were like super-duper young,” said James. “We played football all the way through high school. We didn’t just cap it at one thing and just [do] one thing all year round. I think a lot of kids, they burn the hell out.”

You can see the full clip of James’ remarks below.

.@KingJames and @luka7doncic discuss the problem with youth sports today.

A new episode with Luka explains why we all love the game. Watch on our YouTube, @PrimeVideo or listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://t.co/feX8eUUnvm pic.twitter.com/uwdCmFOaqD

— Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod) June 1, 2025

Indeed, James (in addition to basketball) played football in high school as a wide receiver and has often spoken in the past about how he ran track as a kid. James has also witnessed firsthand the shifting culture of youth sports as the father of 20-year-old Bronny James (who is now his teammate on the Lakers) and of 17-year-old Bryce James (who is still in high school).

As for James’ theory, he may have a good argument there. Plenty of other all-time great basketball players including Michael Jordan (baseball and football) and Wilt Chamberlain (long jump, high jump, shot put, etc.) played multiple other sports in their youth as well. But making kids these days focus exclusively on playing basketball runs the risk of having them lose their joy for the game at a young age (and of failing to pinpoint the one sport out of many that they might actually be best at).

On top of that, a bigger conversation can be had as well about modern-day AAU culture and its grueling schedule as well as its poor teachings of fundamentals. That is something that even the late Kobe Bryant also used to criticize.

CLOVIS, Calif. (AP) — A transgender athlete bested the competition Saturday at the California high school track and field championship to take home gold in the girls high jump and the triple jump at a meet that has stirred controversy and drawn national attention.

AB Hernandez competed under a new rule change that may be the first of its kind nationally by a high school sports governing body. California’s governing body changed the rules ahead of the meet to allow more girls to compete and medal in events in which Hernandez competed.

Hernandez finished the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 7 inches (1.7 meters), with no failed attempts. Co-winners Jillene Wetteland and Lelani Laruelle also cleared that height after each logged a failed attempt. The three shared the first-place win, smiling as they stepped together onto the podium.

Hernandez wrapped up the night with a first place finish in the triple jump, sharing the top spot with Kira Gant Hatcher who trailed by just over a half-meter. Earlier in the afternoon, Hernandez placed second in the long jump.

Olympians Marion Jones and Tara Davis-Woodhall previously set state championship records in the long jump in 1993 and 2017, respectively, both surpassing 22 feet (6.7 meters). This year’s winner, Loren Webster, topped 21 feet (6.40 meters), with Hernandez trailing by a few inches.

The California Interscholastic Federation announced the new policy earlier this week in response to Hernandez’s success heading into the championships. Under the policy, the federation allowed an additional student to compete and medal in the events where Hernandez qualified.

The two-day championship kicked off Friday in sweltering heat at a high school near Fresno. Temperatures reached the triple digits during Saturday’s finals.

The atmosphere was relatively quiet despite critics — including parents, conservative activists and President Donald Trump — calling for Hernandez to be barred from competing. Some critics wore pink bracelets and T-shirts that read, “Save Girls’ Sports.”

During Friday’s qualifying events, an aircraft circled above the stadium for more than an hour with a banner: “No Boys in Girls’ Sports!” Two groups that oppose transgender athletes participating in women’s sports — the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and Women Are Real — took credit for flying the banner.

California at center of national debate

The federation’s rule change reflected efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls’ participation in youth sports.

“The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law,” the group said in a statement after announcing its rule change.

A recent AP-NORC poll found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.

The federation announced the change after Trump threatened to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans female athletes from competing on girls teams. The federation said it decided on the change before then.

The U.S. Department of Justice also said it would investigate the federation and the district that includes Hernandez’s high school to determine whether they violated federal sex discrimination law.

California law allows trans students to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

The federation said the rule opens the field to more “biological female” athletes. One expert said the change may itself be discriminatory because it creates an extra spot for “biological female” athletes but not for other trans athletes.

The federation did not specify how it defines “biological female” or how it would verify whether a competitor meets that definition.

Sophia Lorey, outreach director with California Family Council, was among those at the stadium Saturday. She said the federation’s policy is not a fix for the issue and only ends up causing more confusion.

“At the end of the day,” Lorey said, “it shows the girls that we know this is wrong and we’re still letting it happen to you.”

Hernandez told the publication Capital & Main this month that she cannot worry about critics.

“I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person,” she said.

Other students break records

California’s championship stands out from that of other states because of the sheer number of competitors. The state had the second-largest number of students participating in outdoor track and field in the nation during the 2023-2024 school year, behind Texas, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The boys 100-meter heats also were a highlight, with junior Jaden Jefferson of De La Salle High School in Concord finishing in 10.01 seconds Friday, 0.19 seconds faster than a meet record set in 2023. But he fell just shy of making it count as a meet record with a final time of 10.27 seconds in Saturday’s final.

Athletes set new meet records in several events, including boys and girls relay races, hurdle competitions and the boys pole vault.

Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna

SMHS FOOTBALL

Local San Marcos children gathered at Toyota Rattler Stadium to participate in a mini football camp hosted and led by current Rattler coaches and players.

The camp is designated to help teach kids develop their skills, have a better understanding of the game of football, and getting to know both the Rattler players and coaches.

During the two days, kids participated in basic football drills and played in two-touch football games to wrap-up the camps.

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc