The Deification of Gary McKnight Must Stop

Both the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register have tripped over themselves this month in the attempt to give the swooning-est review of Mater Dei High's current varsity basketball squad and its head coach, Gary McKnight. The Times says McKnight "is used to ridiculous riches,"while Reg columnist Mark Whicker contributed another Valentine, noting the largest Catholic school west of Chicago were "pioneers in making high school basketball a nationally played sport, for good or ill."

Problem is, the Times and Register sports sections didn't bother, either this month or ever, to mention McKnight's true ill: allowing a known statutory rapist back on campus. The man, of course, is Jeff Andrade, whom Mater Dei officials let go in 1996 after finding out he was schtupping a student, a crime for which Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown had to pay out a couple of million dollars. A high school coach that doesn't seem to mind statutory rape and threatens to sue journalists who expose him for such crap--geez, Times and Reg sports desk, don't you think parents should know this pertinent bit of information? The only mitigating factor in this is that when you Google "Gary McKnight," my cover story on the Round Mound of Inbound pops up first. Ha! Not only does God exist, but He apparently graduated from Servite High...