Family teamwork

Local father and son carry on a basketball legacy

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First a guard, next a father, then a coach. That seems to be the order of progression in basketball for men in the Goorjian family.

Here in Las Vegas, this family progression can be witnessed as Greg Goorjian coaches his son Camden on The Meadows School's boys varsity basketball team.

But it was Camden's grandfather Ed Goorjian who started the trend of playing guard in high school when he played for the Romans of Los Angeles High School more than 60 years ago.

Little did Ed know at the time that his start in the sport would lead to a passion for the game that has created jobs for his family, and now, three generations of Goorjians who have played basketball.

"I started out playing for Los Angeles High School," Ed said. "It's the original high school in Los Angeles and it used to be a power in sports but you don't hear about it anymore. It was a big time school in those days."

Ed, 79, and his wife of 57 years, Joyce, had three sons -- Brian, Kevin and Greg -- all of whom played for him in high school when he was a coach at Crescenta Valley High School in unincorporated Los Angeles County, just south of the Angeles National Forest.

At Crescenta Valley, Ed, the creator of the launch motion offense, became one of the most successful high school coaches in California state history and sent 30 Falcons to Division I schools with scholarships.

The youngest Goorjian son, Greg, 46, who has led the Mustangs to two-straight Nevada Class 2A state titles, had the best prep career in the family. Playing for his dad at Crescenta Valley, Greg established a national high school scoring record and was named a McDonald's All-American and a Parade All-American his senior season in 1978. Greg scored 64 points in a game three times that year and averaged a mind-boggling 43.4 points per game that season.

He received scholarship offers from the University of Louisville, UCLA, Arizona State, Notre Dame, the University of Utah, the University of Maryland and UNLV.

"I visited six of those schools, and I chose Arizona State," Greg said. "I wanted to be in the Pac 10 and UCLA had changed coaches for the second time -- from (Gene) Bartow to (Gary) Cunningham -- so I was a little uncertain about UCLA. And UNLV was on probation.

"So I just decided to go to Arizona State to play in the Pac 10. We had an unbelievable team. After I transferred to UNLV, five of the (ASU) players ended up in the NBA. I left there because they fired Ned Wulk, who was the head coach there and had recruited me."

After leaving Tempe, Ariz., Greg mulled over the idea of playing for his dad, who was an assistant at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, but was re-recruited by UNLV through family friend and then Runnin' Rebels head coach Jerry Tarkanian.

"I went and I got sold on Vegas," Greg said. "So I came here."

Greg played for UNLV from 1980 to 1981 and led the Runnin' Rebels in assists and minutes played his sophomore year.

Halfway through his junior year, Greg left UNLV to again play for his father, who was still coaching at Loyola Marymount. He finished fourth in the nation in scoring (26 points per game) in his senior year and was a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selection, finishing ahead of Gonzaga University's John Stockton -- who would go on to produce a Hall of Fame-caliber career in the NBA playing for the Utah Jazz.

Drafted by the NBA's Golden State Warriors after college, Greg was ultimately cut and released.

Greg, who has lived in Las Vegas since 1981, met his first wife, Leann, while attending UNLV and got into the real estate business. The couple had two sons, Gavin, 22 -- a three-time state champion on The Meadows football team as well as a basketball player -- and Camden, 18. Now remarried, Greg and his second wife, Patty, have one son, Colin, 7.

Camden is following in the family footsteps and is a junior at The Meadows, a private school in Summerlin, where he is a starting guard for the Mustangs. The team, 15-5 overall at press time, is seeking its third straight state title.

Greg, who played guard for his dad three decades ago, talked about what it's like to be able to coach his son.

"It's really special. It's really special to watch him grow," Greg said. "And sometimes it's difficult. But I treat him like all the other players so nobody would ever think there's any favoritism going on."

Ed, who also served as a UNLV assistant coach for a brief period of time, is delighted with Greg's career as a coach as well as a businessman.

"It's not only his coaching but his growth as a person and as a businessman that I'm proud of -- the whole works," Ed said. "When your kids end up doing things they love to do and they are successful, it makes you very proud."

Ed's middle son, Kevin, 48, also played for Crescenta Valley and once started in the Falcons' backcourt with Greg. Kevin once assisted Ed in a coaching gig in Saudi Arabia and now lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is married to Judith. The couple has one son.

Another Goorjian who learned well from his father and took that knowledge Down Under is Brian, 51, the oldest son and the family member to gain the most notoriety in the coaching ranks.

Like Greg and Kevin, Brian was a standout guard at Crescenta Valley where he was an All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) selection playing for his father, Ed.

Brian was recruited by Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., and helped the Waves crash into the Big Dance.

"He was very instrumental in getting them into the NCAA playoffs (tournament) and winning and tying the conference championship with USF (University of San Francisco), who had (Winfred) Boynes and (Bill) Cartwright," Greg said of Brian. "They (USF) were the real deal over there. He (Brian) made some critical free throws.

"He played for Gary Colson, who ended up writing a book ("California Basketball") and devoted a chapter to my brother (Brian) and called him 'the diamond in the rough.' And it was about how he (Colson) thought he would never be able to use him (Brian) and how my brother was kind of a wild guy in his sophomore and junior years and then really settled down and ended up having a great year when he was a senior."

After college, Brian headed to Australia to play for the Melbourne Tigers, where he played for seven seasons before embarking on his career as a coach in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Brian began coaching the Eastside Spectres in 1988 and guided the South East Melbourne Magic to NBL championships in 1992 and 1996.

Now coaching the Sydney Kings and in search of their fourth straight NBL title, Brian is highly regarded as one the most successful hoops coaches in Australian history. Brian was appointed coach of the Australian national men's team, the Boomers, in 2001, and was named the best coach of the first 25 years in the NBL by the country's Hall of Fame committee.

A four-time NBL Coach of the Year, Brian has won a record five NBL championships and every team Brian has coached since 1990 has advanced to the final four. He also has won more games (407) than any other coach in NBL history.

Ed, who now lives in Oceanside, Calif., talked about his eldest son's accomplishments.

"I'm very, very proud of him. He's turned out to be just an outstanding coach and he's done a great job over there," said Ed. "I'm really very proud of all three boys, to be honest with you."

And Ed, who still hangs out with Tarkanian and a group of old coaches including Pete Newell (University of San Francisco, Michigan State and the University of California), Bob Boyd (USC) and Bobby Dye (Cal State Fullerton and Boise State) who all meet for breakfast "and tell war stories" at Southern California's Del Mar Race Track during the summer, said he never could have imagined his desire to simply play basketball for his high school team would lead to jobs, relationships and championships for all three of his sons.

"I couldn't imagine this at all," Ed said. "I'm very proud. The main thing is they really enjoy it and they really love it. They've met a lot of people through basketball and I think it's helped them all through their lives."