Etiwanda’s Delus wins, fends off demons

By John Murphy

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Sneakers squeaked on a heavily varnished floor
October 21 during a youth basketball workout at a non-descript venue.

“Quick, quick … good,” basketball guru Stan Delus said.

“Quick, quick … good.”

Like junior Kobe Bryants, nine area girls and one boy dribble behind
their back, dart to their left and then launch
17-foot jump shots over Delus, the 46-year-old hoops guru.

“I think this is really great,” said Tonia Morris of Menifee whose
junior high school daughters Aliyahaa and Ananni Morris have trekked
north for the practice. “I like the coach. He works with everyone and
the kids play together and communicate.”

Delus, swooshed-up in his Nike gear, is the fifth-year coach of the
powerhouse Etiwanda High School basketball program. He has led the
Eagles to more than 100 victories in his four seasons, continuing the
tradition of predecessors such as Anders Anderson, Robert Seiler and Brent Lunt.

Etiwanda has won 20 consecutive league titles and 109 consecutive
league games, including 40 under Delus.

“All I’ve done is continuously enhance what my predecessors did,”
Delus said. “It was extremely important – especially with two of the
previous coaches still on campus – to show that we’re still going to
maintain a high standard.”

Along the way he has also found a unique way to fend off a personal
demon, anxiety. More on that later.

Ten players graduated from last year’s 27-6 Etiwanda team, but don’t
cry for the Eagles. They’ll return significant talent in senior 5-foot-7 point
guard Lexi Castro, senior 6-3 center Jessica Peterson, senior 6-0
forward Zaakira Price-El and junior 6-0 forward Daisia Mitchell.
Peterson recently committed to play at Cal State University, Fresno.

Stellar incoming freshmen Kennedy Smith and Destiny Agubata and Oak
Hills transfer sophomore Jaiya Mix will augment the
returnees.

“I love it,” Peterson said of the program by phone. “I just
transferred in last year (from Corona Centennial) and Stan took me
under his wing. There were a lot of reasons, but I just felt like
Etiwanda was a better fit for me to get better. It feels like family.”

Price-El agreed.

“I like how he coaches us to our limits,” she said. “He always gets
the best out of us. And he’s funny. I remember my freshman year he
said to go get a pinny (a scrimmage vest) and I actually went and got
a penny – a coin. We laughed about it. It’s one of my favorite
memories.”

Delus is an interesting study. He is a former Claremont High player of
Haitian descent. His parents Eddie and Evelyn came to the United
States in the early 1960s with Eddie becoming a dentist and Evelyn a
nurse. The couple now owns three youth group homes in the Inland
Empire which their son runs.

Delus is also married (Kam) and has a 14-year-old daughter (Hillary)
and 10-year-old son (Jayden). That’s in addition to coaching the
juggernaut Eagles and several Cal Stars travel-ball teams.

“I learned from playing and a lot of coaches’ clinics and my mentors
Lindsay Strothers, Anders Anderson and Cameron and Tracy Murray,”
Delus said. “I’m a thief like every other coach, but I’ve developed my
own stuff as well.”

Delus has helped 100s of girls earn college scholarships. One of them
is guard Joy Campbell, an Etiwanda star the last four years who
averaged 16.7 points per game last season and maintained a 4.2 grade
point average. She is now at the University of
California-Riverside.

“Coach Stan teaches you everything you need to know,” Campbell said.
“The techniques are good – he teaches help-side defense and not all
high schools do that. Off the court he’s relaxed and kind of like a
dad. He cares about our academics and our personal lives and you can
tell his really cares.”

Toward that end Delus weekly tweets nuggets of inspiration and
self-affirmation to help his players, those in need and himself. To
wit:

“You are what you believe you are. There is nothing to do except to be
just what you are. You have the right to feel important and enjoy it.”

And …

“May what’s best for you enter your life naturally, without stress or
worry. May what needs to leave your life, leave naturally without
force or fear.”

Perpetually spread thin and prone to worry, Delus said he suffers from
anxiety. He had a female cousin who battled depression and,
tragically, hung herself. He was aided in his own struggle by a male
cousin who is a musical engineer and gave him a beat machine. He loves
1990s and early 2000s hip hop and rhythm and blues and old-school
artists like the Isley Brothers and Marvin Gaye.

“I make beats – it’s my therapy,” Delus said. “I tend to overthink.
Music frees the mind and takes me away to a better place. It calms the
savage beast.”