MONTCLAIR PREP HAS SEEN PLENTY OF SUCCESS IN ITS 50 YEARS, BUT ALSO HAD ITS SHARE OF SCANDAL.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE LOCAL

By the time they reach 50, most rock stars have mellowed a bit, their No.1 songs long since compiled on a greatest-hits album, their days of salacious, tabloid scandals and scrapes with the law long ago absolved in a tell-all memoir or heartfelt interview with Barbara Walters.

Some go quietly into middle age, appearing in public only for awards- show retrospectives or charity events. Others fight it with plastic surgery and publicity stunts.

A few lucky ones (No, take that back, if luck had anything to do with it, Rick Springfield would still have a career) find a way to stay on top, in the news and relevant.

Montclair Prep is ushering in middle age by throwing a party Saturday night at the Universal Sheraton. In recent years, it has ceded the title of Big, Bad Private School Power to Jimmy Clausen and Co. at Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, but the Mounties keep cranking out the hits. Last spring, the school won its second consecutive Southern Section Div. IV-A basketball title.

The 400-student non-sectatrian private school in Panorama City has never actively sought headlines. But in the 50 years its doors have been open, no other high school in the area has commanded more of them.

In terms of per capita star wattage, no one is in the same class. The notable alumni section of the school's Web site -- Cher, Michael Jackson, Nicole Richie, Eddie Cibrian, Danny Pintauro, Frank Sinatra Jr., Randy Spelling -- reads more like a great ensemble cast for a movie.

The list of athletes who have gone on to Division I scholarships or professional careers -- Toi Cook, Eshaya Murphy, Russ Ortiz, Brad Fullmer, Kevin Bentley, Rocco Buffolino, Mike Cicione, Torey Lovullo -- is more like an All-Star team.

On the school's list of athletic championships, the breakdown of 18 Southern Section titles by sport is so impressive, the 100-plus league titles seem inconsequential.

As such, the Mounties have been covered as tabloid fodder. At times, you had to wonder whether Dominick Dunne had been assigned to the beat. Every scrape with the Southern Section is front-page news, any hint of impropriety pursued with dogged intensity. Sanctions seem to come down about once a decade.

In 1991, the school was suspended from postseason play in football for three years and all other sports for one year for falsifying living arrangements, grade tampering and using undue influence. The penalty was later reduced to one year after one of the principal accusers, James Sparks, recanted his testimony.

In 2003, football coach George Giannini and basketball coach Tyrone Fuller are forced to resign after the Southern Section bans the school from all postseason play in 2003-04. The charges stem from an incident where Simpson threatened to kick a baseball player out of school if he didn't also play football. Giannini was never sanctioned and is rehired the following year.

The school takes all of it seriously -- having fired several high-profile coaches in the face of recruiting scandals in the early and late 1990s -- but has learned to live under the microscope in order to maintain its sanity.

``I think a lot of (the scrutiny) comes because we have all these Hollywood kids and we're so good in sports for such a little school,'' said Bentley, a 1995 graduate who is now a linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks. ``Everybody hates a winner, everybody hates greatness. And when you're always winning, people aren't really going to like you too much.''

They might not like you, but given the chance they'd trade places in a second. Because in Hollywood, obscurity is a fate worse than death.

Where else do alumni have stories like this?

``I was a junior when Michael Jackson was a freshman (in 1973). And every morning he and Marlin (Jackson) would get dropped off real early. I was in my car cramming to finish my homework before class and Michael would come hang out with me,'' said Jon Blosdale, '74, who is now a successful television and film producer. ``At first I thought it was cool, like, `I'm hanging with Michael Jackson.' He was a really nice kid, too.

``But after a while, it kind of got annoying because he always had to push all the buttons in the car and ask what they did. I was trying to get my work done so sometimes I'd have to kick him out of the car.''

School founder Vernon ``Doc'' Simpson remembers when Cher was a student at the school in 1962. Back then, she was known as Cher Lapiere, but you won't find her picture in the class section. The story goes that Cher was on the yearbook committee and didn't like her picture so she didn't put it in. Of course that wasn't the only rumor about Cher ...

``There was a rumor going around school that Cher was dating an older man,'' Simpson said. ``And it happened to be Sonny (Bono).''

Rob Gittelson was a junior on the Mounties' first Southern Section title-winning basketball team in 1977. In those days, Montclair Prep scheduled road games all over the state.

``We'd play in these little towns where nothing else was going on,'' said Gittelson, now a successful clothing manufacturer from Tarzana. ``And when Montclair Prep would come to town, everything would shut down. There would be 3,000 people at our games.''

And if one of those small-town schools managed to knock the Mounties off, it was bedlam.

``That's one of the things you have to get used to,'' said longtime basketball coach Howard Abrams. ``When you get beat, teams go crazy like they just won the Super Bowl.''

Bentley played for Abrams from 1996-98. By then, Montclair Prep regularly scheduled games against the best public schools in the area and took on all comers.

``We played everyone and for the most part, there wasn't anyone who could compete with us,'' he said. ``We had some great athletes. But the amazing thing is what people achieve afterwards and the type of careers they go into.''

The Mounties have been dominant in football and baseball, too. Former New Orleans Saints star Toi Cook played 8-man football at the school, then started three years for Stanford and 11 years in the NFL. One of his best friends in high school was longtime major-leaguer Torey Lovullo.

``We were truly dominant in baseball,'' said Cook, who played both sports in college. ``When I hear about Oaks Christian, Jimmy Clausen and Marc Tyler ... that's what we were back then. It was like `Friday Night Lights,' two-a-days, all that stuff. It was crazy.''

Cook loved every minute of it and credits the school with putting him on the right path.

``I don't know where I'd be if I went somewhere else,'' said Cook, who is now a sports agent. ``But I'm 1,000 percent sure that I was able to go to Stanford, to play in the NFL and prepare myself for what I'm doing now because of Montclair Prep.''

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8 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 4) Clockwise from top left, Michael Jackson, Nicole Richie, Cher and Frank Sinatra Jr. have graced Montclair Prep's halls ...

Photos courtesy of Montclair Prep

(5 -- 8 -- color) As have athletes, clockwise from top left, Brad Fullmer, Russ Ortiz, Toi Cook and Kevin Bentley.

Photos by Getty Images

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