RETURN OF A LEGEND - AND A FRIEND; CHAMBERS BRINGS MT. SAN JACINTO TODAY.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Daily News Staff Writer

Newton Chelette couldn't believe the basketball clinic scripted by this unknown coach.

The players were sprinting and up down the floor, diving for loose balls and exerting all the energy their bodies would allow.

The coach was just as emphatic in his demeanor, catching the eye of the similarly animated Chelette, then coaching Santa Barbara City College for one season before moving to Antelope Valley College the following year in 1989.

``It was at the Riverside tournament, and I turned to my assistant coach Larry Lessett and said `I hope I never have to play that team ever,' '' Chelette said.

``Six months later we were in the same conference.''

Chelette knew nothing about Mt. San Jacinto coach John Chambers that day. Not that Chambers was one of the great basketball legends at AVC, the school that Chelette would soon develop into one of the state's most successful programs of the 1990s.

Chelette had no clue that he and Chambers would become the closest of friends, even in the midst of a Foothill Conference rivalry that continues today when Chambers and the Eagles visit Chelette's Marauders at 5:30 p.m.

Chambers takes his 19-4 Eagles, the state's seventh-ranked team, onto the same Marauder Gym floor that has provided the 55-year-old former Antelope Valley native with so many memories.

Chambers made history there twice. His 15-foot bank shot as an AVC freshman in 1961 was the first field goal scored at Marauder Gym. He had two stellar seasons at the school before transferring to Oregon State and then Long Beach State.

``It was at the east end of the gym,'' Chambers said of his arena christening basket. But when asked about his AVC career the always jovial Chambers replied, ``I'm so old I don't think anybody remembers me.''

Thirty-seven years later Marauder Gym was Chambers' stage for an even more significant milestone. The Eagles' 97-91 McDonald's Tournament victory over College of the Canyons was the 589th in Chambers' 29-year run as a JC coach, breaking the state record previously held by Don Johnson of Cypress.

Chelette presented Chambers, an original inductee in AVC's Whit Carter Hall of Fame in 1987, with a plaque bearing the date of the clinching victory.

``I told Newton `What would you have done if I had lost the game'? They would have had to change it,'' Chambers cracked. ``It was great to do that here at AVC.''

How ironic had it been if tonight's game, not the Eagles' 109-101 victory over Victor Valley, set up the possibility of another Chambers benchmark: win No. 600, which he fulfilled at the expense of the Rams and not Chelette's Marauders, having an uncharacteristic 9-13 season.

``I'm glad. I just wanted to get it over with,'' said Chambers, whose career record stands at 600-307, with all but 45 wins (he spent two seasons at Barstow) coming at Mt. San Jacinto.

Also his school's athletic director, Chambers has earned the respect and admiration of the administration and his players. Not to mention opposing coaches like Chelette, who owns a 10-5 record against Chambers' Mt. San Jacinto teams.

Chambers applied for the Cal Poly Pomona head coaching job in 1978 and was a finalist but didn't get it. He has not pursued another position since.

``He's won a lot of damn games,'' Chelette said. ``(His teams) worked so hard it was scary. You could tell his kids always believed in what he was trying to do. That was always so impressive to me.''

Their styles, both on and off the court, mirror each other. Their friendship sometimes spills onto the court, where Chelette once yelled down to the other end of the court `If you're going to keep beating us this bad I'm going to sit down on your bench.''

They share enough information about each other's teams that Chambers or Chelette can call a timeout in the waning seconds of a tie game and instruct their teams what to expect from the other.

Chambers on Chelette, ``Of all the coaches I've known all these years Newton is the No. 1 friend I have.''

Chelette on Chambers, ``He is the cowboy image just like me... He's without a doubt the closest friend I have in coaching.

``It's no accident that John Chambers has won more games than anyone else (in California)... The greatest compliment I could give John, if (son Brady, a senior guard at Quartz Hill High) had to go to a JC and play for someone other than me he would play for John.''

Both agree coaching against each other is always entertaining but ultimately a downer because someone has to lose.

It wasn't always so tranquil.

``Our relationship got off to a bitter start,'' Chelette said, and for one regular season they were on the fringe of a feud of Hatfield-McCoy proportions.

Their first encounter in 1989-90, a 115-107 AVC win in overtime, was clouded by controversy. A clock malfunction, combined with a painful Chambers back injury and his team's poor free-throw shooting in the final minute of a sure win caused some friction between the coaches, who both fueled the tension with some regrettable comments in the local papers.

``I know we went like 1 of 7 from the free-throw line in the last minute. I was very upset,'' Chambers said.

The bad blood still gushed in the second meeting that year, but it was at the Foothill Conference's postseason meeting when Chelette endeared himself to Chambers.

``We were discussing who should be the league MVP, and Newton said `Are we talking about the most valuable player or the best player?' '' Chambers said.

Though the Marauders won the first of seven conference titles in nine seasons, Chelette lobbied for and successfully got the MVP award for one of Chambers' players, Otis Mixon.

``I respected Newton for what he said,'' Chambers said. ``I think all of us coaches want to promote our own programs. We needed to start doing the things that we preach about.''