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You could literally drive right past St. Joseph Notre Dame High School and not notice it. Riding down Central Avenue, the peace of kept yards and tree-lined sidewalks is so overwhelming that you can easily miss Chestnut Street. When you do manage to make the turn the third time through, you could very well drive a couple of blocks too far looking for some huge fancy complex befitting a basketball powerhouse.
But the school doesn't look like the home of one of the most storied high school boys basketball programs in Northern California, if not the entire state. It looks more like the big house on the block, or the local seniors' center, than a high school with its vintage jersey on sale at Niketown.
But tucked away on this serene Alameda side street is the East Bay's answer to a high school basketball power. This tiny Catholic school has produced three state championships, five NorCal titles, nine North Coast Section crowns, countless league titles, several Division I college basketball players and a potential NBA Hall of Famer.
"In my thinking, looking at high school basketball and consistently looking at where the talent is, St. Joe gets the most out of their players," says Mark Olivier, who runs the reputed Bay Area Amateur Athletic Union program Slam-N-Jam. "Their kids are go-getters. They play with energy, man. They always play with energy. St. Joe's always plays hard. They have always gotten the most out of their players."
Of all the people who've had a hand in building such a steady program, most of the credit for giving Pilots basketball the name it has today goes to one man.

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It's not Calvin Byrd, though he was the school's first high-profile player who went on to star at Villanova. It's not Mike Phelps, who introduced winning basketball to SJND and led the Pilots to consecutive North Coast Section titles in 1976-77. It's not Jason Kidd, the most accomplished player in school history who made St. Joe's a national name.
The man is the late Frank LaPorte, the mastermind behind the Pilots' rise to juggernaut status.
"Throughout it all, there was LaPorte," says Bill Kruissink, who was a high school sports reporter for the Alameda Journal during SJND's glory days in the early 90s. "People would say he won because he coached talent. OK, but I attended a number of his practices and can tell you his management of the players-getting them to own their positions and roles-was remarkably strong. As good as his players were, they were always looking to him for direction and to see if he was happy with their play. He even had a way of saying nothing that made the kids work harder. LaPorte knew how to keep egos at manageable levels. When you consider some of the players-and their parents-who went through his program, it's hard to fathom how he kept a lid on things. Add to it all LaPorte's ability to draw talent to his little school, and you realize the guy was one of a kind. St. Joe was the house that Frank built."
That house is still standing tall. The Pilots head into this season with the promise to be a real contender in the Bay Shore Athletic League, North Coast Section, in Northern California. Led by guard Jason Rockwell, SJND won 20 games last season, losing just eight, and have 11 players returning from the 2005-06 team. There is some uncertainty, especially since point guard Nick Bailey transferred because of family reasons, forcing guard Josh Malloy and forward Tyler Brown to assume key roles. If senior Milan Holmes, a 6-foot-2 forward, and big man Malcolm Hoyle, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound junior, play to their potential, SJND may be in position to make a run at Salesian, the defending BSAL and NCS champion. With only two seniors on the 2006-07 squad, SJND figures to be strong the next couple seasons.
A strong Pilots squad invokes memories of St. Joseph of yesteryear. LaPorte, who died at age 64 from pancreatic cancer in September 1997, was the architect of what's considered the greatest team in Northern California basketball history. Remnants of that brief dynasty linger in today's orange and blue.
"He left a legacy of greatness. He was not just a basketball coach," says Kidd, now the New Jersey Nets' point guard. "He left a legacy of greatness, to compete not just in the athletic world, but also in the real world."
SJND has the usual advantages private schools have. The school isn't limited by enrollment borders as are public schools. The kids' parents tend to have higher incomes, which usually means more support, financial and otherwise, for the sports programs.
Also working in the Pilots' favor is that the school doesn't have a football team. Normally, high school football consumes the bulk of the attention and resources. But with no pads in sight, the hoop squad is king in the SJND sports world.
LaPorte, elected to the 1993 California Coaches Association Hall of Fame, milked every resource, producing back-to-back Division I (the highest level in California high school basketball based on enrollment) state titles in 1991 and 1992, making SJND the only team from Northern California to win consecutive Division I titles. He had a keen eye for talent and was able to land some of the area's stars, notables including Byrd, Kidd, Adrian Ealy, Miles Tarver, Lacoby Phillips and David Victor. He was a master fundraiser, procuring the kind of wherewithal to send the team to play all over the country for high-profile tournaments, including the Iolani Prep Classic in Hawaii.
With Kidd at point guard, he gave the Pilots a presence on the national prep scene, which led to dozens of college basketball scholarships for SJND players.
"Frank had a phenomenal connection to national media," says Don Lippi, the current boys basketball coach who led the Pilots to the 2004 Division IV state championship (a rule change forced the Pilots to play in the division that fit the school's enrollment). "He was very successful at getting kids recognized. Frank got to coach the McDonald's all-star game. St. Joe was going around the country on tournaments two or three times a year. People wanted to come and play for him. They knew he would get them national exposure."
Most of those who knew LaPorte don't point to his basketball strategy and 735-172 career record as the mark of greatness. They instead refer to his interest in his players off the court.
"He was a guy who meant the world to me. He was like a father figure," Kidd says. "He was also a history teacher there at the school. On the rides home from school or to school, there were a lot of talks of history."
LaPorte was known more for building character than his full-court press. He emphasized responsibility, community service and education.
"Frank, when he was coaching," Lippi says, "took the team to the hospital and retirement homes."
The Pilots haven't returned to such a pedestal since the Kidd era and likely won't again. Because lightning doesn't strike twice, it would be nearly impossible for SJND to get another player of Kidd's ilk-especially considering how the school's financial and educational demands limit their access to some of the top players, some of whom can't afford SJND or don't have the academic prowess to meet the school's standards. The Pilots have featured some really good players since Kidd but no player who could lift the program to those heights. And in addition, the explosion of high school basketball has leveled the playing field, bringing parity to Bay Area competition.
But many of the same principles that made the team successful then still remain. The modern-day Pilots thrive off teamwork and superior coaching. They no longer overwhelm opponents with talent, but instead, with sound basketball and hard work. Many middle school hoopers these days probably don't know Kidd went to SJND and Cal before becoming a seven-time NBA All-Star. They likely have never even heard of Calvin Byrd. However, the Pilots still land well-rounded kids and hard-working basketball players, such as Ray Young, who went on to play at UCLA and has been invited to several NBA training camps.
In an era where parents are starting to care more about their child's education than their basketball team, SJND is still highly regarded because it is still known for its top-notch academics, for the life-foundation it offers its students, for its thorough basketball guidance.
"It's a disciplined program," Olivier says. "Their kids are very knowledgeable of the game. St. Joe is consistently now going to be very good because they have guy like Don Lippi. He's thorough."
With the wealth of young talent Lippi has to work with this season, it looks as if there's going to be more noise coming from that serene Alameda side street.