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EAGLE ATHLETICS
Hall of Fame
Six decades of Verbum Dei student-athletes who competed at the highest level — Southern Section champions, national champions, and the players who defined an era. This is their record.
10
CIF Southern Section Basketball Titles
1969-2003
3
National Basketball Championships
1973-2003
3
CIF Southern Section Football Titles
1981-2006
10
CIF Players of the Year
1969-2004
CIF SOUTHERN SECTION CHAMPIONS
A tradition built one era at a time.
🏀 1969-74
THE SIX-PEAT
Six consecutive CIF Southern Section basketball championships and a combined 263–21 record — still the defining stretch in Verbum Dei athletic history.
1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
🏀 1979
BACK ON TOP
A seventh Southern Section title, led by CIF Player of the Year Cliff Pruit.
🏈 1981-82
BACK-TO-BACK & UNDEFEATED
Under Coach Lalo Mendoza, Verbum Dei went 26–0 across two seasons and won back-to-back Southern Section conference titles: Desert-Mountain Conference champions in 1981 (27–13 over Miraleste) and Northwestern Conference champions in 1982 (7–0 over Monrovia). VDJ's own program history remembers these as back-to-back state championships.
1981 1982
🏀 1999-2003
HE MODERN ERA
Championships in 1999, 2002, and 2003 kept Verbum Dei among Southern Section basketball's elite into the 2000s.
1999 2002 2003
🏈 2006
MID-VALLEY DIVISION CHAMPIONS
Verbum Dei defeated La Salle, 32–10, to claim the CIF Southern Section Mid-Valley Division title.
A COACHING LEGACY
Coach Lalo Mendoza
Ladislao “Lalo” Mendoza
23 Years · 5 CIF Titles
Coach Lalo spent 23 years developing Verbum Dei student-athletes, winning 5 CIF Southern Section championships across two sports — 2 in football and 3 in track & field. His football program reached its peak in 1981 and 1982, going undefeated at 26–0 across two seasons and winning back-to-back Southern Section titles.
THE GREATEST TEAM TO EVER PLAY THE GAME
National Champions
Verbum Dei's basketball program was recognized as a national champion three years running.
1973
NATIONAL
1974
NATIONAL
1975
NATIONAL
CIF SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
The players who defined Verbum Dei basketball.
Keith Batiste - 1969
Raymond Lewis - 1970
Raymond Lewis - 1971
Lewis Brown - 1972
Lewis Brown - 1973
David Greenwood - 1975
Cliff Pruit - 1979
Andre Miller - 1994
Marlon Palmer - 1999
Richard Chaney- 2002
Amir Johnson - 2003
Mike Pegan - 2004
