Prep Notes: Rocklin's Lane learning lessons abroad

The world of a high school basketball star has changed plenty since the days Steve Taylor laced up the sneakers at Roseville High School in the late 1970s.

The Rocklin boys basketball coach is amazed at the opportunities facing Thunder senior forward Brendan Lane, perhaps the area's biggest college basketball recruit since Elk Grove's Bill Cartwright in the early 1970s.

Lane, who verbally committed to UCLA on Saturday, is in Africa this week training and competing with the United States' adidas Nations team. From Africa, Lane will go to France to play with another group of U.S. stars. It's Lane's second trip to France this year; he also has been to Germany and China.

"Part of me says he needs to be in the gym and the weight room working out with us," Taylor said. "But the other part realizes what a great cultural experience all this is for him.

"It's something you can't pass up and should be a really valuable big-picture experience. I know most people who come back from Africa have an appreciation for what we have here."

When Lane returns, he will rejoin his Elite Basketball Organization teammates for Amateur Athletic Union tournaments in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The extensive travel plus a left ankle injury suffered during the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim, Germany, in March have meant that Lane has had limited workouts with his Rocklin teammates.

Taylor said Lane played with the Thunder against Pleasant Grove in late May and "looked solid despite some tenderness in his ankle."

Because of Lane's reputation for hard work and the fact that Rocklin should again be one of the area's top teams, Taylor doesn't expect his star's production to fall in his senior season.

"I don't think all the traveling has had a negative impact on him yet," Taylor said. "I know Brendan will put in the work to get better when he returns."

Starting early – When Del Campo plays its football home opener against Franklin of Stockton on Sept. 12, it will be a 7:30 p.m. Friday game rather than the traditional Saturday afternoon start.

Del Campo is the latest area high school to add stadium lights. A lighting project groundbreaking ceremony, spearheaded by the Del Campo Booster Club, is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 27, with completion expected by late July.

"Our kids are pretty excited," Del Campo football coach Mike Dimino said. "We expect that it will be a huge boon to our gate."

The Cougars have drawn good crowds since moving from off-campus Friday home games at El Camino to Saturday on-campus games in the mid-1990s, but Dimino said conflicts with family youth sporting events and televised college football games have hurt the gate.

"If you asked our kids to vote, I think it would be unanimous for Friday nights," Dimino said. "That's what high school football is all about."

All-American honors – Recent Faith Christian graduates Cody Martin and Carson Risenhoover have been named to the 2007-08 National Christian School Athletic Association All-American soccer team.

Martin, a forward, and Risenhoover, a midfielder, were honored as second-team All-Americans in the large Christian school division.

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• Call The Bee's Bill Paterson, (916) 326-5506. Bee correspondent Joe LaBriola contributed to this report.