Column: Foothill High’s Rohan Rao credits basketball with helping achieve high SAT score

The high school basketball season begins Monday with four months of nonstop action, and if anyone can offer testimony on how the sport can make a difference in a teenager’s life, it’s 6-foot-3 senior Rohan Rao of Santa Ana Foothill.

“Basketball helped me get a perfect score on the SAT,” he said. “It taught me dedication to keep going.”

Among the Class of 2015, there were 1.7 million students who took the SAT, and 504 scored a perfect 2400 for the math, reading and writing portions of the test.

It was December when Rao achieved perfection. He had scored 2330 the first time he took the test and wanted to take it again because his older brother, Rajiv, a Georgetown University graduate, got 2350 and was using his higher score to tease his little brother.

“It was a personal challenge,” Rao said.

Then one morning Rao was awakened in his bedroom by his father and brother, who happened to be home from college. They learned his SAT score online.

“He was part of the waking-up committee,” Rao said. “He was excited for me but angry I had beaten him. It was a bittersweet moment for him.”

The brothers’ parents came to the United States from India. Rao wants to become an orthopedic surgeon. He has 4.8 grade-point average and has applied to Stanford. He was a junior varsity basketball player last season and is challenging for a starting spot on varsity this season.

“He’s a pretty darn good player,” Foothill Coach Rusty Van Cleave said. “He’s a post player with great footwork. He’s had to wait his turn.”

His teammates know who to turn to when preparing for the SAT.

“If they need any SAT help, I’m the one they go to,” he said.

And Van Cleave can’t wait until Rao becomes a doctor.

“I trust him big time,” he said.

Going out in style

Receiver Michael Pittman of Westlake Village Oaks Christian and quarterback Khalil Tate of Gardena Serra played their final high school football games last week and left everyone in awe.

“Michael Pittman is a man,” Coach Jim Benkert said. “In all my years of coaching, I’ve never seen a kid dominate like him.”

In Oaks Christian’s 61-40 loss to La Puente Bishop Amat, Pittman caught 18 passes for 386 yards and five touchdowns. He also had a kickoff return called back because of a penalty.

Tate had 363 yards in 25 carries and scored two touchdowns in Serra’s 28-27 loss to Santa Ana Mater Dei.

Pittman is committed to USC. Tate is headed to Arizona. We’ll be watching both Saturday afternoons.

Divine intervention

Veteran Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson didn’t hesitate to go for a two-point conversion with 1 minute 44 seconds left Friday night and his team trailing Serra, 27-26.

“I told the kids, ‘I’m calling in every prayer and every miracle,’ ” he said. “I didn’t want to take it to overtime.”

The Monarchs had practiced the two-point conversion play all season, where quarterback J.T. Daniels looks right, then finds tight end Curtis Robinson open on the left side. It worked. And now the Monarchs face Corona Centennial (12-0) on Friday in a Pac-5 Division semifinal at Santa Ana Stadium.

“I haven’t found any weaknesses,” Rollinson said of the Huskies. “There’s a reason why they’re No. 1.”