Volleyball Can Wait for Laguna Beach’s Blanton

In the natural order of things, basketball season at Laguna Beach High School is over this time of the year and Dain Blanton can concentrate on volleyball, the sport that likely will help him earn a college scholarship.

But this is far from an ordinary year at this school by the beach. The volleyball team played its first match Friday night without Blanton and six others who probably will make the varsity because today, for the first time in 27 years, Laguna Beach will play for a Southern Section basketball championship.

The Artists will meet St. Joseph at 9:45 a.m. today at the Los Angeles Sports Arena for the section’s 2-A basketball title. And as far as Blanton is concerned, volleyball can wait, although schools such as USC, UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii are pursuing him as a volleyball player.

“I want to get out on the volleyball court, but we’ve got this going,” Blanton said. “We usually don’t get this far.

“It’s going to be a blast playing in the Sports Arena. That will be a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Some say today need not be the only time that Blanton, a senior who is averaging more than 19 points and six rebounds for the Artists, plays in such a basketball arena. At 6-feet-3 1/2, well-muscled and quick, Blanton is the type of athlete who usually is a major college basketball prospect.

But instead of spending his summers honing the skills he would need to switch from a big forward in high school to a big guard in college, he plays volleyball with his club team.

“Dain could have been a Division I basketball player if he played as much basketball as he does volleyball,” Laguna Beach assistant coach Greg Marshall said.

As he walked across the Laguna Beach basketball court, another assistant, Bret Fleming, joked: “He’d be a lot better if we strung up a net in here.”

“That’s been the cliche about Laguna kids,” Fleming said later. “They have a tendency to (only) do well in sports that have nets between the players, like tennis and volleyball.

“But Dain is kind of an exception to the rule. He competes hard (at basketball).”

Blanton said he plays no favorites. He enjoys both sports equally and divides his time between them. From September to February, he plays basketball; from February to August, he plays volleyball.

Blanton realizes he might have the talent to be a major college basketball player if he dedicated himself completely to the sport, but he said concentrating on one sport is monotonous. Besides, he said, he hasn’t been approached by many college basketball coaches.

And, after all, this is Laguna Beach and the lure of the local life style is a powerful one. The basketball played on courts at Main Beach may draw serious competition, but volleyball is king and Blanton grew up playing among some of the best volleyball players in the world.

He is now a triple-A rated beach volleyball player, which is one level below the rating of the professionals he would like to join someday.

But first, Blanton wants to get his education and he plans to use his athletic ability to pay for it. He said he has learned from the mistakes of his older brother, Kurt, who although heavily recruited when he played volleyball for the Artists in the mid-1980s, missed out on a scholarship because of marginal grades. Blanton said he has a 3.4 grade-point average.

“I just made it a point to keep my grades up and not put what I have in jeopardy,” Blanton said.

2-A BOYS’ CHAMPIONSHIP GAME LINEUPS

LAGUNA BEACH (22-5) Coach Ed Bowen

Name Hgt. Yr. PPG Pos. Brady Butcher 6-2 Sr. 11.0 G Trevor Murphy 6-1 Sr. 7.0 F Dain Blanton 6-4 Sr. 19.5 C Josh Borella 5-11 Jr. 15.5 G John Trevino 6-0 Sr. 16.0 G

ST. JOSEPH (19-7) Coach Richard King

Name Hgt. Yr. PPG Pos. Roger Cavazos 6-4 Jr. 12.8 G Jon Wesner 6-3 Sr. 8.7 F Lafelle McGilvery 6-4 Jr. 14.8 C Billy Simas 6-3 Sr. 16.5 G Mike Laggren 6-1 So. 7.9 G