Robledo Is First-Class Player in Sport That Was a Second Choice : Garden Grove League: Santiago point guard, who once preferred soccer, can pass and, if needed, shoot.

When America Robledo arrived at Santiago High School in 1989, she promptly researched what interscholastic sports teams the school had available for girls.

She saw that in the fall there was volleyball. And that was good.

She saw that in the spring there was softball. And that was really good.

She saw that in the winter there was field hockey and basketball. That, Robledo thought, was totally bogus.

Where was soccer, the game she had played for years and enjoyed so much? Alive and doing well at some other schools, but Santiago didn’t field a girls’ team. So Robledo, who wanted to play soccer, had to create Plan B.

“I went for basketball,” Robledo said. “Soccer was more fun to me at the time, but I didn’t have a choice.”

No, she didn’t, and Santiago Coach Ron Heusser is happy because of it.

For the last three seasons, Robledo has been a key figure in the Cavalier program. Heusser says she has some qualities none of the other players he has coached on the Santiago boys’ or girls’ teams possessed.

“Of all the years I’ve coached (19 altogether), she’s probably got the best court vision of any player,” Heusser said. “She does so many things well. If she played year-round, she could really develop all her skills. She’s just an excellent athlete.”

Robledo, a 5-foot-7 point guard, helped the Cavaliers to a fourth-place tie with Pacifica in the Garden Grove League last season. She averaged 16.3 points and was an all-league first-team selection.

After Santiago’s first three nonleague games this season, Robledo was averaging 21 points and 11 assists. League season opens in early January for the Cavaliers.

The improvement in her scoring average indicates that Robledo is the player the Cavaliers will look to this season to put up the points, but it’s a responsibility she would happily relinquish. Her strong suit, she says, is leading the attack and getting the ball to her teammates.

“I like passing. I like making things happen,” Robledo said. “If I have the shot, I’m not afraid to take it. But I like to be in control and keep the tempo. If I don’t have the ball, it’s like I’m lost out there.”

Said Heusser: “You can’t find a lot of people who really thrive on that (passing), but she does. She’d just as soon make a good pass as score.”

Robledo also likes to direct the offense on the volleyball court, where she was an all-league setter on a Cavalier squad that finished third in the league this past season. In softball, her favorite sport, she’s a sure-handed all-league shortstop who has honed her skills the last three years on the 18-and-under Un Refined travel team based in Garden Grove.

Although Robledo says her parents, Rafael Sr. and Eloisa, never pushed her into sports, she and her brother, Rafael Jr., were involved from an early age. Her brother is now a sophomore on the Santiago junior varsity basketball team.

“My dad has a lot of brothers, so every Sunday they go to the park and play volleyball or basketball or baseball,” Robledo said. “I grew up around a sports-minded family. . . . My parents like us playing sports and support us. My mom kind of follows me around, and my dad follows my brother around.”

When they are not playing for Santiago, Robledo and her brother try to outdo each other in one-on-one games that sometimes become highly competitive.

“Some days I’m on, and some days he’s on,” Robledo said. “Sometimes we start talking on (bad-mouthing) each other, just to get each other out of our games. He likes to talk a lot of trash.”

1991-92 in Review: Garden Grove League

Team League Overall Rancho Alamitos 14-0 23-3 Kennedy 11-3 16-8 Garden Grove 10-4 13-11 Pacifica 7-7 11-13 Santiago 7-7 10-14 La Quinta 4-10 6-16 Bolsa Grande 3-11 6-17 Los Amigos 0-14 1-23

League MVP: Shannon James (Rancho Alamitos).