Dade Quickly Making Up for His Lost Basketball Season

Chris Dade’s basketball career at Cal State Fullerton was on hold for a year, but now that it’s finally off the launching pad, Dade is enjoying every minute.

“It was frustrating not being able to play last season,” Dade said. “My dream was to play Division I basketball, and when I had to sit out last year, it really bothered me. My grades went down and I had to go to summer school to get them back up.”

Surgery for a recurring wrist injury kept Dade on the sideline. He hurt the wrist again at the start of fall practice and spent the next six months with a cast from his wrist to his shoulder.

“They found out there were some bones shattered in my wrist, and they took some bone out of my hip and put it in my wrist,” Dade said. “What made it bad was that I couldn’t even run to try to stay in shape. I couldn’t work out at all.”

Dade said he spent the summer working out at home in San Diego, trying to make up for the lost practice time. “They had an open gym at UC San Diego during the summer, and I’d go there just about every day and work out,” he said. “The only thing I did all summer was work on my school work and try to get back into shape.”

Dade, a 6-2 guard, quickly made up for lost time. And when the Titans opened their season, Dade was in the starting lineup.

He already has established himself as one of the team’s most versatile players. A former star at San Diego El Camino High, Dade is averaging 11 points, second on the team behind senior center Winston Peterson.

While his scoring has been solid, he has been equally impressive on defense, and is second to guard Chris St. Clair in steals.

“These early games have been a learning experience for me since I didn’t play last year,” Dade said. “I’m also feeling the effects of having to get up and down the floor quickly in a fast-paced game. And it’s taken awhile for me to get used to playing with the other players.”

More than anything, Dade is just happy to be back playing and he’s confident he will continue to improve.

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The Fullerton women’s basketball team continues to struggle with injuries, leaving it with nine healthy players for Thursday’s game at Pepperdine.

Autumn Hollyfield, the team’s top outside shooting threat, is at least two weeks away from returning to the team from arthroscopic knee surgery.

Backup center Beth Taylor underwent foot surgery last Friday and is out for the season. Two other post players, freshmen Kari Kron and Michele Leitner, also are slowed by injuries. Coach Deborah Ayres doubts either will be back before the end of January.

“It’s a real burden on us from a depth standpoint right now,” Ayres said. “We’re starting people who were coming off the bench for us earlier. We really need to get Autumn back. But even when we do, she’ll need to go slow for a while to make sure she’s recovered.”

The Titans continue to rely heavily on senior center Koko Lahanas. Lahanas had 38 points and 14 rebounds in a loss to Northern Arizona, then 29 points and 11 rebounds in a victory over Sacramento State last week.

“Our players are doing a good job of getting the ball in to her,” Ayres said, “but she had a tremendous effort for the entire tournament. I guess we can expect to start seeing some zone with her scoring that well. She had four steals against Sac State and three against Northern Arizona in addition to those other numbers.”

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Former Titan baseball star Dante Powell spent four weeks in the Arizona Instructional League and came away with good feelings about his future with the San Francisco Giants.

“They told me I’d definitely be invited to work out with the big club in spring training, so I’m happy about that,” Powell said. “It was a good experience for me. They worked with just about every aspect of my game, and I thought it definitely was worthwhile.”

Powell said the coaches worked with him on hitting to the opposite field and on his defense in the outfield.

“Everyone in the Giant organization who talked with me seemed to be impressed,” Powell said. “They all said I had a good first season.”

Powell hit .309 with five home runs and 25 runs batted in for Everett, Wash., in the Class-A rookie league. He was called up to San Jose in the California League late in the season, and had two hits in four at-bats.