No Growing Pains for Lakey

Sometimes it happens at 6 a.m., after Russell Lakey eats his Captain Crunch cereal. Other times it’s in the evening, when he comes home from school.

“Every day I stand behind my dad and ask my mom if I’m taller than him yet,” the 5-foot-10 Lakey said.

Lakey prays he will grow to 6 feet, passing his 5-11 father.

But six games into his first varsity basketball season for Harvard-Westlake High, the 15-year-old sophomore has discovered success involves more than size.

This is the story of The Little Guard That Could.

Weighing in at a frail 150 pounds and looking as young as a junior high student, Lakey is off to the best start of any first-year varsity player in the region.

He scored 20 or more points in each of Harvard-Westlake’s first five games before finishing with 11 points as the Wolverines (6-0) beat Dos Pueblos on Friday to win the Thousand Oaks tournament.

“I haven’t had a player, including the Collins twins, with a start like his,” Wolverine Coach Greg Hilliard said.

Lakey has scored on three-pointers, drives to the basket and free throws (making 26 of 33).

He’s not extremely quick and doesn’t jump out of the gym. But he’s coordinated, can hang in the air when needed and has an accurate set shot.

Most importantly, he’s a work in progress, a teenager with special basketball instincts.

“He’s an amazingly quick learner,” Hilliard said. “He’s already reinvented himself twice. He’s got a pull-up jumper and a fadeaway, which he didn’t have at all when we started this winter.”

Said Wolverine senior point guard Victor Munoz: “He’s very deceptive. He’s not what he appears to be. You go, ‘Oh no, he can’t play.’ Once you play against him, you quickly realize how good he is. When he’s coming up the court, he’s jerking back and forth and you don’t know how to react. Sometimes you’re in awe, ‘How did he do that?’ ”

Lakey was a guard for Harvard-Westlake’s freshman team last season. He dreamed of playing with the Collins twins on the varsity, but Hilliard gave no thought to promoting him for fear he would be physically overwhelmed.

During the summer, in Lakey’s first exposure to stronger, bigger varsity players, he struggled at times. He was driving to the basket too often and found himself surrounded by taller players.

“Sometimes I’d get fouled,” he said. “Most of the time I’d get blocked.”

Back to the drawing board he went. In his backyard, he practiced his new moves against his father, Paul, and his brother, Chris, a former Loyola High guard. When the season began, he was ready.

“So far I’ve kind of surprised myself at how well I’m doing,” he said. “I’m praying I can keep it up the whole season. People look at my size and say, ‘He’s too small,’ but if you go out there and try hard, size doesn’t really matter. It’s how hard you play, how hard you practice and your skill level.”

Back in the 1960s, at Poly High in Sun Valley, Gail Goodrich was a tiny left-handed guard who amazed people with his drives and shooting ability.

“When he was a sophomore, he was 5-5, 135 pounds,” recalled Valley College Coach Doug Michelson. “As a senior, he shot up to 5-11. He was spindly. You could tell he was a special player because he was so advanced fundamentally. He was all left-handed but he was so good you couldn’t stop him.”

The right-handed Lakey is no Goodrich, but he’s an example of how a small guard can find ways to excel in a game supposedly reserved for tall athletes.

Lakey’s father videotapes all his games. No matter what time it is, when he gets home, Lakey watches the tape, then receives advice from the real basketball fanatic in the family--his mother, Jacqueline. She provides Dick Vitale-like commentary.

“After a game, she just goes on and on and sometimes me and my dad have to try to settle her down,” he said. “She comments on every play, ‘You have to make that, you have to make that, quit reaching, quit reaching.’ ”

Lakey has learned that his mother knows him better than anyone. She’s a school psychologist.

“She can tell when things are wrong with me, then makes me spill my guts,” he said.

Since he was 5, Lakey has been enamored with basketball.

“Right when I touched a basketball for the first time, I fell in love with the game,” he said.

Munoz is convinced Lakey has just begun to entertain people.

“He’s capable of being a superstar,” Munoz said.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.

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Fast Start

Russell Lakey of Harvard-Westlake opened the season by scoring 20 or more points five times. Here’s a look:

Opponent: Points

Antelope Valley: 21

Moorpark: 24

Thousand Oaks: 20

Oak Park: 26

Grant: 27

Dos Pueblos: 11

Average: 21.5