Generation Net

Catch the ball.

Plant your feet.

Square your shoulders.

Release a 17- to 18-foot jump shot that hits nothing but net.

Senior Jeff Staniland of Ventura High made those actions look deceivingly easy during a shooting drill at the end of a recent practice. But he couldn’t have done so a year ago.

Staniland, the latest in a long line of superb athletes in his family, could drive the lane and hit an occasional three-pointer. But he struggled with the mid-range jump shot.

“He’s always been able to take it to the hole and withstand the pounding he takes inside,” Coach Dan Larson of Ventura said. “But he’s really improved his mid-range shooting.”

That improvement has helped Staniland produce a Ventura County-high 25.5 points a game average and a 56.3 shooting percentage.

His father and grandfather played professional baseball, but the 6-foot-2 1/2, 170-pound Staniland has become a hot shot in the sport of his choosing.

“I worked hard last year, but this year I’ve just brought it to another level,” he said. “My goal was to get a [basketball scholarship to an NCAA Division I school], so I just wanted to make sure that no one was going to outwork me.

“How hard you work is something you can control.”

Staniland, who will lead Ventura (16-10) into a first-round game of the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs against host Mira Costa (18-8) on Friday, has yet to land a scholarship. But the Cougar point guard has drawn interest from Utah, Northern Arizona, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, the University of San Diego and UC Davis.

“He’s growing so much and so fast that I think he’s going to be in the 6-5 or 6-6 range in the next couple of years,” Larson said. “And a [point guard] at that height with that kind of shooting ability could really help a team.”

Staniland, the oldest of three boys in his family, has a strong family pedigree.

His father, Steve, is 6-6 and was a three-sport letterman at Santa Clara High who signed a letter of intent to play football with Oklahoma. However, he signed a contract with the Oakland Athletics after being picked in the 1973 amateur baseball draft.

A torn rotator cuff ended his pitching career after five seasons in the minor leagues, but he returned to Ventura College to play football and was an all-state offensive linemen in 1979. He transferred to Southern Methodist and was a starting tackle in 1981 on a team that was 10-1 and included the “Pony Express” running back tandem of Eric Dickerson and Craig James.

Jeff’s grandfather, Charles, played football, basketball and baseball at Oxnard High in the early 1950s before spending 12 years in the minor leagues playing catcher for the St. Louis Cardinal and Baltimore Oriole organizations. Known as “Buster,” Charles is an assistant baseball coach at Oxnard College.

His great grandfather, Cecil, played soccer for Sheffield United in his native England before moving to the United States in the 1920s.

“He comes from a very competitive family and he’s a very competitive player,” Larson said.

Staniland was exposed to a variety of sports, but basketball has always been his favorite.

“My grandfather has always said that baseball would be the sport I could be drafted in if I really applied myself, but basketball has always been my first love,” said Staniland, Ventura’s third baseman last year. “Basketball has always been fun to me. No one ever told me to go out and shoot. No one ever told me to go out and dribble.

“It’s always just been something I love to do. Although baseball has always been easy for me, if I have a choice between playing catch and shooting baskets, I’m going to shoot.”

And shoot. And shoot.

Staniland, a classic gym rat, spent three hours a day after practices last fall shooting baskets, lifting weights and putting himself through a variety of drills at Ventura College, where his father is an assistant football coach.

“I never once had to tell that boy to go practice,” Steve Staniland said. “No one ever told him to shoot 500 jump shots a day. He’s just always worked his butt off.”

Larson, a 6-8 Ventura High graduate who played for Utah and Santa Clara in college, says that Staniland’s Division I aspirations have not prevented him from putting the team first during his three varsity seasons.

“He’s been a great kid to coach,” said Larson, now in his ninth season at Ventura. “He’s done whatever I’ve asked of him.

“I’ve asked him to pass the ball to this kid and not pass the ball to that kid, and I’ve never had a problem with him.”

After averaging four assists as a sophomore point guard and 21 points as a junior shooting guard, Staniland has set school records for single-season (664 points) and career (1,418) scoring this season.

A Division I scholarship has yet to materialize, but Staniland tries not to let that affect his play.

“Sometimes, if you play a bad game, you’re like, ‘Oh, man. Did I just blow my chance at a scholarship?’ ” he said. “But you can’t think about that. You have to remember that it’s a game, not a job.”