Soderberg Brothers Thriving Thanks to Short Commute

It was a grueling routine for Mater Dei’s Lance and Erik Soderberg. Wake up at 5 a.m. Leave their Lake Elsinore home 45 minutes later. Arrive at school in Santa Ana more than an hour after that for a full day of school and basketball practice.

The Soderbergs wouldn’t return home until late in the evening and wouldn’t get to sleep some nights until the wee hours. “We came home, did homework, ate dinner and went to bed,” Lance explained.

It was no way for two high school boys to live, even though they loved their school, their friends and their teammates. Their father attempted on several occasions to relocate to Orange County but for a number of reasons couldn’t pull it off.

That is why the Soderbergs, along with their freshman brother Brett, transferred earlier this month from Mater Dei to Corona Centennial.

About two weeks after their transfer, Lance, a sophomore forward, and Erik, a junior forward, report that things are going well. “I feel I fit in really well,” Lance said.

On Saturday, in their second game with the Huskies, Lance scored seven points and Erik added five as Centennial walloped Jurupa Valley, 72-42, in the Hoop Challenge at Long Beach College.

The Huskies, the top-ranked team in Riverside County, played just before Mater Dei faced Los Alamitos. Lance and Erik--still wearing their Monarch-issue red-and-white Nikes--did not start but fit comfortably in the lineup, each playing about half the game.

“They pick things up quickly,” Centennial Coach Val Popov said. “[But] it’ll probably be a couple of weeks before everyone will feel things are kind of natural again.”

Some might have figured that the boys’ transfer to a school in Corona didn’t make sense because they lived in Lake Elsinore (they have since moved to Corona), but as it turned out the boys had long ago set their sights on Centennial if Mater Dei didn’t work out.

When the Soderbergs lived in Lake Elsinore, they were 43 miles from Mater Dei. In their new Corona home, they live across the street from Centennial.

“It’s a lot nicer,” said Erik, whose only regret is that he didn’t get say formal goodbyes to his Monarch teammates. “It gives you a lot more free time to get done what you need to. You can do what normal people do.”