Keefe Is Always Full Speed Ahead

There are football players criticized for taking plays off during games. There are basketball players ridiculed for loafing back on defense. There are baseball players mocked for jogging to first base.

James Keefe of Santa Margarita is only 17, but he understands what it means to put on a uniform.

“You let your team down if you don’t play hard every time,” he said.

And that’s how Keefe plays basketball -- 32 minutes of unapologetic toughness. He goes after rebounds as if each one represents the difference between victory and defeat.

“He’s a warrior,” Coach Jerry DeBusk said.

At 6 feet 8, Keefe offers no sympathy to smaller players. He’ll block shots, use his body to set screens and isn’t afraid to scrape his knees diving for a loose ball.

No matter the score and no matter the opponent, from tipoff to final buzzer, he gives his all.

“When I was younger, I got in my head to focus every play,” he said.

Said DeBusk: “He just loves playing the game. He’s easy to coach. The guys feed off him. He sets the tone.”

Keefe, a junior, is one of the best all-around players in Southern California. He is averaging 17.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 3.8 blocks in helping lift Santa Margarita to a 20-3 record and a 3-1 mark in the Serra League going into tough games tonight at Bellflower St. John Bosco and Thursday against league-leading Santa Ana Mater Dei at Concordia University.

Keefe has committed to UCLA, which is no surprise since he precisely fits the profile of what Coach Ben Howland wants in a big man -- toughness.

As a rebounder alone, Keefe can put on a clinic as to what is required to be successful.

“You have to get yourself in position, anticipate the shot and go hard,” he said. “It’s more than strength. It’s desire.”

His athleticism allows him to run the court, and he’s in constant motion.

“He has a great motor,” DeBusk said. “He could play soccer and would be all over the field. He keeps playing and playing and never stops. How do you teach that? You can urge, but that comes from within.”

With a scholarship already earned and a Southern Section Division III-AA championship already won when he was a sophomore, Keefe might have a reason to occasionally coast. But it’s not in his vocabulary, and it’s not in his demeanor.

He has learned in sports competition, every time he steps onto the court, he goes all out. With that attitude, what a marvelous player he could become.

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Sophomore Drew Viney of Villa Park doesn’t receive the national exposure of fellow sophomore Taylor King of Mater Dei, but he’s a 6-6 guard with improving skills.

His career-high 29-point performance against Huntington Beach Ocean View on Saturday at the Anaheim Convention Center was one of the best individual efforts of the eight-game Nike Extravaganza.

“He’s got that smoothness to his game,” Coach Kevin Reynolds said. “He does everything for us. I think he’s going to be one of the best players in high school and go wherever he wants.”

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It’s impressive enough to have a 4.0 grade-point average in high school. But Amanda Near of Duarte keeps getting A’s while playing simultaneously for the girls’ soccer and basketball teams.

On Jan. 26, she had a soccer game in the afternoon and a basketball game in the evening.

Teammates tease her with the line, “Oh, what sport are you playing today?”

She goes to school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., attends soccer practice until 5:30 p.m., then goes to basketball practice until 7 p.m. Her coaches have been supportive, working out schedules so that she can do both.

Asked if she’d advise others to play two sports at once, Near said, “It depends on how much you want to do.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.