DeRozan energizes Compton

Nearly three years ago, players and coaches from Compton Dominguez and Compton Centennial received helicopter rides over their city and were saluted by their mayor as part of a day-long celebration in honor of the state champion boys’ basketball teams.

Left out, if not entirely forgotten, was the city’s third high school, Compton. But little did anyone realize at the time that an eighth-grader, DeMar DeRozan, would grow up to help change the balance of power.

Last week, Dominguez, represented in the NBA by Tyson Chandler and Tayshaun Prince, and Centennial, which produced Arron Afflalo of top-ranked UCLA, found themselves losing in consecutive games to Compton in the Huntington Beach Ocean View tournament.

“It’s big, it’s very big,” Centennial Coach Rod Palmer said. “Everyone wants bragging rights in the city,” and Compton “had the opportunity to do it.”

Leading the way for the Tarbabes was DeRozan, now a 6-foot-5 junior whose ability to defy gravity and send down an awe-inspiring dunk has become one of the highlights of high school basketball this season.

“I go to watch him play,” Palmer said. “He’s made that much of a difference.”

DeRozan was the catalyst as Compton defeated Dominguez, 77-60, in a semifinal game and Centennial, 63-55, in the championship game. He scored 36 points in an 83-58 victory over North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, another Southern Section power.

“Now everybody knows we have a good team,” DeRozan said.

Compton played at Dominguez in a nonleague game Thursday night, and DeRozan came through with a desperation three-point shot from the baseline at the buzzer to give the Tarbabes a 74-71 victory.

Compton has become a three-team basketball town.

DeRozan, who lives across the street from his high school, decided to stay put, though he says others told him he should be playing elsewhere.

“I wanted to go to Compton to put Compton back on the map,” he said. “I wanted to start a program that everybody would know.”

DeRozan enrolled at Compton as a freshman just months after the city held its celebration in honor of Centennial’s first state title and the sixth for Dominguez.

Showing loyalty to a neighborhood school is a rare quality these days, when players and their parents often seek out top programs for exposure and other reasons.

“That makes me want to root for him even more,” Los Angeles Loyola Coach Jamal Adams said. “He’s stayed and has a vision for building the program.”

Palmer smiles when talking about DeRozan.

“He’s a talent,” the coach said. “He can get to the basket whenever he wants.”

Added Adams: “He might be one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. During the summer, he threw a ball off the glass, caught it, put it through his legs and dunked it.”

Watching from the bleachers at Ocean View last week were the head coaches from Arizona State, California and Florida State, and assistants from USC and UCLA.

DeRozan averaged 26.2 points a game as a freshman and 18 as a sophomore. This season, he’s averaging 24.2 points.

He’s particularly effective early in a game, when his aggressiveness catches opponents off guard. Late in a game, if he must step forward to help his team win, he tries to emulate his favorite player, Kobe Bryant.

“When he has to, he takes over a game,” DeRozan said of the Lakers star.

Compton, which usually loses out to Dominguez and Centennial for the best basketball players in the area, has another rising college prospect in 6-10 junior Edgar Garibay.

Some coaches worry whether their best players are going to leave, but Tony Thomas, in his rookie year as Compton’s coach, said he has a good relationship with DeRozan and his parents.

“That means I sleep at night,” Thomas said.

He admires DeRozan’s natural basketball ability, saying: “He lets the game come to him. That’s tough to teach.”

Beverly Hills guard Romeo Miller, who played with DeRozan on the summer basketball circuit, said, “He’s a freak of nature. He jumps over people. I call him half-kid, half-amazing.”

Equally important in DeRozan’s makeup is his understanding that he can’t jeopardize his chance to play basketball by failing to fulfill his academic requirements.

“I know a lot of people who were good but thought they didn’t have to do the work,” he said. “It cost them.”

Because his basketball skills have him on the top of many recruiting lists, all DeRozan has to do to earn a college scholarship is complete his homework assignments, show up to class, listen and learn.

“You’ve got to have the grades to go to college,” he said.

Meanwhile, as Dominguez and Centennial prepare to make another run at Southern Section championships, they’ve been joined by the upstart in town, Compton. All three are ranked by The Times in the Southland top 25, with Compton (9-2) No. 7, Dominguez (6-3) No. 8 and Centennial (6-3) No. 12.

The biggest change, however, is Compton is No. 1 in the city -- at least for now.

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