LJ b BB: Raulston begins his roll

Rising sophomore Max Raulston
drives to the basket in the
first half against the
Wolves.
(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

On his first possession, La Jolla's Max Raulston looked hurried, fumbling the ball. Then, when the ball went up, he made three straight putback attempts--a lot of hustle, urgency (a word coaches love), effort.

From there, the 6'2" rising sophomore, who made a decision to forgo football this coming fall and concentrate on basketball, provided plenty of offensive fireworks, including a quick spin move from the left box to bank the ball off the glass. He used both hands on layup attempts.

Even his free throws showed some practice, as he glided two in with good rotation on the ball. He's been working.

But with such natural ability, "hops" as his vertical jump is called in basketball lingo, it's a temptation to stay a limited-dimensional player and try to leap his way to success.

In Raulston's freshman year for Coach Paul Baranowski, with the way open for a spot in the front court because of a lack of forwards, he quickly learned he could mix it up under the basket because of his athleticism.

During the Vikings' rough schedule, which included a head-lock treatment by Western League opponents (think St. Augustine, think Mission Bay with Boogie Ellis), Max faced opposing forwards who stood much taller. Ronnie Latting, Ellis' teammate, measures 6'7". There are others who are even taller.

Raulston threw down a soaring dunk in warm-ups Fri., July 5, before a summer league game against Mission Vista. He ranged far above the basket on the slam, one of several he made.

And he gave the impression that's what was on his mind in the game: "I'm gonna leap past these guys."

A valuable recent object lesson is Casey Granfors, the high-flying receiver for University City's football team. About the same height as our La Jolla player, Granfors exhibited his notable jumping ability when the Centurions played the Vikings basketball team last season. But his game was disjointed, awkward. It didn't flow.

An assistant for UC acknowledged this in a chat during the game. "(Casey) does try to rely on his leaping ability too much," the coach said. "We've tried to work with him to make his game more well-rounded."

I'm sure Raulston, in his non-school basketball with a club/travel team, is working on the other areas of his game--passing, a repeatable shot. Heck, before his freshman season last year at LJHS, the then-ninth-grader was new to the game of basketball, as far as I know. He had hardly played it before.

So my object, having just taken in the good things he did against Mission Vista this afternoon (the Vikings pulled away with a 53-38 win), along with all the rough points, is to point out he doesn't have to end up a one-dimensional player the way the recently-graduated Granfors did (though taking away All-CIF honors in his main sport of football).

I applaud Max's decision to focus on basketball, my favorite sport. He will really have the chance to work on his individual skills as he develops a feel and knowledge for the game in general. Playing multiple sports is good, but recently at La Jolla football has been rough on a trio of athletes, Gabe and Diego Solis, and Evan Brown. All sufferers of broken collarbones last fall, Gabe even came out of football (the final playoff game) in 2017 as well with a back injury that torpedoed his junior year in basketball.

It's going to be fun watching the development of Max Raulston, as well as a whole stable of other young and upcoming players in Baranowski's program. They are on display this summer, this weekend at Canyon Crest Academy, next weekend at Grossmont High.