Sophomore trumps

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 10:28 a.m.

Take a look at the Southern Nevada scoring leaders on this page, and you'll see Heiden Ratner's name at the top of the list.

What's surprising -- and frightening to some Southeast Division teams -- about that is that Ratner is just a sophomore, still adjusting to the high school game with two years of school left to hone his skills.

Ratner leads a group of talented, high-scoring 10th graders excelling this year. Silverado's Kevin Rath, Green Valley's Billy White, Liberty's Brian Magann and Desert Pines' Jason West are also making names for themselves with time to continue growing.

Even as they look for respect among their peers, hotshot sophomores have to find a place for themselves on teams that are often heavy on upper-classmen. With a lot of these students, high expectations are set in middle school and the hype only grows when they achieve early success.

By all accounts, Ratner is a basketball addict. The son of Nevada State Athletic Commission chairman Marc Ratner, Heiden was already starting for the Skyhawks as a freshman.

"It's all I do," Heiden said. "I'm working on my game, playing by myself, working on things that I need to get better at."

Taking on the pressure that early, though, has helped Ratner this season as the Skyhawks attempt to finish above .500 for the first time since the school opened in 1993.

"Last year I was a little nervous about how it was going to be," he said. "Now I'm more experienced; I feel like I can compete with everybody. It helped because I knew more about what it would be like."

The same can't be said for Green Valley's White, who saw little playing time at Bishop Gorman last year before transferring to the Henderson school.

White started the Gators' first game of the year, at Bishop Gorman's tiny gym in Las Vegas. He went through most of his first varsity game dealing with taunts from former classmates, both from the stands and on the court.

"I felt a little scared," he said. "But after a while, I felt confident, more relaxed."

Patai said White's growth at Green Valley has been noticable in the three months he's played.

"To come and do what he's done, that shows just how talented he is," Patai said. "There's been some times the adjustment's been tough, and he's handled it very well. I know that first night he was real pumped up. He's an emotional player, but he's also developing a level of intensity so he's not as up-and-down."

Green Valley guard Jordan Ragan, a senior, said he and his teammates took a particular interest in helping White along.

"We had our little counseling meetings with him," Ragan said. "He's more focused now than he was at the beginning. He's rebounding a lot better and finishing very well for us."

White is the Gators' second-leading scorer, averaging 13.4 points per game. His 110 defensive rebounds are tops for his team, as are his 45 blocked shots.

Just as Ratner came into high school with high expectations based on his middle school reputation, White knows he'll be taking the reigns next season.

"I'm very excited. I've got two years left and I could still learn stuff I don't know," he said. "I want to win state and get a ring. This year or whenever."

Silverado's Pisano is also looking ahead of this year, as the Skyhawks are all but a lock to get that first winning season.

"I can't express how exciting the next two years are going to be," Pisano said.