Column: San Pedro High’s Anthony Hrboka takes three-point shooting to new level

When Anthony Hrboka of San Pedro was on the basketball courtroom as a 14-year-old freshman in 2020, he stood 5 toes 2 and weighed 92 kilos.

“When he’d get on the market, some would say, ‘What’s your supervisor doing on the market?’ ” coach John Bobich mentioned. “He was all 92 kilos to the very best of his means.”

He has grown to 5-10 and 150 kilos as a senior and have become San Pedro’s all-time three-point capturing chief. He made 10 threes in a sport twice as a junior. This season, he has a sport of 9 threes and is averaging 20.1 factors.

“He has a piece ethic second to none,” Bobich mentioned.

That helps clarify Hrboka exhibiting up at 5:30 a.m. and discovering a solution to get the important thing to enter the San Pedro fitness center so he can observe 300 to 500 pictures from three-point vary earlier than college. He made 101 threes final season as a junior and has 83 this season.

“It’s the preparation earlier than the season and the offseason, and even in the course of the season, ensuring you’re getting plenty of reps and ensuring you’re comfy with capturing these pictures so once you get into the video games, it’s pure and within the circulation,” Hrboka mentioned.

He generally makes sinking threes look simpler than hitting a free throw, although he acknowledges, “Free throws are positively simpler as a result of it’s simply you and the rim and no one in entrance of you.”

Go away Hrboka open at your individual value, as a result of he made 55% of his three-point tries final season and retains getting extra correct.

“Because the years went on, he developed a faster launch and received stronger,” Bobich mentioned. “He’s improved his footwork. He comes off screens significantly better. All the small print he continues to grasp.”

Throughout a quick break that ended with Hrbroka making a 3 from the baseline as a substitute of selecting a layup, a San Pedro teammate was overheard saying, “Coach, that may be a layup.”

Bobich remembers Hrboka popping out to San Pedro video games when he was 5 or 6 and throwing up pictures at halftime. Bobich coached him in youth baseball and acknowledged his competitiveness.

Now San Pedro has 270-pound Arizona-bound soccer standout Nick Fernandez setting screens for Hbroka, and all it takes is a quick opening for Hbroka to trigger injury. That’s what occurred on the finish of a sport final week towards Lake Balboa Birmingham, when Hbroka received sufficient clearance after a display from Fernandez to make a shot because the buzzer sounded for a San Pedro victory.

“He’s an amazing participant,” Birmingham coach Nick Halic mentioned. “He’s the very best shooter within the Metropolis that I’ve seen, arms down. The entire group has a lot confidence in him.”

Fernandez went to the identical center college as Hbroka and remembers seeing him on the blacktop going one on one towards a taller classmate and never backing down.

Hbroka is 17 and nonetheless rising — he has three cousins over 6-5. Basketball groups want shooters, and Hbroka positive can shoot, so don’t search for him to cease taking part in after this season.

“A 3 is unquestionably a staple within the sport,” he mentioned. “Having the ability to make threes will get the group excited and will get the group excited and is unquestionably a device on this new-age sport.”