The last year of Deerfield senior Joey Lane’s life has become something that resembles an inspiring Hollywood script. As a 6-foot-1, 175-pound point guard for Deerfield’s boys basketball team this past season, Lane averaged 11.9 points and two assists per game for a Warriors team that won the Central Suburban North title. But his statistics don’t begin to scratch the surface of his remarkable journey. During his junior year, he found himself stuck on Deerfield’s bench behind star guard Eric Porter, a player who is now a D-I freshman at Loyola. As a result, playing time was scarce for Lane. “I don’t think I ever played more than an entire half of a game my junior year,” Lane said. “Yeah, it was frustrating, but I understood what my role was.” Flash forward to the summer of 2014, at the end of his junior year, when his coach at Deerfield, Dan McKendrick, made a decision that changed Lane’s life. “Joey was always a good player, but the issue wasn’t his ability,” McKendrick said. “It was a matter of who else was already on the team in front of him. When the season ended and our summer team began playing, I made the choice to take our players to a camp at Ohio State University rather than have them play in a tournament somewhere more local. “Honestly, Joey was the reason why I picked Ohio State. …
Continue Reading: Deerfield’s Joey Lane carves out basketball niche at Ohio State
