|
South Point’s Chris Lane hopes to play two sports in college, a feat that a local standout hasn’t attempted in a single season in at least five years.
Benjamin Patton/The Gazette
Two-sport star Lane sparks South Point
BELMONT - Chris Lane has already heard the naysayers about the possibility of his playing two sports in college. But if his work at South Point High School is any indication, Lane is more than ready to become one of the smallest minorities in all of college athletics next year at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory.
Lane, a 6-foot, 175-pound senior, has signed a joint athletic scholarship for football and baseball with the Bears. If he can pull off the feat, he'll become the first athlete in this area to play two major sports in college in a single season in at least five years.
"Most of the time, when I tell people what I'm trying to do, they don't think I can do it," Lane said. "So I know it'll be a challenge. But it's a challenge I'm looking forward to."
Tonight at 7 p.m., Lane and his South Point baseball teammates face another challenge in the second round of the N.C. Class 3A baseball playoffs. The Red Raiders host St. Stephens - or the same team that eliminated them in last year's playoffs.
Lane is motivated by more than revenge tonight. After winning the Big South 3A/4A Conference football title outright in the fall, South Point's state championship hopes were dashed in a third-round defeat. This spring, after sharing the Big South baseball title, Lane seeks redemption.
"It was frustrating when we went in football before meeting our goal," said Lane, a wingback who fall accounted for 1,360 yards rushing and receiving and scored 90 points, including a school-record-tying 36 points in one of the Red Raiders' playoff games last fall. "So, we're battling that much harder in baseball to make up for it."
Lane's certainly done his part. A center fielder who has some of the best speed and fielding range in the area provided what proved to be the winning runs in last Friday's 4-3 opening-round victory over North Buncombe with a two-out, three-run homer in the third inning. He also was the only player on his team to collect two base hits.
"Chris is such a good athlete," South Point baseball coach Jason Lineberger said. "You don't find guys who are as strong and big and fast as he is."
Baseball has always been Lane's favorite sport. So much so that he dropped football after an injury-plagued middle school career. But when classmates (and future football teammates) pressed him to restart his football career as a junior, he and the Red Raiders thrived, particularly when South Point went 12-2 last fall.
Lane's emergence not only helped his school's football team, but gained attention from college scouts. Lane says Lenoir-Rhyne became the most interested after South Point head coach John Devine sent some game tapes to the Bears' coaching staff.
"They said they liked what they saw on the tapes and made a scholarship offer," Lane said.
Baseball is part of the scholarship, even as schools like Appalachian State, Catawba and Furman came in late in pursuit of Lane for baseball only.
"I've always loved baseball, but I love football, too," Lane said.
At Lenoir-Rhyne, should Lane play both sports, it's believed he'll be the area's first to play two major sports in the same season since 2002 West Lincoln High graduate Chris Halubka was a football kicker and baseball pitcher at Gardner-Webb.
"It will be difficult," said Lineberger, who played baseball at Carson-Newman. "But I can see him doing it. He's got a 4.1 GPA, a 1100 SAT score, he's a great character guy and he's a worker."
