Star Shooter Aims for Another Record

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Blake Burzell shooting during last February's post-season. Photo by Dante Fornaro
Blake Burzell shooting during last February’s post-season.
Photo by Dante Fornaro

By Charlie Warner, Special to the Independent

The Laguna Beach High School basketball team star Blake Burzell, who recently shattered a 54-year-old scoring record with 1,480 career points, will likely add to that in this week’s games versus Calvary Chapel and Godinez.

The feat is especially impressive since the junior has another entire season left to add to that total.

Ron Lutz, the former record holder, said he was happy to see his record eclipsed. “Records are made to be broken,” he said. As well as holding total career points, Lutz also held the record for points in a single season. Under coach Ed Bowen, Lutz was a shooting guard, and was a four-year varsity player from 1960-1963, decades before the three point line was introduced. After his time at LBHS, Lutz went on to work as the city’s recreation director for 32 years before recently retiring.

Lutz was responsible for organizing half court tournaments on Main Beach, and has never stopped loving basketball. He currently is involved with providing referees for games around the county.

Blake has been a stand out since he jumped onto the court. He set Laguna’s single season point record for freshman and was leading scorer on the team. He also recently broke the single season record for the most threes made, as well as breaking the most points scored in a single game record, scoring 49.

He said he was unaware of breaking the five-decade record. “I had no idea! I just play and my teammates kept feeding me. They all helped me so much. I wasn’t paying attention at all to the record, and after the game everyone was so excited,” said Blake, who wants to improve on last year’s record. “I want to get over 20 wins this season.” Their current record is 11-6.

When Blake is not playing basketball, he plays baseball. Last year, the LBHS baseball team won the CIF southern section Division IV championship. Blake is a pitcher on the team and has committed to play baseball at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Fans who attend the Friday, Jan. 13, game against the Godinez Grizzlies at 7 p.m., are likely to see Blake set yet another record.

 

 

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