Skyler Vaden of the Bakersfield College men’s basketball team didn’t play organized basketball until his high school years, but according to head coach Rich Hughes, Vaden is a major contributor to the Renegades this season.

Vaden is a 6-foot-2-inch sophomore guard from Los Angeles.

Vaden got his start in basketball on the streets of Los Angeles with some of his neighborhood friends and his brother. They would get together during the summer and choose a sport to play and spend the rest of the day playing.

Vaden found that, even in these street games, he always had a competitive drive.

“It all started as fun for everyone else, while for me I just wanted to win,” said Vaden. “It wasn’t fun for me unless I was winning.”

Vaden then took his game to the parks and started challenging older, more experienced players. “I just wanted to play ball, and the park had the best competition,” said Vaden.

Vaden talked about how basketball gave him a new focus, something besides the rough environment Los Angeles can provide.

“When I was little, my family was all involved in gangs and gang-related stuff, and when I was younger, I did the same type of stuff,” said Vaden. “It was just natural to be involved in those things.

“When my brother died, I knew I had to do something different. I mean, I did some pretty bad stuff. I was doing all the wrong things. I mean I didn’t kill anyone or anything like that, but I did my share of bad stuff,” said Vaden.

Vaden was 10 years old when his brother was killed due to gang violence. Vaden said of his brother, “It was just a situation where it was wrong place at the wrong time for him.”

Vaden talked about how he wasn’t into playing sports for a while because it was his brother who introduced him to the sports he loved.

“I had to cool it for a while. Lemar was the one who took me out to ball, and it was just different without him,” said Vaden.

Vaden eventually got back into playing basketball but was intimidated to play in front of crowds. Because of that, Vaden continued to play at the area parks and occasionally around the neighborhood with friends. He didn’t play any organized junior high basketball, but when high school came, Vaden came around to playing for the Generals of Washington Prep. Vaden played his first year on the freshman team in order to break his fear, and for his last three years he played on the varsity team.

In his senior year, Vaden averaged 16.8 points per game on 44 percent field goal shooting and 41 percent on 3-point field goal shooting. He also averaged 6.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.8 steals per game. Vaden was also a 75 percent free throw shooter.

?Vaden also started on the boys’ volleyball team where he played four years on the varsity squad. His junior and senior season he made first team all conference and first team all city.

Vaden talked about how exciting that was for him.

“I loved it because we went to the second round of the playoffs and usually our school wasn’t any good at volleyball,” said Vaden.

When asked what his greatest memory of playing in any game was, Vaden talked about a game against King-Drew Medical Magnet High School.

“I didn’t just score crazy, but it was just fun. I believe basketball was about having fun at that time,” said Vaden. “Basketball now is more about working hard, and it’s not that we don’t have fun, it’s just that we have more on the line here.

“Some people here only worry about working hard and forget to have fun, and that game just takes me back to when it was all fun,” said Vaden. “Plus I hit a game winner. It was a buzzer-beater.”

That game was on Feb. 1, 2008, when Washington beat King-Drew 63-60 on Vaden’s shot. Vaden had 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

After high school, Vaden was approached by several Division 1 schools, but when it was time to make a move, no one offered up any scholarships. Vaden was in contact with Hughes throughout his decision-making period, and when CSUB head coach Keith Brown told Vaden that BC and Hughes had a great program, Vaden went with the advice, and went with one of the coaches he had grown to trust.

Hughes talked about what Vaden brings to the Renegades team.

“He can play at the top level,” Hughes said. “He’s one of those players that is not one dimensional, he can do a lot of different things. He can defend, he rebounds very well for a guard, he can score, he can pass, he can handle the ball very well, and he’s one of our leaders in steals. He just does a lot of things very well. I wouldn’t say he’s great at any of them, but he’s really good at all of them, which is very rare for most basketball players.”

Vaden averages 11.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game for the Renegades.

Vaden has aspirations of playing at the next level but doesn’t quite know where he will go from here.

As for the season at hand, Vaden is hoping good things are still to come for a team that is 21-5 and 7-3 in the Western State Conference.

“We still feel that we have work to do, but we think we can go far if we just start clicking right now,” said Vaden.

The team has hopes of playing Citrus again, and Vaden talked about the possibility of playing them in the playoffs.

“We feel like we can beat them if we get them in the playoffs. We just need to get it together quickly,” said Vaden.