Top local basketball talent Amanda Rego happily graduated from University of San Diego last spring, but she longed for the excitement she had known as a two-time CIF champion at Mission Bay High and West Coast Conference champion point guard for USD. Then on Aug. 22, approximately two months after graduating from USD, the phone rang and five days later she was on a plane to Germany to play pro basketball for the Halle, Germany, Lions. She was on the court three days later in a pre-season game. “It felt so good to play again. I didn’t realize how much I missed playing,” she said. “Being out on the floor again was an amazing feeling.” Rego grew up a block from the PB Rec Center and hung out on the rec center court with her older brother and friends. “I have been playing basketball since I was five years old and I just wasn’t ready to give it up after college,” she said. “I looked at this as the perfect opportunity for me to continue playing and experience a different culture living in another part of the world.” Now that the season has started, the Lions practice twice a day and generally play one game a week. “We definitely look forward to the days we have games,” she said. Everyone on the team speaks English, although she is the only player from the U.S. There is a post player from the Canadian National Team, a player from the Czech Republic, and one from Romania — the rest are German. “My coach speaks English pretty well, but a lot of the time he speaks German,” she said. “When that happens, one of my teammates comes and stands next to me and translates.” The team members live in apartments 10 minutes from the industrial city of Halle, located an hour south of Berlin. The Lions are off to a 3-0 start in the 12-team Division 1 German league. Teams play each other twice in a schedule that lasts through mid-March, followed by playoffs for the eight top teams and a championship series. The level of play is a little tougher than WCC action, according to Rego. “The style of play here is so much different. They rarely call checking and there is a lot of pushing, grabbing and holding jerseys that never gets called — all just things I’m trying to adjust to,” she said. The Halle Lions play at the local university. “The support and fans we get give me a new definition of what it means to be a fan,” she said. “They enter the gym in a big pack, chanting and banging on drums and noise makers. What impresses me is that they keep it up the entire game!” This is Rego’s first long stay away from San Diego and her USD career always included friend and teammate Amber Sprague, who was also from Pacific Beach and a product of Mission Bay High School. Their talents and experience playing together since PB Rec days produced the best local basketball players since Adia Barnes in the mid ’90s. On Oct. 17, the pair will be inducted into the Mission Bay High Hall of Champions, although Rego will be unable to attend. Sprague spent one year at USD as a red-shirt player due to a foot injury, so the 6-foot 5-inch leading scored for the Toreros has another season ahead when it starts in a few weeks. During her junior year, Rego led the NCAA with 8.1 assists per game. In her senior year her 8.3 assists per game was second in the NCAA. She was also WCC leader in steals and one of the top nationally with 2.8 per game. Rego is noted for carving her way through defenses with her great ball-handling skills — making her one of the top point guards in the nation. “This has been great for me to experience a different lifestyle and learn to appreciate different things,” she said. “I am really enjoying everything so far.” Information about the Halle Lions is available at www.sv-lions.de, although it is mostly in German.