Role players always seem to get lost in the shuffle of teams with exciting and talented players.

It happened on the Sparks boys basketball team where Zack Quilici and David Anduja receive most of the attention.

Thanks to a lot of hard work and a little initiative, senior Juan Lara has gone from strictly a benchwarmer to a key reserve.

"Over the past two weeks, he's gone from no playing time to about 12 minutes a game," Sparks basketball coach Dick Lee said.

After Sparks' loss to Incline on Jan. 11, Lara thought a change needed to be made, so he found a time to talk with Lee about a possible increase in his playing time. Just approaching his coach about getting an opportunity to help the team took guts, but he knew he needed to back it up with actions also.

"It took a lot of hard work because I couldn't just go up to him and say I wanted more playing time without putting in the work," Lara said.

Lee, a coach who preaches the importance of hard work to all his players, watched Lara perform in back-to-back practices and was impressed.

"A lot of times as a coach you get caught up in watching the players who make a difference for you and you forget about the guys who are practicing hard everyday and making the guys playing minutes better," Lee said. "So I watched him, and he pretty much did everything well."

Now, Lara is the player that keeps everything running efficiently when Lee has to take his two prolific guards out of the game either to rest them or because of foul trouble.

Working hard is just something that comes naturally to Lara, who currently has a 4.6 weighted grade-point average and sits atop the senior class. While many students in the area plan on going to UNR without a second thought, Lara has higher educational hopes.

He's eyeing the possibility of attending some of the nation's most prestigious universities. The University of Texas at Austin is on the top of his list with Tulane University and the University of Michigan. Currently, he plans to double major in business and nutrition in order to keep his career options open.

Lara learned his work ethic from watching his parents and he admired Michael Jordan when he was younger.

Lee said he's probably the hardest worker on the team.

"He works extremely hard in practice, and he's a very intelligent player. If you tell him to do something one time, I have confidence that it will get done. He's kind of like having a coach on the floor," Lee said.

Even Sparks High football coach and athletic director Rob Kittrell had to share his opinion of Lara.

"This is a great kid," he said while walking through the basketball team's weightlifting workouts Monday afternoon.

It's his character that makes Lara stand out. And while he doesn't have the greatest basketball skills on the team, it's his character which ultimately impressed his coach the most and earned him one of the highest compliments any person can receive.

"He's a credit to the school and his family," Lee said. "This guy, I would trust him to go out with my daughter if I had one."

Sparks is currently riding a two-game win steak. At 5-4 in the 3A North, the Railroaders are in fourth place in the league standings with five games to go.

After four years in the Sparks basketball program, Lara is enjoying the chance to help Sparks succeed.

"It's definitely more fun when you're playing, not that it wasn't fun before," Lara said. "We're going to try to keep that going when we go to Incline. Then we have Truckee. We'll just take it one game at a time and hopefully we'll eventually be playing on February 23rd at Lawlor."