Words by Sean Ceglinsky

While most of Michael Snaer’s op­ponents are relaxing at home, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard is just getting start­ed on his third extensive basketball workout of the day. He’s getting his second wind.

There’s work that needs to be done and no one works harder than Snaer.

He stands alone in an empty Rancho Verde High gym with a content look on his face. He‘s perfectly fine with the fact that he’s the only one putting in the extra effort on the dimly lit Inland Empire court, locat­ed on the outskirts of Southern California.

“I’m never satisfied. My goal is to play and practice harder than everyone else,’’ said Snaer, who has used an unmatched work ethic to transform his status from, a once relatively unknown recruit on the na­tional level, into one of the most sought-after senior prospects in country.

The hardwood is home for the Florida St.-bound Snaer. He’s in his element.

Shortly thereafter, his daily ritual of shoot­ing 100 jumpers from the top of the key re­sumes. Snaer makes his first 15 shots from straight away, and 27 of his first 30 overall. He buries so many buckets, it’s tough to keep count.

Next up: Another 100 long-distance bombs, this time from beyond the 3-point line along the right baseline. Then, he jacks up 100 more from the left side. Before finishing up, Snaer steps up to the charity stripe for 200 free-throws. Swish. Swish. Swish. Nothing but the bottom of the net three times in a row. Only 197 more to go.

Get the picture?

“Basketball, basketball, basketball, that’s my life,’’ Snaer said. “I think you can always improve, always get better. I’m hungry. I want to eat. I want to be the best and that means getting stronger, faster, quicker. I’m going to do whatever it takes.’’

Whatever he is doing, it’s working. And the people that matter most, NCAA Divi­sion I scouts, have been paying attention.

In fact, his stock skyrocketed this past summer when he turned in dominant performance after dominant performance at the Pangos All-American camp, Ree­bok All-American camp and Nike Paul Pierce skills camp.

Based on those efforts, Snaer also won over the so-called ex­perts at Rivals.com and Scout.com. As a result both recruiting services rank him among the top 25 players for the 2009 class.

“I’ve spoken to plenty of people about Mike and everyone agrees that he’s in the upper echelon of high-major prospects,’’ Sonny Vaccaro said. “He’s been making a lot of noise. He’s really made a name for himself. Mike is playing about as well as anyone else out there right now. He’s pretty damn good.’’

He was pretty darn good from the beginning, too.

Snaer cracked the starting lineup at Rancho Verde High as a freshman, played an even more prominent role during his soph­omore season and emerged as the go-to-guy as a junior when he guided the Mustangs to a CIF Southern Section Division II-A champion­ship.

And with his senior season right around the corner, it ap­pears as if the sky is the limit.

“Mike has made huge leaps every year he’s been with us,” said Rancho Verde coach Travis Show­alter. “He takes a lot of pride in his game. He’s asserted himself as one of the elite, one of the top players in the country. No one can take that away from him.

“Working out several times a day, on his own most times, made him the special player he is today. He really enjoys the solitude of the gym, and I’ve got to admit, I was a little concerned about that at first.

“Then I realized that Mike is a different kind of guy. A different animal.’’

Seemingly every powerhouse program has been in contact with Snaer at some point over the course of last year or so. Col­lege coaches understand that a player of his caliber doesn’t come around very often.

His tenacity is a rarity. Few play better defense, just ask highly-touted stars such as Jordan Ham­ilton, Xavier Henry, or John Wall. Snaer has held his own against each of his peers in the past.

His athleticism is undeni­able. A 35-plus-inch vertical jump is a good indication of that.

His range from out on the perimeter knows no limits.

His upside is off the charts.

“Everyone in Califor­nia knows how good he is, and now, finally, everyone else is starting to under­stand, Snaer’s club coach Elvert “Kool-Aid” Perry said. “We’re talking about a kid who’s going to end up being a McDonald’s All-American, no doubt about it. He’s that good. You can take that to the bank.‘’

Snaer proved Perry right when he was selected to the McDonald’s All-American game on Feb­ruary 18th.

Marquette and Missouri were among the numerous schools that courted Snaer for quite some time. His 3.5 grade point average attracted the interest from Stan­ford. The big boys, Kansas and UCLA, were in the mix too.

Each, however, ended up miss­ing out on the Snaer sweepstakes once he decided on playing for the Seminoles.

“Mike wasn’t trying to go to a college where he was going to be like Tito or Jermaine in the Jack­son 5,‘’ Perry said. “He wanted to go somewhere and be the lead singer. He wanted to be Mi­chael Jackson. And he‘s talented enough to do it.

“The thing that separates Mike from everyone else is that he’s al­ways in the gym. If you look up the word gym rat in the diction­ary, you’ll see a picture of Mike Snaer.

“You know, it’s funny, I can’t tell you the number of times his mom has called me looking for him. I always know where he is too — in the gym. All the hard work he’s put in during the past is finally paying off. He deserves every­thing that’s coming to him.’’