NAPA, Calif. (KRON) -- Napa's Prolific Prep is known for turning out basketball stars, and this year will be no different.
In addition to a number of high-major Division 1 stars, NBA players like Gary Trent Jr. and Jalen Green attended the North Bay high school. This season, Prolific Prep boasts the two top-rated recruits in the 2026 class: AJ Dybantsa and Tyran Stokes.
Both sophomores will have targets on their back, but they are looking forward to growing together on their quest for a national championship. KRON4 went out to Napa to speak to the young stars.
Stokes, a Louisville, KY native, has already been in Napa for a year. When he heard Dybantsa was a candidate to join him at Prolific Prep, he put his recruiting hat on.
"When my coaches first told me that they were interested in him, that's when I started heavily recruiting," Stokes said. "Every day I'm calling him randomly, 'AJ, slide, slide, slide. We might as well.'"
Dybantsa is a Massachusetts native, and his family wasn't sure about the Bay Area at first, but a visit to Prolific Prep did the trick.
"It was my dad. He was like, 'I'm not about to move you to Cali.' We're from Mass. But then he convinced us to take a visit. Once I took the visit I told my dad, 'I can't go nowhere else,'" he said.
Over the summer, both recruits played for Team USA at the FIBA U-16 World Cup in Mexico. They also honed their games on the AAU circuit and worked out with NBA superstars like Kevin Durant, Jordan Poole and Chris Paul.
Now, it's time to focus on classes and basketball and avoid the distractions that come with being a prep basketball star.
"Basketball is still fun to us," Dybantsa said. "But when we were in sixth grade, we didn't have to worry about nothing. But now, you got agents coming in."
"You're supposed to love it, so put the job part to the side and just focus on the basketball part of it. The business part will just fall in place," Stokes said.
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