One Lehigh Senior High School’s Delshawn Green basketball playing experience is over, he could probably write a best-selling book about it. Now a senior, he’s experienced just about everything: the exultation of a run to the state finals, the horror of a teammate’s slaying in a nightclub shooting, a head coaching change, and even a season-altering controversy over a rap video.

But through it all, there’s been one constant: Each of the last three Decembers, Green and the rest of the Lightning have played in the Culligan City of Palms Classic, and this year will be no different.

“Year in and year out, there are a lot of people in the area who are waiting for us to kind of take some steps back,” Lehigh coach Greg Coleman said. “But the players we have returning year after year learn from the previous years.”

If that’s so, Green is as learned as they come. He feels lucky, too.

“For me to play in this tournament for four years, it’s a blessing,” Green said.

He’ll begin his latest City of Palms journey in Lehigh’s matchup against The Villages Charter School, scheduled for Monday, Dec. 17 at 5:15 p.m. It’s one step in a season-long quest to avenge a wrenching loss at home against Cape Coral in a game that would have sent the Lightning to the state semifinals for the second consecutive year if they had won.

“The poster for that game is still hanging up in my classroom. That shows you what I think about it,” Coleman said. “These guys, they are going to use it as motivation, but when you play your season, it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

Few understand that better than Green. And soon, the final chapter of his Lehigh basketball experience will begin.