GARDEN GROVE : Football Player Is Honored for Rescue

Rancho Alamitos High School varsity football player Steven Perez, 16, was honored in a surprise ceremony at a school pep rally Friday for having rescued a 2-year-old neighbor girl found unconscious in a swimming pool last summer.

The pep rally was for tonight’s semi-final California Interscholastic Federation championship game against Lompoc High School. About 1,200 classmates cheered as County Fire Department Capt. Rick Robinson presented a certificate of appreciation to Steven for his efforts to revive the girl.

“Football is only a game,” Steven said after he received the award. Saving the girl “is life. There’s no comparison.”

Steven, who is a junior, plays center and guard for the team.

He was at home in Stanton on Aug. 6 when he heard neighbor Lorena Chocotec scream as she found her daughter, Erica, floating face down in the swimming pool. Steven vaulted a fence and jumped into the pool to rescue the child.

“Her face was all purple, and I got kind of scared,” he said Friday. “But I pushed her stomach, and she started throwing up. Then I knew she would be OK.”

Robinson said the young athlete’s actions stimulated the girl’s breathing.

“Thanks to you,” Robinson told Steven, “we had a little girl who was crying when we arrived rather than having a little girl who was not breathing. You made our job easy.”

“It’s important that we take action, and it’s important that we care about our friends and neighbors,” Robinson told the students. “That’s being a real hero.”

Erica and her mother were on hand at the pep rally to say thanks and give Steven a hug.

Steven acknowledged that rescuing little Erica was “a special thing.” “But anyone else would have done the same thing,” he said.

“In football I try hard. In life I try hard,” he said.