Multi-sport athletes are rare but still exist

Multiple-sport athletes have been disappearing from the high school sports scene, which makes what’s happening at Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro so inspiring.

Three players who started for the Titans’ football team that reached the Pac-5 Division championship game are now starting for the 18-3 basketball team.

Quarterback Robbie Picazo, receiver-defensive back Brett Gudim and defensive back Cody Wittick ignored those who warned they’d be harming their chances to play college sports unless they focused year-round on a single sport.

And basketball Coach Steve Garrett and football Coach Brian Barnes put the good of the school ahead of their egos in cooperating and compromising to make sure the players suffered no repercussions for missing weight training, practices or summer games.

“Here at Tesoro, we love it when they play all kinds of sports,” Garrett said.

Added Barnes: “I encourage kids to play other sports. It helps them become more athletic.”

There have been tales of teenagers forced to drop sports because summer commitments created too much tension and conflict among competing coaches, but Picazo, who also plays baseball, said Tesoro’s coaches have always communicated and found ways to make his schedule work.

“I’ve always played three sports,” he said. “I wanted to prove people wrong that you can’t play three sports on varsity and be good at it.”

Picazo passed for 2,754 yards and 33 touchdowns in football, starts at guard for the basketball team and will be a starting pitcher for the baseball team while getting straight-A’s in the classroom. He could end up walking on at Stanford or play football at Princeton.

“It’s unbelievable,” Gudim said of Picazo. “It’s not like he’s getting a 2.0 and playing three sports. He’s got a 4.4. Everybody has so much respect. Nobody knows how he does it.”

Gudim, a senior, is being recruited by the military academies. Wittick is only a junior and not worrying about his college options.

Picazo and his friends play multiple sports because they’re trying to get the most out of their high school experience.

“They’ve been fun all four years,” Picazo said.

Said Wittick: “I love both sports, so it’s easy for me.”

Said Gudim: “Some people say if I had done the specialization thing, I could have lifted more. I could have been bigger, but I don’t regret it. It’s been fun to go from one sport to the next.”

Picazo encountered the ultimate summer nightmare scenario when he had three commitments on the same day, playing football in the morning at Tesoro, baseball in the afternoon in Dana Point and basketball in the evening in Malibu. But it didn’t deter him one bit.

“I was pretty tired,” he said. “I think I slept the entire way up to Pepperdine.”

It takes understanding coaches and persevering parents to make it work.

“Mom takes care of the calendar and has everything set up for me,” Gudim said of his strategy. “I don’t know what’s going on. Mom keeps my schedule, and I follow the rules.”

Basketball teammates would show up to football games and root for the trio, but they gave a hint where their loyalty rested, saying, “Good luck, but if you lose, it’s OK,” reminding them that basketball season was approaching.

Tesoro’s players aren’t the only ones trying multiple sports.

Quarterback Clark Evans of Los Alamitos is starting for the basketball team. Linebacker Hayes Pullard of Los Angeles Crenshaw is playing basketball. Defensive back Nicky Firestone of North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake has helped the basketball team with fiery play at the guard position.

“It’s such a cool thing to play multiple sports,” Harvard-Westlake basketball Coach Greg Hilliard said. “All of us did it back in the day. But they’re disappearing no matter what we do. It’s falling on deaf ears. We talk about it but don’t get much results. Everybody wants a piece of the kids, and there’s not much time on the calendar.”

It takes supreme confidence to stick it out in multiple sports. One such player was former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame standout Mike Stanton, who during the 2006-07 school year started in football, basketball and baseball while earning a scholarship to USC for baseball. He repeatedly rejected recommendations to drop a sport. Last spring, he hit 39 home runs in the minor leagues for the Florida Marlins.

Stanton cherished the challenge and memories of being a multiple-sport athlete.

That’s the same appreciation held by the Tesoro players.

As Wittick said, “The opportunities and relationships you build are something you can’t pass up. If you love both, why not play both?”

--

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com