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The Times podcast: What California’s high school athletes can teach us about coping with COVID-19

High school football players stand on the sidelines
Josh Morales, right guard, at Loyola High waits on the sidelines during practice this spring. He stepped up and ran the household when he and both his parents were stricken with COVID-19.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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California’s high school athletes were bona fide ballers during the pandemic. They trained alone or over Zoom during lockdowns and are now facing off against one another on the field. How these student athletes coped with this past COVID-19 year offers lessons in resilience and ingenuity for all of us.

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Today, we learn how the football team at Loyola High School in Los Angeles came together to help teammate Josh Morales and his family survive COVID-19. Then, we’ll chat with the L.A. Times’ longtime high school sports columnist Eric Sondheimer about the bigger challenges ahead for young athletes.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: Josh Morales, a senior at Loyola High School; and L.A. Times high school athletics columnist Eric Sondheimer

Further reading
Column: Football helped Loyola High senior survive as COVID ripped through his family
Lost Year: A look at the high schools’ COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in tweets

About The Times

“The Times” is made by columnist Gustavo Arellano, producer Shannon Lin, senior producers Steven Cuevas and Denise Guerra, executive producer Abbie Fentress Swanson and editor Julia Turner. Our engineer is Mario Diaz and our theme song was composed by Andrew Eapen.
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