Season Interrupted: Snapshots of high school seasons cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic
A look at the high school sport standouts whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
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The San Pedro ace was off to another dominant start when the coronavirus ended the season; he’s looking to engineer a new future at El Camino College.
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The Compton RBI program, which is run by the ESPY-nominated Dodgers Foundation, launched the baseball career of Davis, who in turn helped turn around a winless high school program
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The Burbank Burroughs softball star is headed for Dartmouth. When she takes account of her future? ‘I see myself as an actuary on the East Coast.’
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Garden Grove Pacifica slugger Alyssa Brito had dedicated the season to coach Mark Campbell, who passed away last year. ‘This was our year to do something big.’
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Two-sport star Quintin Lyons will pursue a college career in the shot put at Iowa: ‘I wanted to experience something new.’
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Los Angeles Loyola volleyball star missed out on a Southern Section Division 1 title run; he’ll have to settle for a future at Stanford.
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Former gymnast Taylor Shorter turned to hurdles at Norco and admits she had no idea what she was doing when she first started.
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Unfulfilled by basketball, Nausica Gaither helped build Woodland Hills El Camino Real High into a City Section lacrosse powerhouse.
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The Granada Hills Kennedy ace built a bond last summer with an All-Star team that traveled to Chicago; even with the cancellation of the baseball season he vows, ‘Everyone will come out stronger.’
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Eagle Rock slugger Elianna Reyes and her mother each contracted the coronavirus, and it created a family scare.
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The West Hills Chaminade couple, one headed to Stanford, the other committed to Vanderbilt, are in this together.
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The UCLA-bound pitcher aspires to be a journalist: ‘Usually when I think of an angle to write a story, I’ll put myself in the player’s shoes.’
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The Agoura hurler’s future plans took a hit with the logjam of college seniors who will return: ‘I just kind of take what’s given to me.’
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Crescenta High pitcher Will Grimm had thrown 24 scoreless innings when the season was canceled. He found an escape in the piano and cooking burritos.
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The coronavirus ended Mekhi Evans-Bey’s track season, then it came for his mother, who credits the Culver City standout for taking care of her.
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Newport Harbor’s two-sport star has been with his band of lacrosse brothers since sixth grade. Now he will go his own way, to Bryant University.
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Forced to choose from the four sports he played at Rancho Dominguez, Nathaniel Gomez chose soccer: ‘I believe it was my calling since I was young.’
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Alessandra Samperio will study studio arts at Loyola Marymount; she will bring that artistic flair to the pitching circle as well.
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St. Francis basketball standout Andre Henry says the team managed to have a great year even if the coronavirus derailed the season.
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The coronavirus shutdown forced two-sport star Cara Dunnigan to make a difficult choice. It also opened her eyes: ‘I’m so much more than sports.’
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The Mira Costa High volleyball star on the coronavirus shutdown, staying in shape and his plans for UC Santa Barbara.
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Upland’s dual-threat track star was the state’s top triple jumper, but he has eye on more goal: 50 feet
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The Pepperdine-bound shortstop overcame struggles with tentativeness from his freshman and sophomore seasons: ‘By senior year, I didn’t fear failure.’
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The Mira Costa star’s efforts to defend her state all-around title had already been hobbled by injury: ‘I think it was a blessing in disguise.’
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Aidan Elbettar, a 6-foot-8 track star, had kicked off the season with personal bests in the shot put and discus: ‘I still have four years to go at UCLA.’
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Sophie Wazzan, a two-water-sport star at L.A. Marymount who is bound for Indiana, says, “This has been the longest I’ve been out of the water since I was 10.”
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Thirteen years ago, Chadwick senior Izzy Taulli discovered competitive Irish dancing. Now she’s the national champ.
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Culver City baseball standout Joaquin Hines, who is planning to attend Fresno State, wants to be a role model for black ballplayers.
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Paul Skenes pitches, catches and slugs. The El Toro triple threat is headed for Air Force, where he plans to be ‘either playing pro ball or flying jets.’
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For the Temecula Great Oak track standout, life is more a marathon than a sprint: ‘I’m gardening. It’s like running. In time things will come.’
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How focused has the Reseda Cleveland outfielder been on baseball? He just now discovered video games: ‘I’ve never played in my life.’
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The UC San Diego-bound shot putter’s future is set to explode, but in a good way: ‘I want to be a volcanologist.’
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Mission Viejo ace Hayden Cody would like to keep it close to home in college and MLB: ‘I would like... to be like Jered Weaver.’
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The Los Angeles University High School volleyball standout lost two full seasons but gained a healthy perspective: ‘The big lesson is to be more responsible for myself,’ he said.
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Loyola swimming star Riley Griffis quickly read the reality of life outside the pool: ‘The time away has shown it’s something I need to function.”
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Long Beach St. Anthony slugger Tiare Jennings can go long ball or small ball: ‘When I’m using my legs, special things happen.’
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Reigning league MVP Jasmine Perezchica will go from one desert to another to chase her college dream: ‘I really live and breathe softball.’
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San Juan Capistrano JSerra’s Colby Canales leans on the strength of his mother, a breast cancer survivor: ‘She goes and works every day.’
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Santa Margarita’s Josette Odgers finds solace in winning two state swimming titles before the coronavirus shutdown: ‘We made the best of the times we had.’
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UCLA-bound hurdles standout Aiden Lieb envisions a future teaching others: ‘I want to be that support system that believes in young athletes.’
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Simi Valley two-sport athlete Chase Aurand learned a valuable history lesson amid the coronavirus outbreak: ‘Don’t take going to practice for granted.’
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Stock-market watcher Marisol Torro has seen her Olympic stock climb, but her goals go further — in 10 years she’s hoping to “help mitigate climate change.”
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Fountain Valley’s Jake Brooks threw 25 consecutive shutout innings before the season ended prematurely because of the coronavirus.
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Aspiring firefighter Angelina DeVoe of Wilmington Banning is taking her heat east: “I’m going to have to be more independent.”
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Eastvale Roosevelt’s Jared Tolmasoff pulled off a rare double of being a football player and swimmer: ‘If I never I came back, I had a good last day.’
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‘The school season is when you get to be part of a team,’ says Mike Thomas of Studio City Harvard-Westlake.
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‘I think we would have had a special year,’ says Santa Clarita Hart star catcher Aly Kaneshiro.
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La Mirada’s Jared Jones said not playing during the coronavirus outbreak ‘is tearing me up,’ but he’s using the time to develop a breaking ball.
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‘I’m just blessed I actually got to play my season,’ basketball star Asia Avinger of Fullerton Rosary says.
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The San Pedro softball player says she has learned from the pandemic “definitely to not take life for granted.” She’s headed to Bethune-Cookman University.
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‘I’m glad there’s an interface that allows us to share our feelings’
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Archana Mohandas, the Marmonte League girls’ 3,200 champion, received exciting news amid the monotony of staying at home: She’s been accepted by MIT.
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Brentwood’s Charlie Ciaffa says he understands how fortunate he was to play three sports after the coronavirus shut down his senior season.
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Long jumper John Uhl is learning guitar and reflecting on what might have been: ‘We probably had the best team San Juan Hills has ever put together.’
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Kyle Karros, the son of a former Dodger, feels right at home: ‘I’ve got my hitting coach in my quarantine group.’
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Orange Lutheran ace Max Rajcic, projected to be a high MLB draft pick, says he didn’t realize how important sports were until the coronavirus shutdown.
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Chatsworth ace Ava Justman is focused on pitching mound dominance: ‘I can’t even hear my own teammates cheering for me because I’m so dialed in.’
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Solomon Strader was the favorite to win the California state championship in the 400 meters, but a bright college career awaits.
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Sierra Canyon guard Ashley Chevalier says the coronavirus sports shutdown has helped her learn not to take certain aspects of life for granted.
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Pitcher Lucas Gordon says the coronavirus outbreak has helped him realize that going to Notre Dame High ‘is the biggest gift anybody could give me.’
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Palisades High basketball standout Jane Nwaba is inspired by her mother, a nurse who is helping the ill amid the coronavirus outbreak.
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Norco softball standout Sarah Willis ponders what comes next while dealing with the coronavirus outbreak: “It’s about being in the real world now.”
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Fans were ready to fill the bleachers in Arcadia this weekend to watch Nico Young of Newbury Park launch his bid to break the 3,200 meters national record.
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Pete Crow-Armstrong says a sports-free existence hasn’t been easy during the coronavirus shutdown: “Sports gives me a reason to be a kid and be free.”