Season Interrupted: Vincent Esparza misses his band of brothers
Throughout the spring, The Times will interview high school seniors whose athletic careers were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
Name: Vincent Esparza
School: Granada Hills Kennedy
Sport: Baseball, pitcher
Key stats: Member of the City Section all-star team that won a gold medal in the summer of 2019 at Chicago baseball tournament
Fall plans: Will attend Glendale College
On the season being canceled:
“I spent the beginning part of last season on the DL not being able to pitch. I was looking forward to this season starting off strong. At first I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t really hit me for a week or two. I realized all our hard work in the first half of the year was gone.”
On winning the gold medal team in the summer of 2019:
“That was one of the best experiences of my life playing with a lot of people I’ve seen and heard about. It’s a good group of guys. We still keep in touch.”
On life without sports:
“It’s pretty boring. I’ve been trying to stay in shape so I’ll be ready when baseball comes back.”
On the new interests he's discovered with his free time:
“I’m doing a lot more cooking.”
His specialty:
“French toast.”
How the sports stoppage has changed him:
“In the blink of an eye or randomly, everything can be taken away from you. That’s something the coronavirus has taught me.”
What he misses most:
“Being on the field with my brothers, spending all the time with them every day.”
On the lessons learned for class of 2020:
“This just shows how strong we are as a class with what we’ve been though. Everyone will come out stronger.”
Video interviews of each athlete can be found at latimes.com/sports/highschool.
