Versatile Athletes Have Newport Harbor Basketball Team off to Strong Start

LAS FLORES, Calif.—With spring and summer football, fall baseball, and myriad other off-season demands on high school athletes these days, traditional multi-sport participants are increasingly less common. Newport Harbor’s boys’ basketball team, however, is something of a throwback. With a roster full of players who are also active in other endeavors, the Sailors took an 11–2 record into a Dec. 22 matchup against Alemany of Mission Hills in the Western Tournament in Anaheim. The team stretched its winning streak to eight consecutive games the night before with a 63–53 victory over host Tesoro in the 24th annual Orange County North-South Challenge. “We have a lot of athletes,” Coach Robert Torribio told The Epoch Times. “We have a lot of volleyball players who can jump out of the gym. We have a football player. We have some baseball players. We have track athletes. We just have a lot of athletes that like competing.”...