Nathan Santa Cruz takes aim at City Section 400 | College News
Sitting in the Birmingham High bleachers carrying headphones before operating the 400 meters at the City Section monitor and area prelims, 17-year-old senior Nathan Santa Cruz seems like a teenager snug and assured. Teammates gravitate to him. Maybe it’s his smile. Or possibly they need to be close to somebody having fun with each and every day.
A traumatic expertise modified his outlook on life in the autumn of 2022 when he suffered a mind damage in the opening soccer sport for Venice High and underwent emergency surgical procedure to stop bleeding.
“We don’t know if he’s going to make it,” his mom, Crystal Clark, remembers being informed at the hospital.
Nathan Santa Cruz, who survived a mind damage in 2022, goes for a City Section title at 400 meters.
(Craig Weston)
Santa Cruz recovered so properly that he performed two more years of soccer, but his actual love was utilizing his velocity in monitor. Last season he completed second in the City Section 400. This yr, he ran a career-best time of 47.74 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational.
On Thursday, he’ll have a rematch against Justin Hart of Granada Hills in the 400 closing. They ran one-two final season.
“I think it’s going to be a real competitive race,” Santa Cruz mentioned. “I’m going to try to come out on top.”
If he doesn’t end first, he’s already gained. He has a monitor scholarship ready for him at Cal Poly Pomona, where he plans to examine business or criminology. And he has grown up fast because of what occurred to him. He’s no regular teenager when you pay attention to what he believes.
“At the end of the day, it’s God giving you another chance to wake up,” he mentioned. “Make sure I’m better than yesterday. That’s what I do.”
Granada Hills’ Justin Hart, the son of former NBA participant Jason Hart, is favored in the City 400 and 200.
(Craig Weston)
His competitor, Hart, has his own story to inform. He’s the son of Kentucky basketball assistant coach Jason Hart, who spent 10 years in the NBA. An older brother, Jason II, also performed basketball but Justin was totally different.
Justin performed heaps of sports activities, including basketball, but when he was 7, he informed his father, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want you to waste your money.”
He wished to run.
“I didn’t want to be in my dad’s shadow. I wanted to create my own identity in my own sport,” he mentioned.
He gained the 400 and was second in the 200 at final yr’s City closing. He’s going for a sweep on Thursday and is just getting began.
“I think the ceiling is really high,” Granada Hills coach Johnny Wiley mentioned.
He’ll welcome his father and mom in the bleachers cheering loudly.
There actually gained’t be any losers when Hart and Santa Cruz sq. off. They come from great households and have realized classes that will help them succeed for years to come.
Santa Cruz makes it clear he runs to make his mom proud because he’ll never neglect a reminiscence from his hospital expertise.
“Seeing her cry at the hospital, I knew I had to go make an impact in her life, make it so she didn’t have to pay for her kid to go to college,” he mentioned. “Seeing her smile, that’s why I do it.”
And when days don’t go as properly as he may like, Santa Cruz mentioned he has realized, “It’s just the way life goes. I think God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.”
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