Nine-year-old Josiah Gonzales fell in love with basketball the moment he took his first free throw at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Maria Valley.
He fell in love again, this time with soccer, when he joined the Orcutt United Soccer League. And after playing on an Orcutt National Little League team, Gonzales fell in love with baseball, too.
But even after basketball, soccer, and baseball, Gonzales still has room in his heart for one more sport—golf.
“When I first took Josiah to the putting range, I told him not to worry if he didn’t get it right the first time,” Josiah’s father, Israel Gonzales, told the Sun. “But he had a natural swing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Soon after that, Gonzales joined First Tee—an after-school program at the Monarch Dunes Golf Club.
Juggling four separate sports over the course of a year sounds impossible for any student, but he never lets his extracurricular activities get in the way of school.
“Josiah shines both on the sports field and in the classroom,” said Ellery Ross, Gonzales’ teacher at Patterson Road Elementary School. “He gives a 101 percent effort into everything he does, which inspires others around him.”
If Gonzales was forced to choose only one sport though, it would be his first love, basketball, he said.
He was one of the players the Santa Maria Boys & Girls Club invited to play at the Frank T. Almaguer Invitational Basketball Tournament in Guadalupe this year.
“I love basketball because I get to play with other kids,” Gonzales told the Sun. “It’s just fun. I love dribbling the ball and shooting baskets. I love watching it, too. Kobe Bryant is my hero.”
Although basketball is the sport Gonzales is most passionate about, his favorite memory is soccer related, when his team won the Orcutt United Soccer League Cup in 2015. This is a memory Gonzales shares with one of his best friends, which is partly why it’s so special to him.
“It’s great to see him build lasting friendships through these sports,” Israel Gonzales said. “Watching him learn from others and then teach others is great.”
When it comes to trying out a sport for the first time, Gonzales has three pieces of advice.
“One, listen well to what your coaches and teachers say,” he said. “Two, if you don’t get it at first, just keep on trying until you do. And three, when you get it, keep on playing until you’re the best!”
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2017.