Unfortunately as specialization is pushed at younger and younger ages, the high school multisport athlete is largely becoming a thing of the past, with year-round commitments crowding out the old-school approach. As such we wanted to recognize four Long Beach athletes competing in multiple sports at a high level this year.
On the boys’ side, JJ Nielsen was a first-team All-Moore League quarterback for the Jordan football team, but that may end up being his secondary sport. He was also first-team All-Moore League as a baseball player, starring for the Panthers as a shortstop. Nielsen also earned All-CIF honors in baseball, the first time a Panthers player received that recognition in more than two decades.
On the girls’ side, a trio of standouts from the city’s three biggest sports schools were impossible to choose between, and all worthy of accolades.
At Long Beach Poly, Tiare Ho-Ching followed in her uncle Herman Ho-Ching’s footsteps as she was named the inaugural Moore League Flag Football Player of the Year. While football runs in her family’s blood, Ho-Ching’s primary sport is softball, where she was a first-team All-Moore League signee and also a scholarship athlete who signed with Arizona State.
At Millikan, Audrey Stewart was a soccer standout, earning Moore League Offensive Player of the Year honors and signing with UC Riverside. But Stewart wasn’t content to just play soccer in high school and club–she also picked up lacrosse and earned first-team All-Moore League honors in that sport as well.
At Wilson, sports fans got to know Kate Eckenrode quite well, since she participated in three varsity sports for the Bruins, in addition to playing club. Eckenrode was a first-team All-Moore League girls’ soccer player, a second-team All-Moore League indoor girls’ volleyball player, and was part of the city’s best beach volleyball duo alongside partner Simrin Adams. The duo finished runner-up at the Moore League finals but were named first-team All-League, and also made it the furthest of any Long Beach pair in the CIF-SS Tournament.
