“My mom inspired me to play basketball because as a kid we would go and play together,” sophomore Nathan Elizondo Ortiz said. With that motivation, he was off and running down the court.  

Ortiz has played for four years, but he still pushes himself to improve, “My family motivates me to keep playing and to do better because they always cheer for me in games.”

Ortiz says it takes a lot to be a good player, “the mindset has to be fully focused to be a good player,” Ortiz said.

“The most stress that I get from playing basketball is playing varsity basketball because they are better and it stresses me if I don’t do well,” Ortiz said.  

The Englewood coaches are impressed with his progress on the court and see great things for Ortiz, “Nathan is a really good player and he has exceeded my expectations and I feel within time he will be better than he can imagine just gotta put the work into it,” Coach John Nonmacher said.

A clip of Ortiz and his stats for the season is on Max Preps linked here.