Elsinore Tiger Makes Hoop Dreams Come True

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — COVID-19 has given many people the blues — or far worse — but an Elsinore High School student realized the pandemic was an opportunity to better himself and help youngsters in his community.

Bryan Romero, 18, is a senior Tiger with big basketball talent, but it’s the kind of skill born from heart and try, not genetics. He’s 5 feet, 8 inches tall “on a good day,” he laughs.

Since his freshman year at EHS, Romero’s played varsity basketball. He's a point guard. Despite his height, the Canyon Hills resident received a scholarship to the University of Saint Katherine, where he plans to study kinesiology this fall and play hoops for the Firebirds. The scholarship was awarded based on his outstanding academics and his skills on the basketball court.

High school senior year is typically the apex for students. But a pandemic, campus closures, and sport shutdowns blasted the class of 2021. Not one to dwell in self-pity, Romero saw no reason to lose motivation. But what about others — how were they coping?

Romero’s normally a coach for the Tiger Youth Basketball League, which was forced to shut down amid state COVID-19 safety requirements. He worried about the league's middle-schoolers he worked with. To keep their young spirits up, Romero started offering the athletes training sessions at outdoor venues — agility work at the park, runs up grueling hills, sand volleyball.

It was nothing formal in the beginning, nothing even really all that organized, Romero explained. It was just a way to help his players get through a tough time. Some seemed lost and disconnected without basketball, and training together was the antidote.

Indeed, the workouts brought back spark. “They are happy when they're out there,” Romero said. “Their energy is infectious.”

Word spread in the community about Romero's neighborhood fitness for kids. He began receiving texts and email messages from parents who were hoping to get their kids “in” with him.

The casual workouts have now morphed into a side business offering fitness training for youth, which has Romero booked about four days a week.

Local parents want to support him so he can offer more sessions “and not get a part-time job,” according to Tom Ellis, the boys' freshman basketball coach at Elsinore High School.

Romero trains Ellis’s own children.

“It has literally saved them by giving them something to look forward to and a way to compete,” Ellis explained.

Beyond hoops and strength training, Romero grills his young athletes about their studies, and reminds them that “good things don’t come with bad grades.”

Basketball and the pandemic gave Romero an opportunity. He seized it, and he’s hoping the youth he works with will do the same.

He's the first in his family to go to college.

“There’s a lot of negativity in the world, but there’s positive too,” Romero said.

To learn more about Romero's fitness training for youth, email him at [email protected].