Leo Ortiz is heading to Sandburg for his freshman year planning to try out for wrestling and track and field, and maybe football as well.
That will keep Ortiz, who turns 14 in August, plenty busy.
As if the Orland Park resident isn’t busy enough.
Ortiz still plans on sticking with the sport that has been taking him all across the country — boxing.
“It’s a really fun sport,” Ortiz said. “It’s hard sometimes when you are trying to lose weight, but fighting is really fun, to be honest. It teaches you discipline, and you stay busy.”
In May, he won his division at Illinois Junior Olympic Boxing Tournament in Rockford and in June, he finished second in the nation in the Intermediate Male 114-pound division of the USA Boxing Junior Olympics and Summer Festival in Las Vegas.
Over the years, he has fought in Louisiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Nebraska and other states. He even trains out-of-state with the Hammond Boxing Club. Ortiz has a 30-10 record.
He said his goal is to win a national championship and finishing second was hard to take. But he will use it as a learning experience.
“It was disappointing,” he said of being runner-up. “It’s always hard to take a loss in the finals because you are so close. It is what it is. You can’t change it. All you can do is work harder.
“To be honest, I need to work better on my head movement. I also want to work on my footwork. It will take some time. … It just comes with the sport. It takes a while to learn. You can’t get everything down in one fight.”
Ortiz got started in boxing in an unusual fashion at age 5.
“Leo used to have a hard time sleeping,” his father, Amauris Ortiz, said. “We decided to join a boxing gym so he could burn all of his energy. It went from a couple of days a week to being in the gym six days.
“Now we are travelling all over the country with him.”
Knight moves
Chicago Christian made some coaching hires, making a big splash by hiring Kevin Santiago as the baseball coach.
Santiago is currently the hitting coach with the Windy City Thunderbolts and also has college experience, including an assistant stint at St. Xavier.
Longtime Richards coach Troy Grevengoed takes over as the Knights boys volleyball coach. He has been the girls volleyball coach at the Palos Heights school since 2022 after a long stint at Richards.
He has more than 350 wins on the boys level.
The Knights hired Josh Lenarz as the boys assistant soccer coach. He was the head women’s soccer coach at Trinity Christian for 24 years and racked up 342 victories.
Fire report
The Chicago Fire played a man down after the 28th minute and got knocked out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the quarterfinals with a 3-1 extra-time loss to Minnesota United July 8 in St. Paul.
Four days later, the Fire (8-9-4) returned to MLS action and dropped a 2-1 decision to San Diego at Soldier Field in the first meeting ever between the two teams. Hugo Cuypers scored his 12th goal of the season.
The Fire play at Montreal on July 19.
The Fire II had a nine-game unbeaten streak snapped when it dropped an MLS NEXT Pro game to New England, 4-3 on July 13 at SeatGeek Stadium.
Dylan Borso, Olu Oyegunle and Trip Fleming scored for the Fire (8-5-4).
Chicago visits Toronto July 20.
Stars lose in Masar’s debut
The Chicago Stars lost 1-0 in extra time to Brazil’s Corinthians squad July 12 in the first round of the Teal Rising Cup in Kansas City.
It was the first loss for interim coach Ella Masar, who took over in July after previous interim coach Masaki Hemmi left for another opportunity. Hemmi had replaced Lorne Donaldson, who was fired in April.
Sport bits
SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview will host an international friendly match at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 between Chivas de Guadalajara and Club Leon.
● Mount Carmel rising senior TJ McQuillan was invited to the Major League Baseball High School Home Run Derby and finished third, slugging 22 homers on July 12 in Atlanta.