BELLFLOWER, Calif. — A basketball in his hand, eyes set straight ahead, and the comfort of the surrounding gym.
It’s in this environment that St. John Bosco senior Christian Estrada says he finds his perfect escape.
“Sometimes life puts hard things in front of you, stuff outside of basketball,” Estrada explained. “And getting to go on the court and forget about everything is a huge help.”
For this senior center, looking back on his high school career it can be described as anything but a straight line.
Estrada began his journey at another high school in the area, before a hardship there brought him to St. John Bosco in his sophomore year.
It was here in this gym with the Braves program that he found his fit — part of the team that captured the Trinity League title back in 2019 — before a knee fracture took him away from the game he’d grown up loving.
“While I was injured, I saw everyone get offered and placed into colleges and then we went into quarantine and it was just a really down time for me,” Estrada said. “It was hard.”
For almost an entire school year, that was Estrada’s reality. He was at home, learning online and unable to play basketball.
“It felt like all was doing was sitting behind a computer,” he said. “I got lonely and into a state of depression. It felt like I lost a part of myself. A huge part of my identity was gone.”
What made it even more difficult is that Estrada is autistic, so learning at home and online wasn’t the ideal environment for him.
“Having autism and being online, it’s not the easiest thing,” he said. “It was really hard in the classroom. I didn’t have my teachers to help me.”
But his resolve and determination to push past all of those things head coach Matt Dunn says has always set Estrada apart.
Estrada is the first autistic player Dunn has seen excel at this level of competition.
“I think as far as I know, this is the first one and I think that’s one of the cool things about coaching, is getting to educate young men who learn in so many different ways,” Dunn said.
“Obviously, Christian is very unique in that way,” he continued. “But I think it’s made me a better coach, and it’s a joy to watch him take coaching and apply it in his own way.”
But with all that Estrada went through in just four years of high school — from hardships, to injuries, to a global pandemic — there was an idea that one more year could be beneficial.
So with the help of St. John Bosco, coach Dunn and Estrada’s family, he was granted not only an extra year academically, but an additional year athletically as well.
In his super-senior season, Estrada has flourished.
“It’s been an abnormal journey from the time he got here, to when he got hurt, to the pandemic, so to get to see him now, it feels like a fitting end to a wild and crazy journey,” Dunn said.
“But as a coach I don’t know if I’ve been prouder of any other player’s journey.”
For Estrada, basketball has always been his happy place. The game is helping him to come out of his shell and to make an impact and a path for others. Looking back, he’s learned so much.
“Just because you’ve gone through some things, just because you have autism, you can’t let that hold you back,” Estrada said. “Life is short, seasons are short and you just have to make the most of the situations you’re in.”