Academic athlete

The Anaheim Lions Tournament was still in progress for the Laguna Beach High baseball team last week, but for one Breaker, academic duties became more important than balls and strikes.

Jake Sganga, a second baseman for Laguna, “benched” himself during a double-header because he knew the games would cut into his study time. While his teammates were hitting balls, he hit the books — hard.

“The [second] game wouldn’t end until around 10 p.m.,” he said. “There was no way I could finish my schoolwork that late, so Coach [Jeff] Sears let me sit out. He understands how important school is to me.”

A junior at Laguna Beach, Sganga maintains an overall 4.81 GPA while taking four Advanced Placement courses in addition to three other subjects: U.S. history, calculus AB, English and physics.

For the past three semesters, he earned an outstanding 5.0 GPA — the highest in the junior class.

Sganga is also in the National Honor Society, which requires him to participate in service projects each month and maintain at least a B-average.

“I usually spend three to five hours [a night] on homework, writing essays, doing work sheets, taking notes and studying,” he said. “Between practice and games, I’m on the baseball field about 15 hours a week.”

Sganga said while he excels in chemistry and math, he has to work harder in his English class.

“I’m not the best writer,” he said.

While he acknowledged his more-than-demanding schedule allots very little free time for enjoyable activities like hanging out with friends, he has no complaints.

“I wake up, go to school, go to baseball, come home, do homework, eat dinner, do more homework, then sleep,” he said. “I guess I can handle my schedule because I feel that my future will reflect how hard I work now.”

Sganga hopes to attend an Ivy League college, where he plans to major in chemical engineering and perhaps minor in business.

“I would like to either be a CEO, or a doctor,” he said.

Attending a top college would entail even longer study hours than he faces now, which means he likely won’t play ball at the college level. But right now, baseball is one of his favorite activities — it has been since before elementary school — so he makes sacrifices in order to play.

Such achievements can only be made by a naturally gifted individual, yet Sganga also demonstrates diligence and commitment. He believes that kind of effort is required of anyone who wants to be successful.

“I would advise other students to prioritize everything they need to do, and to remember why they are working so hard,” he said.

It is this mind-set that enables him to succeed both on the field and in school.