Steven Moretto
BASEBALL/FOOTBALL
SCHOOL: Notre Dame FRESHMAN’S FUTURE: Sacramento State
Between football, basketball and baseball there are somewhere around 40 different positions, and it’s no stretch to say Steven Moretto could have played every one of them.
Yet, the biggest compliment you could pay the multi-sport wonder from East Vancouver would be to say that, over the course of his three-sport high school career, the only true position he ever really played was that of team leader.
As the quarterback within a titlestarved Notre Dame football program, he led the Jugglers to three Subway Bowl B.C. finals in five seasons, including the grand-daddy Triple A senior final, for the first time in a quarter-century, this past December.
From there, like clockwork, he would take his place in the backcourt of the basketball team as its starting point guard.
And in baseball, the sport that is expected to ultimately define him, he’s beginning to be touted as a catcher, a position he will get heavy reps at this coming season when he begins his collegiate career on the diamond at NCAA Div. 1 Sacramento State.
“I’ve played mostly on the left side of the infield, at third base and shortstop,” begins Moretto, who in the summer before his Grade 8 year helped lead Hastings past Mexico at the Little League World Series. “But I’ve talked to a lot of pro scouts and they see me more as a catcher now. They all tell me I have the build, the arm strength, the communication and the leadership.”
There’s that word again.
Nowhere was it better on display than over his senior campaign with the football team.
Yes, Moretto wound up producing 1,908 yards and 20 touchdowns, passing for 878 yards and nine scores, while rushing for 1,030 yards and 11 majors, but above and beyond was the way in which his charismatic brand of leadership spilled over in the huddle and made the underdog Jugglers a force to be reckoned with, right through to their last-second loss in the Subway Bowl title game to PoCo’s Terry Fox Ravens.
“If it wasn’t for football, then I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he says of a sport that has given him the confidence and tenacity with which to approach the mental challenges of succeeding on the diamond, both with his club team, the North Shore Twins, as well as the Canadian junior national team.
“My grandpa threw BP to me all the time when I was just a little kid, and ever since my dream was to play Div. 1 baseball,” says Moretto. “Now, I have achieved my dream.”