Scott Sandstrom, a standout player on Newport Harbor High’s greatest football team, died last month while swimming in a Costa Rican river. He was 46.
Sandstrom had been missing, and after a 10-day search his body was found Feb. 14 in the Chirripo River in San Gerardo de Rivas.
Sandstrom, who was living in Evanston, Ill., for the past 20 years, operating a wellness and fitness business, had a deep passion for Costa Rica and its people. He moved there after college to surf, explore and learn Spanish, working as a teacher in San Gerardo de Rivas.
After moving to the Chicago area, Sandstrom, who loved the outdoors, nature, camping, windsurfing and paddle boarding, was part of a small group of Midwestern surfers who watched the weather for big Lake Michigan waves, paddling amidst snow and ice to fulfill their love for surfing.
Born in Mission Viejo on Sept. 23, 1976, Sandstrom loved the beach, swimming in the ocean and surfing. He graduated from Newport Harbor in 1995 and was a standout in baseball and football.
In his senior year, the Sailors’ football team completed a perfect 14-0 campaign while winning the school’s first CIF-Southern Section championship with Sandstrom as an All-Sea View League cornerback.
The memorable 1994 season is chronicled in the book “14 Weeks: The Most Improbable High School Football Season in History,” available on Amazon. Sandstrom is featured in chapter 11, highlighted by a stellar playoff performance in which he blocked two punts in consecutive possessions to set up two Harbor touchdowns in a 28-14 win over Saddleback.
The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Sandstrom continued his academic and football career at Occidental College, where the Tigers “won four games in four years,” Sandstrom said in 2020, a far cry from the thrill of victories at Newport Harbor.
“Many people never get to taste success in their life and don’t have any idea what to shoot for,” Sandstrom said in an interview three years ago. “The 14-0 season has…
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