The Bishop Diego girls basketball team kept a plus-minus statistic of each player this season.
Not surprisingly, the number for junior Sydney Naour was on the plus side, meaning the team did better when she was on the court.
No one was even close to her numbers, according to Cardinals coach Jeff Burich, adding: “When Sydney is out on the court, good things happen,”
The same goes for her actions off the court. Naour leads by example and has the willingness to help others.
On Monday, she was honored as Bishop Diego’s recipient of the Phil Womble Ethics in Sports Award.
Burich gave an example of Naour’s good heart. He said the team worked with the organization Feed My Starving Children during December.
“It was a great team bonding experience,” Burich said. “A week or two later, Sydney sends me an email that says, ‘Coach, that was really cool. I really liked that we got together as a team and did something for other people. I think we need to do more things like that in the future.’’’
Another example of Naour’s desire to help others lies in the number of community service hours she’s logged. It’s more than 300, three times the school requirement. And, she has a year left at Bishop Diego.
She volunteers at Cottage Hospital, Old Spanish Days Safety Town and tutors at the school.
Softball coach MeLinda Matsumoto noted that though Naour has been sidelined while recovering from suffering a concussion, she’s dedicated herself to helping the younger, less experienced girls on the squad.
Naour is a three-sport athlete, playing volleyball, basketball and softball. She received first-team All-Frontier League honors in basketball this past season and earned all-league recognition in softball as a sophomore.
She’s a standout in the classroom, too. She holds a 4.4 grade-point average while carrying a class load that includes Advanced Placement calculus and English and honors Spanish 3.
Naour participated in the Global Leadership Connection Conference and was a GLC Ambassador’s Scholarship recipient in 2018.
She is a member of the National Honor Society and is involved with the Associated Student Body at Bishop Diego.
Sydney is the daughter of Lynette and Ken Naour.
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