During her freshman year, junior Gabriella De La Garza used to be scared of the bus, so she would attend wrestling practice with her brother. The wrestling coach would ask her to fill up the water constantly and eventually, she became the team manager.
As a manager, De La Garza cleans the mats, fills up the water, and takes attendance. At tournaments she films all the matches, and makes sure everyone knows when they’re up and cheers them on during their matches – for around 24 matches.
“I’ll do stuff that the coaches need to do so that they can coach better,” De La Garza said. “I’ll take stuff that the wrestlers would sometimes need to do, so that they can do more wrestling instead of having to clean the mat and having to fill the water. ”
Experiencing every single wrestling match, De La Garza watches how each person improves.
“Going to practice you really see people get better over the season,” De La Garza said. “Especially watching every single person’s matches, you really get to see them experience the sport to its fullest and them happy and sad, but it’s good because you just get to see everyone be so happy about wrestling.”
After three years of being the manager, De La Garza gained a lot of friends on the wrestling team. She also expands her knowledge on wrestling year after year as she watches the matches.
“Managing is super fun,” De La Garza said. “You get a lot of days off of school and you get to have a large group of friends that you are constantly around. They’re all usually good people so it’s really nice to have a big group that you can rely on if you ever need anything.”
For the boys varsity and JV basketball teams, sophomore Boston Preyer is the social media coordinator. The boys basketball social media pages include question videos, who’s most likely to, and basketball clips. Preyer organizes it all by creating the videos, editing them, and posting them to social media.
“I usually just record them [and] ask them some questions for social media,” Preyer said. “On game day I just meet up at the court and I record the games. I usually ask them some fun questions. For example, if it’s during Thanksgiving I’ll ask what’s your favorite Thanksgiving food.”
Preyer became the social media manager this year by bringing up the idea of a social media for boys basketball. Since then, he shows up to practices and games and gives them feedback.
“The team, they’re really fun [and] funny guys,” Preyer said. “They get along with each other well and just being around that atmosphere is really a blessing. My relationship with the coaches and players is really good. The coaches are welcoming and the players treat me like I’m one of them. I love being around them.”
Wanting to try out for the swim team, sophomore David Nguyen realized that he couldn’t swim too well. Instead, he asked to become the manager.
“I was originally gonna try out for the team as a swimmer, but then I honestly realized that I couldn’t swim at all,” Nguyen said. “I just asked the coach if I could be a manager, but it was pretty easy.”
As a manager, Nguyen helps out the coaches, swims and lifts with the team, and keeps record of times and splits for their races.
“I support the team by cheering them on and making sure everyone gets their stuff correctly,” Nguyen said. “Just making sure that your voice is known when you’re supporting the team during the matches is really good. I think the most important thing is getting all the times for the races because without them we couldn’t look at everyone’s records and all of their personal and team records.”
Nguyen believes he has a good connection with the team and the coaches. Along with Nguyen coaching the team, junior Constance Zepeda Saucedo coaches swim as well.
“I’m really close with all the sophomores and we’re all really close when we hangout outside of school,” Nguyen said. “With my coach, we have a really nice relationship. I’m trying to improve my swimming and he’ll be there sometimes to help me out and encourage me to keep going.”
Finding the interest in becoming the Majestics manager, junior Rihanna Valentin filled out a form and officially got the role. As a manager, she helps out the directors by making sure the Majestics have everything they need in their bags and filling up the water during football season.
“I have a period in Majestics and it’s basically a free period for me because I don’t really do much, so I can do my work,” Valentin said. “There’s a lot of free time and if I fail [my classes] I’m off the team, so it’s a way to keep me motivated to do school and not fail.”
Valentin said she has a good connection with the coaches, and gets along with the team just as well.
“[The most rewarding thing is] definitely the girls on the team themselves because being on the team is basically having a new group of friends,” Valentin said. “We’re all girls so it’s like a big friend group and we all hang out. It’s helped me be more social as the years went on.”
Valentin is very supportive of the Majestics at performances and at practice.
“[I support them by] cheering them on whenever they’re dancing because I know how hard they work to get the dances perfect,” Valentin said. “It takes a lot of dedication and a lot of days of work up until the performance. After they’re done dancing I’d let them know how good they did and if they needed to work on anything.”
Senior Emily Grass played soccer her freshman year to junior year. When she found out that she was unable to play due to medical reasons, she had a conversation with the soccer coaches to transition from a player to a team manager. This past school year she managed the soccer team by handling the equipment, leading drills, and occasionally leading practice.
“My relationship with the players is more caring,” Grass said. “I care more about them and seeing them do well rather than myself. I make sure that they know that I’m there for them anytime they need me, wave to them in the hallway, say hello. Establish[ing] that connection off the field is more important and gives you success on the field. I have given them a strong backbone to lean off of.”
