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With most students starting their athletic careers in high school, fresh-man Byron Gutierrez had a head start. Starting football at the age of seven, Gutierrez found what he loved very early.
"When I was young, I was aggressive and my father told and showed me that I would be a good fit for football. So when I was seven I joined a local foot-ball team. It was called the Kendall Hammocks Warriors and I was on the team for 7 years," Gutierrez said. Not only did he already start high school football with experience, he started on the Varsity Team as a starter for the offensive line. Getting that type of position is a rare thing for most freshmen, but starting at a good position was one of Gutierrez's goals for when he got on his new team. He was still surprised when he got the news of his accomplishment. "I was happy and felt good when I got the news because I worked really hard for the past seven years to finally get here. I made it and my work finally paid off," Gutierrez said. Getting an injury is always a possible risk for a varsity player. Although those being injured are usually juniors and seniors, Gutierrez joined the ranks of the large number of injured football players we had this year. "It wasn't my first injury because I have gotten two others. The injury I got this year wasn't the worst. The worst had to be when I tore two tendons in my ankle. They replaced my tendons with a metal bar. But the one I got this year still made me feel bad. I felt that I had let my team down and the injury put me out for the last three games of the season," Gutierrez said. Injuries are not going to stop Gutierrez during his high school career. Although he reached his short term goal of joining Varela's football team, his real goal is to go to a top tier football school and eventually join the National Football League (NFL). "My ultimate goal is to join the NFL and be signed to the New York Giants. But first I want to get into Auburn or Alabama University because they are top tier schools," Gutierrez said.
Byron Gutierrez, FreshmanStarting high school at the top
Varsity Football, Center
FootballNew year, New players,
New problems
SwimmingA year full of effort, and
not many results.
Swimming, while being a good workout, also allows com-petitive swimmers to showcase their aquatic agility. Swimmers take part in a series of competitions consisting of different strokes, freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. Members practice five times a week, Monday through Friday, preparing for competi-tions. The season lasts around three months, with District, State, and National competi-tions, if the team makes it. However, according to team Captain Gabriela Armijo, the swim team had a rough season this year. “We could have done better, we mostly prepared the new swimmers,” she said. “The upperclassmen took the weight of the season this year.” While the team didn’t win many meets, a few swimmers broke records. Notably, member George Lubian broke a few records this year. Lubian broke the school records for 200m freestyle against Coral Reef Senior High and South Dade Senior High.
S p o r t s V a r e l a
This was a unique season for Varsity Football. Having new kids playing
every year is not a big suprise, but there was a huge influx this year causing some problems. "We were going into a sea-on where we were going to be very young and inexperienced. We have graduated, for the last four years on average, 20 seniors a year meaning a total of 80 players we lost," Coach Carlos Mollinedo said. A new gain of inexperi-enced players had an immedi-ate effect on the win/loss ratio this year. The season ended with one win and 8 losses. "The wins and losses were not what we wanted. We knew we were going to be inexperi-enced," Mollinedo said. Another problem caused by this lack of experince was the amount of player injuries. This year had one of the high-est rate. "Injuries is something we didn't have a problem with in the last four years. At one point we had 23 varsity guys healthy and that was going into game five. One goal next year is not having as many injuries," Mollinedo said.
From left: Junior Running Back (3) Pedro Estevez runs a play against South Miami Sr. High. photo by Fox-Mar; Freshman Byron Gutierrez starts at center for Varela's offensive line against Southwest Sr. High. photo by Devoun Cetoute; The swim team discusses strategy with Coach Mejia. photo by Devoun Cetoute
Contributing writers: Fabian Rodriguez, Yaira Doyle, Daniel Cardenas, Valeria Franco, Fernando Cerioni h t t p s : / / i s s u u . c o m / t h e v i p e r v i b e 19
George Lubian, SeniorRecord Breaker and Academic Champion
Swimmer
Swimming started early for senior George Lubian. With a mixture of self-interest and par-ent encouragement, Lubian found a passion that would follow him through high school. “I started swimming at the age of 8. At first, my parents put me in swimming because they
wanted me to do a sport during the year and not spend my time at home being lazy like most kids. Afterwards, I grew in to it and I started enjoying it myself,” Lubian said. Swimming is not just a casual hobby for Lubian. For Lubian, swimming is an extremely competitive sport where pushing your body to the limit is the heart of the game. This can defi-nitely be seen this year as Lubian broke many personal and school records. “I have broken seven school records and two personal records. I see swimming as a way to stay in shape and its a fun challenge that you compete against your friends in. It's competi-tive,” Lubian said. Not only is Lubian a star athlete he is also a star student. Being at the top of his class in academics and sports, Lubian has had to learn how to manage his schedule. "Balancing my schedule requires a lot of long nights. I get home, I eat, I get changed, and then I go straight to practice. Then I come home at nine and that is when I start my homework. It is not easy, but I just sleep on the weekends to make up for it," Lubian said.
Steve Balarezo, Freshman
Following in his brother’s footsteps
Cross CountryRecords broken and races won, a recipe for success
VolleyballStarting a team, ending a
family
Cross Country
Some athletes join a team because they are forced to or it seems interesting. But
for freshman Steve Balarezo, his reason was far different and more personal. "I joined the Cross Country team because I wanted to be like my brother, who was fast and the captain of last year's team. He inspired me to be a runner. I also wanted to join to try to get a schol-arship for college," Balarezo said. With the idea of his brother and the drive to be fast, Balarezo broke a big personal record this year, starting with a 5K time of of 31 minutes and ending with 22 minutes, he managed to shave off nine minutes. "I felt surprised because my real goal was 25 minutes, but I surpassed that," Balarezo said.
For some atheltes, playing their sport is in their blood. For senior Valerie Sanchez ,
this is the case. "I have been playing volley-ball for five years, starting when I was 13. My family encourged me to play the sport and they also played it too," Sanchez said. When someone plays a sport as long as she as, a passion builds that pushes one to keep going. "Volleyball is a sport that I love and I have always loved," Sanchez said. Even though Sanchez found a love in volleyball, she still wants to pursue other interests in college. "I wouldn't want to pursue volleyball in college because I would want to focus on new things and find new interests," Sanchez said.
The season for Cross Country was one with ups and downs. But at the end of the
day most players agree that the highlight this year was the team working together and encouraging each other. "I think the best part of this season had to be the team breaking some personal records and how we did at the races we competed at this year," senior Captain Irving Baez said. With every season comes some cons. With some players feel-ing that they could have trained harder and better, others felt that the season was too short. Overall, Varela's Cross Country team had a good year. "I think that I could have had a better time, but overall I felt that the season was too short," Baez said.
Volleyball's season ended on a high note this year, according to the Volleyball
players. Ending with a decent win/loss ratio and winning most of their district games was the reason for the high morale amongst the Volleyball players. "I think we had a really good season this year. We won most games and I felt that towards the end we came together as one," senior Tiffany Bolanos said. The players all agreed that the team chemistry this year was a strong one. Having a team that feels like one and acts like a family will lead to a great season. Most of the Volleyball players would agree that this season was a win because of their team chemistry. "The team chemistry was really good. We really felt like a family out there," Bolanos said.
Valerie Sanchez, SeniorContinuing a family
traditionVolleyball
V a r e l a S p o r t s
Clockwise from top: Senior George Lubian swims in a meet. photo by Fox-Mar; Girls Volleyball gathers around Coach John Alvarez. photo by Breanna Valdes; Girls Volleyball waits for Corall Reef Sr. High to serve. photo by Breanna Valdes; Cross Country members broke some personal records. photo by Fox-Mar, Freshman Steve Balarezo broke his personal record of 31 minutes for the 5K race. photo by Fox-Mar
Stories byDevoun Cetoute
Christine MongeManaging Editor
IG: scarletmarked
