On Thursday, September 21 Santiago High School’s ASB presented our school with a fun rally to excite our school spirit and present our fall sports. I conducted an interview for the students about each fall sport and understood their favorite part of being on a team so Santiago as a whole could get a better understanding.

Girls Golf

 How long have you been on the team and what are your goals for this season?

“I have been on the team since sophomore year and my goal this season is to make it to league finals.” Madison Wilson (12) 

Girls Volleyball 

How long have you been on the team and what is your favorite part of playing volleyball? 

“I have been on the team for one year and my favorite part of the team is having team dinners on Tuesdays “  Lahna Smith (12)

“I have been on the team for 3 years and my favorite part is the connection of players when we get a kill and the energy on the court.” Morgan Herman (11) 

Football 

“ My favorite part of being in football is my teammates and getting closer with all of them and playing football because I love football.”   Jack Defranco (12) 

“My favorite part about football is the team bonding and hating on other teams. The reason I wanted to join football was my friends. I always wanted to play football because I had never done it before high school. I also joined the football team freshman year. Oscar Pinedo (12)

Cross Country 

When asked what he’s most excited about this season, he said, “Winning. I like winning a lot because every time I run fast I get a medal which is really cool and I hope to get more of them.” Nicholas Gomez has been on the team since freshman year and has stuck with it ever since. This season he said that his goal is, “getting 14:30 in the three-mile. I’m really excited to work towards that, just putting in the hard work during practice and hopefully, it will pay off mid-season.”  Nicholas Gomez (11)

Adding on to goals in cross country Jake Rubalcaba (11) said, “Best ever. That’s all there is to it.” 

Jett has been on the team for a year and says his favorite part is, “The team environment. I just feel like I’m part of a great unity of people.” Jett Blake (11)   

Flag Football 

Josselyn Palacios (12) is the girl’s varsity flag football team captain. When asked about her goals for the flag football team, she said, “For our flag football team, my goal as a team captain is to help spread motivation, but in general for our team to win and to compete in tournaments and continue to be champions and this is our inaugural season so the first season ever for girls varsity flag football and I would want us to win and come out strong to set a tone for women’s sports teams.” 

Girls Tennis 

“My favorite part about being in Santiago girls tennis is the people and just like being able to come together after a match since tennis is not a team sport, but we always come together and support each other when someone else is playing a match.” Juliette Damian (11) 

Jordyn Sundberg (12) is the girl’s tennis team captain. When asked about her favorite part of being on the team she said, “I just love being with all the girls and getting to spend time with them on busses and playing games it’s always so fun.” Jordyn’s goal for the team is, “ going far in CIF.”

Water Polo 

Why did you want to join water polo?

“I wanted to join water polo because I like the excitement of the sport and I liked swimming a lot so I just saw it as the perfect opportunity to join it and I’ve been doing it for years so I said yeah, why not It’ll be fun.” Anonymous 

Dance 

“My favorite part about dance is the football games and getting to pump up the school spirit. I wanted to join dance because I wanted to make high school memories and I thought this was a good way to do it.” Chloe Kennedy (12)

Cheer 

“This is my third year on the team, and my favorite part of doing cheer is the stunts and making new friends” Katie Simmons (11)

“This is my first year on the cheer team, and my favorite part is Friday night lights which I think is super fun.” Hailee Smith (12)

Drumline 

“I have been doing this for two years, and I wanted to join this because I first loved marching band and the greatest thing is the teamwork and my favorite part is being able to participate in the rose parade.” Anonymous 

Madrigals 

 “I wanted to join madrigals because I always loved choir. I was in choir in middle school, and I’ve always enjoyed singing, so it is always fun to me.” Clara Curtner (12)

“My favorite of being in Madrigals is the music. I feel like many people join it for the relationships, but I feel like I really like the pieces that we do.”  Isabella Waites (12)

Color Guard 

Elisha Adams (12) is a team captain on color guard, and when asked why she wanted to join, she said,  “I wanted to join color guard because I had a friend who was really into it and was very good, and I decided I was going to give it a try. My favorite part of being on color guard is being able to interact with all the newbies that we have on the team and being able to teach them the thing I love so much.”  

Hip Hop 

N’Dia Mondragon (12) “My goal for the team is being able to go to competition at most since last year we couldn’t go to competitions due to other issues but I hope this year we’ll get to perform as a team together and go to competitions this year.” Furthermore, when asked what her favorite part of doing hip-hop is she said, “It’s how we can have so much fun and at the same work and get our stuff done and work hard, and I also love rallies and game days.”

Trevez Mckay (11) has been on the team for two years, and his favorite part is “The performances and everything we do to work so hard for the performances and coming together as a team and finally being able to perform and everyone screaming and liking it is the best.” 

Meya Jackson (11) always wanted to join hip-hop; she said, “I’ve always liked hip-hop, but I joined Santiagos team last year, and my best friend was on the hip-hop team and seeing him and all his friends have so much fun together just dancing and doing what they love made me want to join it.”

Most people said that they enjoyed being with their teammates and the overall experience they got out of the sport. After introducing the fall sports and varsity players, ASB presented us with a fun game to further conclude the rally. Seven members from each sport were gathered, with six of them rolling on the floor to get one of the members on a raft across the court. The football team won in the first rally, and the water polo team won in the second rally. Overall, I enjoyed having this opportunity to interview these amazing athletes and performers, and I hope for a successful season for everyone.