About Me
I'm Bryan Ruiz. I am 18 years old and I currently attend Englewood High School. Some things I enjoy are soccer, playing video games, as well as cars. I live in Englewood with my family, made up of me, my mom, dad, sister, brother, and dog. I have only had Journalism class for my senior year but I have grown to enjoy this class as we get to go around to different spots around the school and talk to the students. My second semester, I also joined Broadcast journalism, which added a film aspect to the stories. These classes made my senior year a more enjoyable experience.
Awards
Colorado Student Media Association: 2nd Place Play-by-Play Sports
3rd place Breaking Sports Coverage
Breaking Records and Taking Names
Fast, agile, and all over the place on the court. It may look energetic, but it is also calculated for senior basketballer Jose Diego Lopez who is always thinking about the other players, “I think it’s all about thinking what’s best for the team and not being selfish.
”Josue Diego thinks he has been playing this season because he’s been able to move around this court better but thinks, “I can do better on the defensive end.”
The 2023-2024 season for the boys basketball team has a rough start as they were 0-6 until t their first win against Skyview with a score of 52-19. Josue Diego contributed 5 points and had an AFG% of 50.
Diego still has hopes that the team will end with a better record than they ended the season off with last year and wants, “to make it to the playoffs.”
Josue Diego said he decided to join the team because “I wanted to get better. And I also wanted to grow as a player.” A testament to his dedication is his averages at the net, including season-high blocks in the recent game as reported by Max Preps.
Diego was also a part of the team last year and said that the new players joining the team this year have been, “a great addition to the team.”
Diego trains to better himself as a basketball player, “Conditioning during the spring. We also do workouts during the fall and practice every day during the regular season.”
“My dad always inspires me to try my best,” Josue said. That is one of the main reasons he has accumulated 77 points throughout the season.
Up next for the team, Arrupe Jesuit on February 1, 2024 at home. The season wraps up in mid-February.
The Brotherhood that comes from Sports
The 2023 Englewood High School boys varsity soccer team is proud of its amazing teamwork and brotherhood on and off the field. The team ended its season 6-8-1.
Left-back Hector Ramirez was a hard-working player who athletes say is quick and has great communication, “I think that my soccer season is going good and bad, Due to me always being out for injuries and the losses and the wins that we’ve had earned.”
Ramirez says this season it’s different from last year since he got injured in the middle of the season, ”I missed last year, you know, it was very hard to bounce back and knowing that I wasn’t going to be on JV anymore.”
Ramirez says he prepared and bounced back from his injury and started on varsity. “It made my heart drop to my stomach because it was something new that I’d never experienced before having to adapt to the intensity and the physicality of other soccer teams and any varsity sport in general. It was a roller coaster but slowly I’ve been adapting to the level of physicality.”
Ramirez says he and his teammates have a bond outside of soccer, “especially Josue Lopez. He’s a senior. I usually go to the Rec Center with him either on Saturdays or Sundays and we go play basketball, and with other friends, we go out and eat or we go to parks or we go to the mall which is pretty fun, you know, having that bond with upperclassmen knowing that I’m their friend and that they took me under their wing is always a good feeling.”
Josue Lopez was a striker this season, “It’s when you play the most on top. And you help by working with your midfielders trying to score a goal and passing it.”
His favorite part of the season? “Just going to different schools all around the state and it seemed like different places for us that we had never seen before.”
He believes he played his hardest but the journey to state didn’t work out, “I mean, it’s kind of sad, but like, sometimes you won’t get to do what you want. Because sometimes you have to put more effort in.”
Senior Marco Lopez Ajcuc was the goalkeeper this season. He has played all four years of high school, I just like the the good saves I’d make and experiencing things with my team.” He feels the team is united off the field, ” Most of us talk to each other.”
He was upset they didn’t make it to state, “For me, it was kind of sad because we couldn’t make it because it was my last year but we gave it our all. It’s just the results aren’t gonna show how we actually played.”
Josue Lopez-Diego played left back, “I was just playing defense but kind of on like the sides.” He really liked this team, “It’s specific because I think we have good chemistry kind off and on the field and we’re all friends off the field too.”
Ticket to Ride
In recent times, there has been a shortage of bus drivers to take student athletes to their away games and this has created a problem for those without a form of transportation. Just at the Englewood High School campus, there are over 100 student-athletes without a form of transportation to get to away games.
Students Josue Lopez Diego, Dane Quintana, and Christian Almanza are part of the group that doesn’t have a ride most of the time. “Sometimes we have a ride there, but most of the time we don’t have a bus back so we have to carpool with teammates and stuff like that,” Diego said. Senior Dane Quintana agrees with Diego, “A lot of the time we’ll have a bus up there (to away games) but no bus back to the school depending on the sport.”
Christian Almanza, another student athlete at Englewood High School, says there were only buses for the games that were really far away this season. Almanza also thinks it’s important for everyone to have transportation to their games so that no one gets stuck at the school.
“I think it’s better if we travel together on the bus because it brings us together as a team and when people have to get their own ride, not everyone gets there at the same time. Quintana said the ride can be lonely without teammates, “It’s a lot better riding on the buses as teammates because we feel together as a team rather than being isolated from one another.” Quintana says athletes grow close to the bus drivers “A lot of the time it’s the same bus driver because we don’t hire many new ones, so they’re pretty cool and we’re even pretty close to them.”
One major concern is students driving other students. Often these young drivers have only had their license for a year or two, “It is pretty scary riding with someone that I know because they’re still new drivers and are getting used to being on the road.”
According to Kimberly DeHaven, the Director of Transportation for Englewood Schools, it has been a struggle trying to find new bus drivers for the district as there has been no new applicants since December of last year.
“During the week if a game is located in the metro area we can offer a drop only, which means we can drop the team off at the game site, but it could mean dropping the team off a few hours before the game starts, in order to get the bus back in Englewood to drive afternoon routes.”, DeHaven said, as well as, “The other option teams have is to be transported following afternoon routes, which means leaving Englewood around 4:15-4:30 PM and playing a later game,” said DeHaven in an email to the Pirateer.
DeHaven knows the importance of student athletes having transportation to and from games, “The Transportation department only has one licensed substitute bus driver at this time. This substitute drives all teams to all of the out of metro area games.” This demonstrates the urgency of the shortage of bus drivers in our district, “This is consistent with all districts in order to prioritize afternoon routes first, athletics second, until we are fully staffed.”
DeHaven also gives a list of reasons as to why it has been difficult to find bus drivers as of recent. In her email to the Pirateer, she outlined the needs and requirements for drivers:
Driver licensing requirements – CDL (Commercial Drivers License)
Driving large vehicles is difficult
Driving school buses is rigid/hours inflexible “on call” status from 6:00 AM until 4:30 PM Monday through Friday.
Drivers can not pass the DOT physical as outlined by the Federal government.
Intimidated by background check/drug screening
Low pay in some areas and higher pay in other areas, so applicants have options based on pay.
Responsibility for children can be stressful to a person, especially driving up to 77 passengers with no other adult on the bus.
Retirement surge as Baby Boomers leave the workforce {The average school bus driver age is 57 years old.}
The new ELDT training is a minimum of 6-8 weeks of training and most new drivers do not finish the training.
DeHaven said the other option teams have is to be transported following afternoon routes, which means leaving Englewood around 4:15-4:30 PM and playing a later game. Student athletes say that pushes home and homework time into the late evening.
Podcast
Summary
Broadcast journalism and regular journalism has taught me tons of ways to interact all over social media. It has taught me so many skills that I can use on a daily basis like knowing the difference between good and bad news, as well as keeping an audience entertained while not blowing a story out of proportion. A problem in modern journalism is the fact that with new technology, it is so much easier to spread misinformation all over the internet and people aren't always able to tell the difference between the real and fake news.