Athlete of the Month: Anthony Vasquez
Senior Anthony Vasquez races towards the ball during the Alta Loma Braves game which ended 2-1, a win for Diamond Bar.
December 16, 2015
After many weeks spent playing for the varsity football team, senior Anthony Vasquez heads back to the same field where he will lead the Diamond Bar High School boys varsity soccer as team captain.
Vasquez began playing soccer at the age of seven. In his freshman year, he played on the junior varsity team, and then made varsity as a sophomore after one of the players was injured.
”Anthony did such a strong job that when the other player came back, we took another center defender and moved him to offensive half so that they could play alongside each other,” head coach Kemp Wells said.
Vasquez plays sweeper, a defensive position, in soccer. Before he quit earlier this year, he also was a member of the Legacy club soccer team. According to Coach Wells, Vasquez wanted to spend this year focusing on football.
“He’s a very strong kicker. Just in case he got a scholarship in kicking, he has two options: either kicking for a football or a soccer team,” Wells said.
Currently, Vasquez is unsure of what colleges he hopes to play for. However, he is certain he wants to play for a club soccer team.
As one of the team captains, Vasquez is responsible for organizing the defense, guarding the other team’s offensive players, and running the backline.
“We really count on him to set the floor and hold down the defense. If he really steps up onto this role, which so far he has done, but if he continues to progress with that, with this organization and leadership, we should be real good,” Wells said.
Despite just beginning the soccer season, Vasquez also has high hopes for the team’s future games.
“I think we’re doing really well, our teams really strong, so we’ll go far,” Vasquez said.
In addition to soccer, Vasquez was also a part of the school’s varsity football team. Regardless of his inexperience in football, he joined the sport and started playing on the frosh team as a freshman. Vasquez has kicked for the team for all four years, but occasionally plays different positions as well.
Vasquez was selected by Maxpreps.com as special teams player of the game for three contests, including the Branding Iron game and games against San Dimas and Duarte.
“At first we thought we were going to do pretty well, but toward the end, they all got into pretty close games; I’d say it was a pretty good season. Sometimes, we just got unlucky,” Vasquez said, referring to this year’s football season.
After his first year of playing, Vasquez was selected to play defense for the junior varsity team. Halfway through his sophomore season, he was chosen to play for the varsity team.
“Even though you might not be a part of a winning team, you’re with your friends, and that’s just half the fun, it’s really all that matters,” Vasquez said.
