Ranked 18th for quarterbacks in California, Diamond Bar High School junior Quinton Mendoza takes his talents from the field to the stage, representing the school in more than one way by also performing in the decorated Marquis choir.
Mendoza’s motivation for choir comes from his brother, who was also highly involved in high school. Now, he is currently one of the performers in our choir’s highest level of competition choir: Marquis, as a tenor.
“My brother has already been doing singing for many years and after I joined choir in middle school, my family pushed me to try out in high school,” Mendoza said. “I started in Diamond Tones in freshman year and tried out and made Marquis in my sophomore year,”
Although Mendoza’s time is split among varsity football, baseball and Marquis, his priority will always lie with choir.
“For football, it’s a fall sport and choir’s main season is in spring. So the early performances I have for choir, I have to miss one of the two concerts,” Mendoza said. “Also just being sore and tired from football practice or choir dancing rehearsals is pretty draining.”
In the process of bonding with the choir community, Mendoza also has the opportunity to train in skills that translate to the field –footwork, coordination, communicating, and teamwork are all integral parts of both teams.
“I always want to try to improve dancing and singing because that’s a skill that you never know you might need in the future and also the dancing and footwork helps me a lot with sports footwork for football and baseball,” Mendoza said.
Overtime, Mendoza has learned to effectively balance his schedule, thoroughly enjoying the process of participating in each of his teams.
“My favorite things that I got out of choir were the long lasting friendships with the people around me,” Mendoza says, “Also just working so hard for months and finally getting to perform what we worked on is such a great feeling.”
