December’s Super Sports Stars

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Freshman Jaylin Dempsey

Since fourth grade, freshman Jaylin Dempsey has played basketball both recreationally and for school teams. His drive to play sprouted from a need to exercise and stay healthy as a nine-year-old, but what started out as a healthy hobby soon became a passion.

“I started really liking basketball when I was about ten or 11, I was really energetic on the court and just liked running around,” said Dempsey.

Playing for the freshman team, Dempsey is a point guard, and a talker. “My favorite part is probably defense or shooting the three pointer,” said Dempsey.

Not only does Dempsey love the sport, but he loves the team, and how everyone has improved as the years go by. “They’ve gotten bigger, they’ve gotten better,” he said.

After playing for four years, Dempsey can’t wait to continue playing, hopefully on the college level.

Sophomore Shayla Hills

In eighth grade, Shayla Hills decided that wrestling looked like a challenge she wanted to take on. Three years later, Hills has participated in both middle and high school wrestling, spending her high school years on varsity, and her sophomore year as fourth on the team.

“In high school it seems like it will get harder and you will be in better shape for other sports. You can be the best and get medals,” Hills said.

While high school wrestling has been different than middle school wrestling, Hills loves wrestling and the team environment.

“We’re all like a family. At the end of the year we have a sleepover and it’s like a huge party,” she said.

Along with wrestling, Hills runs track and plans to continue both sports into her two final high school years.

Junior Fernanda Clarin

As a family sport, soccer has always been a part of junior Fernanda Clarin’s life. She started playing when she was eight, and has been playing on regional and school teams ever since.

“It’s a sport where you keep moving, it’s just continuous running and it’s intense,” she said.

Clarin not only likes the fast pace of soccer, but she also enjoys being hands on with the ball and with helping her team score a goal.

“I tried being defense for awhile and it didn’t work out because I’m very driven towards the goal and I only want the goal. I can’t ever really stay back,” she said.

Now, Clarin is playing on the junior varsity soccer team for school and plans to continue playing soccer.

“The more work you put into the game, the better you get,” Clarin said.

Senior Keano Calderon

In his final year at CVHS and on the wrestling team, senior Keano Calderon knows what it takes to make it on the mat.

For the past seven years, Calderon has been wrestling on both regional and school teams. “I liked to do fighting and wrestle with my cousins,” Calderon said, when asked why he began wrestling for a team in sixth grade. “I started getting better and I liked the competition and feeling when you win.”

Not only has Calderon been competing for seven years, but he’s been on varsity for four of those years and understands the amount of effort and dedication that goes into the sport.

“It disciplines you a lot, there’s a lot of motivation behind it. It’s definitely one of the hardest sports at CVHS,” Calderon said.