Boys Varsity Tennis Team
May 27, 2016
Advancing to the semi-finals, the boys varsity tennis team defeated Oak Hills High School 14-4 on Monday, May 16 after school at the Downey High School tennis courts in the quarterfinals game.
During the CIF Semi-finals game on Wednesday, May 18 the boys lost 8-10 against Rosemead High School.
Winning all three matches during the quarterfinals with partner, Adrian Guadron, Justin Park, 11, talks about his experience playing a CIF game for a second time.
“It was a great experience; we got to experience playing under pressure,” Park said. “We were all ready to play against Rosemead and expected it to be the tough match.”
Playing an intense round of tennis as a single player, Daniel Son, 12, explains the feeling of making it as far as they did in CIF.
“We played them [Rosemead] last year and we barely won,” Son said. “How much we practiced showed through. Coming this far was because of our individual effort plus team effort.”
David Reoyo, 11, describes what it was like play with a partner, Jonathan Yi.
“You create a partnership with the other person and you get to celebrate with them,” Reoyo said. “We only lost twice all season.”
During the first round of the match, Downey was down 2-4 and eventually made a tie to 6-6 at the second round, but by the final round Downey was down 8-10 resulting in their loss.
“I love mystery and suspense,” Mendoza said, “anything I have to read twice.”
To indulge her passion for mystery and suspense, Mendoza wrote her own horror story imbued with enigmas and apprehensions, one morning in the Downey High School library.
“Chelsea’s story is very well descriptive, and has good imagery”, her friend Beatrice Pena said.
Mendoza’s passion for books, although originating from Stephen King, has been provoked by other books such as the Hunger Games, the Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Me and Earl, and Mr. Mercedes. She does not like to know the ending of a story, but instead she loves the twists.
“A book is like a portable T.V., but travel size,” Mendoza said. “ I can read about stories that would otherwise be impossible in real life.”
Other than books leaving an impressionable mark on Mendoza, there is more to her love of reading. She is able to relate the mystery, and sometimes traumatizing events, that take place in her stories. She claims that the relationship that she shares with her mom is relatable to that of her stories.
“If I don’t want to listen to my mom yap all day, I can open up a book and dive into that world,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza wishes to use her passion for literature in a career some day. She either wants to be a writer for Teen Vogue or even a journalist for some other publication. She also considers being an author, writing the very books that she loves to read.
![The Commissioner of the CIF Southern Section, Rob Wigod, came to Downey High School to talk to the 1,300+ student-athletes about “Pursuing Victory with Honor” on February 13. “I came to talk to all student-athletes to make them aware of the strong impact you [they] have on any younger/upcoming student-athletes,” Wigod said. “If a child comes to your game and sees the determination and persistence in your performance, what do you think that child will do? They would want to be like you one day.”](https://www.thedowneylegend.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sports.assembly-316x475.jpg)
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