BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | THE MONITOR
ALAMO — For PSJA Memorial junior Carlos Vaquera, just getting to school growing up was an adventure.
His family had only one car, so he wasn’t able to get a ride to school in Brookshire, where he grew up.
That’s when Vaquera started to develop his athleticism. He would run 6 miles to school and 6 miles home. He did that every day for much of his early teen years.
When he was able to, he worked. He had odd jobs he worked on the weekends and in the summer, and he finally saved up enough money to get a bike.
“It was really good,” Vauqera said. “I bought it for $100. It was a really nice chrome bike. I rode it everywhere I went — to the park, the movies. Anywhere I could go, I would go with my bike.”
He rode his shiny new bike the same 6 miles. And once he got into high school at Brookshire High, he would ride to school, have cross country practice before school, go to his classes, go to football practice after school and then ride his bike home.
With all that work, it’s no wonder he’s a stamina machine.
At Brookshire High, he played running back and linebacker.
Then, before his sophomore year, family issues caused him to leave Brookshire. He has five brothers and sisters, but he now lives with just one younger brother and his mother.
Things were even tougher for Vaquera when he got to PSJA Memorial. In Brookshire, family members were around to help when times got tough. In the RGV, Vaquera and his family struggled.
“Money has always been a problem for us,” Vaquera said. “Sports is my way of relieving all of that. It makes me feel a lot better to be on the field, or in any sport.”
Vaquera even considered leaving school to go back to the Houston area for work because the family’s financial situation was so bad.
Memorial’s players and coaching staff rallied around their new brother, Vaquera, and helped him find some stability. Calls were made, and Vaquera landed a job at Wendy’s. His mother got a job at Walmart. Things were trending up as he entered his sophomore year. He was playing junior varsity and learning a new position. Memorial coach Michael Uribe saw a ton of talent and athleticism in Vaquera and decided to move him to safety, where he could have a bigger impact.
In Vaquera’s third game of the season, his sophomore year took a turn for the worse.
“We were playing against (the Edinburg High) Bobcats,” Vaquera said. “It was the second play of the game, and (a player) went in for a cheap shot right after the whistle blew, and I broke my fibula. … It was really painful. I felt like crying, but I didn’t. I held it in. I was out five or six months.”
Vaquera was not deterred, though. He went right to work trying to get healthy.
“He was working just as hard as anybody,” Uribe said. “He was trying to run the fastest sprints. He was trying to be the hardest worker in the weight room, even though he was still healing. He was here all summer for conditioning, even though he was working full-time jobs. His commitment level has been through the roof.”
Vaquera loves sports. He plays five: cross country, football, basketball, wrestling and baseball. The injury took him out of four of the five. And even though he was able to play baseball, he wasn’t quite at 100 percent throughout the season.
“I started to feel close to 100 percent in the middle of baseball season,” Vaquera said. “I was at least able to work out my upper body. By the fourth or fifth game of the season, I really started to feel good about my leg.”
Vaquera’s hard work paid off, and he was ready to go coming into his junior year. He has blossomed this year, starting every game on varsity and becoming a pivotal part of the Wolverines’ defense.
“He is making our secondary adjustments,” Uribe said. “He is kind of our quarterback in the secondary. He makes all the little subtle adjustments that we need him to make back there. He is someone that can recognize formations as well as being athletic to be a run supporter.”
Success hasn’t just come on the field, court or diamond for Vaquera. He is a star student.
“He is a tremendous young man,” Uribe said. “Everybody that I talk to, his teachers, they love him in class. He is one of those kids that does everything right on and off the field.”
To add to that, he recently won state for his drawings in an art competition. Vaquera never let the hard times he faced bring him down.
Vaquera is thrilled about one more improvement. The job his team helped him get supplied him with a car. That bike that isn’t as shiny as it used to be doesn’t get as much use as it used to, and that’s a good thing. Vaquera lives in San Juan, a pretty far commute for school.
“It felt really good,” Vaquera said. “Now I am able to drive to school. I don’t have to wake up that early anymore.”
Like with everything else in his life, getting his 2004 Chevrolet Impala wasn’t easy.
“It did have some problems when I got it,” Vaquera said. “It had a broken engine. I had to fix it. After I started working, I was able to pay more to fix it up.”
Now it’s running well, and he’s getting himself to all his practices and events.
One event he can’t wait for is the beginning of district play. PSJA Memorial faces PSJA North at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at PSJA Stadium in Pharr in what will be both teams’ District 31-6A opener.
“I really want to get the Raiders. I am pumped for it,” Vaquera said. “This will be my first ever district game here. The coaches and my teammates have treated me well, and it’s really exciting. I want to play well for them.”