Being a leading example both on and off the soccer field, Coach Oswaldo Sacedo and his Fuerza Azteca athletes participate in many forms of community service. Whether it is just to show kindness or to raise awareness for their team, believing that doing community service of helping others and teaching his athletes is vital towards the team.

Saucedo shows that his priorities are not always on the soccer field by continuously doing community service to push his athletes to be closer with each other and not have an awkward relationship with each other. Some things the team did over the past year includes: donating bikes to the Aztec Angels, a program to give underprivileged children toys for Christmas, offering thanksgiving baskets to the custodians and cleaning up John Hayes Street, just to show that they care for their community.

“When I started looking at what my purpose was as a coach, I told myself that I’m here to develop strong, successful, and intelligent young men that have experiences and can relate back to how to be a good person in our society,” Saucedo said.

Senior co-captain Adrian Pierce wants the new incoming underclassmen to have the bond the existing team has to continue the soccer charity. He believes that the team represents themselves to be community service giants at El Dorado, working together and helping each other overcome and accomplish goals. 

“Community Service helps the team come together because we are representing as a family,” Pierce said. “I want to see the entire team as a whole and represent one name, not individual names.”

When representing the soccer team as a whole, freshmen Anthony Salazar, he says that things like this sets you up for upcoming challenges. Something you learn through community service is these activities you perform can push and benefit your whole future and take you to things that you never thought you would be able to do.

“It humbled me, I had many emotions going through my head. I still pushed through them to help provide for the community,” Salasar said. “I learned the struggles of doing the work by witnessing the work.”

Being an underclassman and doing activities is a beneficial way to help improve your later years of high school. For sophomore Andres Calderon, he believes that no matter how you view the world, you should always show gratitude and express kindness, even when not asked too.

“Doing community service gives you values and it also shows that you should always give back to the environment,” Calderon said. “You always receive stuff, so it’s only fair to give back and return to your community.”

Senior co-captain Aaron Perez enjoys doing community service, not only to give back to his society, but to create stronger bonds with his fellow teammates. When working together and giving back to your community, you create bonds quickly, either with working with others or by yourself. 

“When Coach [Saucedo] first brought up the idea of doing community service, I didn’t want to do it,” Perez said. “But once I saw my teammates do it, I knew it would just be fun, especially for helping out people.”