John Dominguez is a senior and since he was six-years old, he has been playing soccer and has played for Pace since his junior year. He also works as a landscaper.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Can you describe what you do outside of school?
I play soccer for the high school team. I play with my family and friends.
What made you interested in joining the Pace High School team?
It’s my passion. It’s what makes me happy. I love the feeling of scoring goals. I love the feeling of playing with my teammates. It’s amazing.
How long have you been involved with this activity?
Since my childhood. Since, like, maybe six years old. It’s like a family tradition playing soccer. I could play with anybody, pickups, anything. It’s just it’s always been there since I could remember.
What is your favorite part about soccer?
Learning more about my teammates, playing with my teammates, playing goals, scoring goals, making assists. It’s just it makes you, it makes you complete.
So speaking of your teammates like how are the people like you work with. How’s your teammates?
They’re determined. They don’t give up. They work. We work. We work well together. And we’re almost like a family.
Were there any times where, like, it felt stressful or overwhelming or like you couldn’t like you felt like you couldn’t do it? And how did you, like, overcome that?
When I felt overwhelmed was when I lost games like terrible games, and I felt like I couldn’t bring anything to the team, like I wasn’t good enough. But what I did to overcome that was that I trained. I trained hard. I went on runs, and I talked to my teammates. We bonded and we just became a better team.
So, would you say it’s hard balancing out school and being part of the Pace High School team?
Yeah it’s really hard. You have to be really responsible on top of it. You got to be on top of your schoolwork and plus, you got to go to practice every day, wake up early for school no matter what. And if you put your mind to it, I think you can do anything.