From the track to the pitch to the field, Senior Jerré Hernandez has stood out among his fellow athletes as a jack of all trades, showing his skills in track, baseball, and football over his four years at UC.

   Hernandez said, “I’m glad about all I’ve managed to do during these four years. We saw a lot of victories and had some good times.”

   Hernandez said, “One accomplishment I’ve been proud of in my high school career is making CIF for both baseball and football and winning.”

   He continued, “The people around me help out a lot. When it comes to teammates, iron sharpens iron; they’re good at practice, so I get to see good playing styles to learn from so that  I can get ready for the next level. Then you have the coaches, who are critiquing me on anything I’m doing wrong, which allows me to avoid repeating mistakes.”

   Senior Will Neffeler, one of Hernandez’s baseball teammates said, “I’ve known [Hernandez] since freshman year when we were on the freshman Baseball Team together. As a teammate, he was great. He always had a lot of energy and kept the dugout alive, pumping us up on the field, and was always talking and staying loud.”

   Senior Tyshaun Harris, who runs track with Hernandez, said, “[His] work ethic is very good. I’d say he’s one of the hardest working people I know, and I know a lot of hard-working people.”

   “As a teammate, Hernandez is a real class clown type of guy, always getting everyone laughing, but when it’s time to lock in, he focuses and gets the job done,” said Harris.

  Of course, playing so many different sports, each will have their own quirks and challenges. Hernandez said, “The biggest difference in practice for baseball and football is that for baseball, we practice using drills a lot, while with football, we do a lot of competitive scrimmages most of the time. We also have some of our scout team players playing during them, which allows them to run their plays and familiarize themselves with the sport while we get some good practice in.”

   “I would definitely say baseball is the most technically challenging among the sports. It’s hard to hit a ball going that fast with the bat, and especially when you start moving to the higher levels,” Hernandez said.

   When it comes to balancing sports with his social life, Hernandez said, “I like to get my work done at school and in classes. I have to go to practice after school and keep up a good working ethic overall so I can be at home relaxing when I want to.”

   Hernandez helped his teams see much success. He said, “One of my favorite memories was of our opening home game for football this school year, when I got an interception and blocked a field goal in that game.”

   Neffeler said, “A memory of him I recall was when I made this kind of weird play, because I was paying attention to the others and decided to try something unusual, and I remember after making the play he ran over and jumped up and chest bumped me, and we started celebrating.”

   “I think he’s a good fit for male Athlete of the Year, because he’s always been a hard worker. He’s a great teammate and a great person, and I think that he’s gonna go on and do big things someday,” Neffeler said.

   Hernandez has shown that being a truly astounding athlete takes far more than raw talent. It requires hours of dedication, detailed time-management, and most importantly, the ability to connect with and make every member of one’s team feel seen. Hernandez has without a doubt demonstrated these skills throughout his time at UC High.