Profile by kiyoshi taylor

Daniel Rodriguez s e s s a l g n u S e Behind th Kiyoshi Taylor October 11, 2014 Mr Greco Behind the Sunglasses I first met Daniel Rodriguez after I had been cut from the JV baseball team.

My dad hired him to help me improve my game, so that I could try out again the next year. As he hid his eyes behind a dark pair of sunglasses, I had no idea what I was in store for. On the first day,

he put me through the toughest workout of my life. After the first five minutes there wasn’t a person I hated more on the planet. At first I didn’t understand why he was pushing me so hard. Now I understand that he saw something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself. It turns out that is just the way he is with kids. He sees something special in all of them and tries to help them reach their full po

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tential. He is the kind of man who will put one hundred percent into a person and expect you to give him the same amount back. Even when he was hungry, sick, or injured he would never let that interfere with the task at hand.

Thanks to what he did for me, I made the team the next year. Fast forward to the present, and Daniel is still putting up with me.

We have found out a lot about each other

throughout the years.

Although I would never say it aloud, the man who I thought was the cruelist person on Earth when I first I met him, turned out to have one of the biggest hearts ever.

According to Paul B. Farrell, who writes about behavioral economics for Market Watch, one of Derek Jeter’s most important life lessons was to “Be serious, but have fun” (Paul B. Farrell). Daniel almost lives by this motto. With an infectious grin, he will force you to work harder than you ever have before, while laughing nonstop along the way. He brings that high energy vibe everywhere he goes, but he makes sure the task at hand will be accomplished. Daniel understands the importance of

his work. Being a former at risk kid he knows how valuable it is to have a positive influence. If it was not for the support he had in high school from his afterschool programs he might not be where, or

Shirley Morgan, Village Police Athletic League president.” (Afterschool Alliance) Daniel has always been a caring person. When he was growing up his mother said he was the emotional one of her two sons.

“Danny is a very sensitive guy, he gets hurt really easy.

He hides his feelings, but sometimes he can’t”(Martha Torres). Being raised by his divorced mother life for Daniel was difficult. His grades were slipping and he started hanging out with the wrong crew.

But he wasn’t completely lost because he was one of the best athletes at his school. His mother, Martha Torres, was deeply concerned with him. She would go to his coaches to help keep him on the right path. “I would go to them and tell them about his behavior so they will talk to him and say I don’t like people with two personalities, because to be an ath-

“you know one of those kids at school, he has no shoes, to run and do this and that. Perfect, he is 10 and a half. He’s going to love them, Mom. He was so happy, he was practically jumping. Can you imagine, he has never had Nike shoes” -Martha Torres who he is today. Studies show that such programs help decrease crime. “According to the Portland-area Drug Enforcement Administration, with one afterschool activity, 70 percent of youth are less likely to get involved in illegal drugs or bad behavior. With two activities, that percentage increases to 90,” said

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lete you need to be clean and respectful, and you’re not. If you want to be in sports, you better straighten up, so he did”(Martha). Daniel told me if it wasn’t for those people in his life he wouldn’t be the man he is today. Those mentors of his helped inspire him to return to Hillsdale after he graduated. He returned to the school to help the kids that were going through some of the things he went through as a teenager. “I remember being in high school and having great mentors and great coaches, and saying I want to be that type of adult to someone else, to be that mentor, someone that could help them out, because I know I had a tough childhood, and if not for the adults in my life, I wouldn’t

have learned what I know now” (Daniel Rodriguez).

His job at Hillsdale High School can easily be overlooked. In the first part of the day he’s the assistant dean. He’s required to deal with the kids who have been skipping class for whatever reason. He tries to figure out why they skip and try to help them change their ways, otherwise they’ll be sent to an alternative high school.

He knows he can’t save all of them but he’ll try to. The student in which he has taken the most pride in help-

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ing was a girl named Yusef. “I would say by the second month of school, she had already probably missed seven complete days of school, which is almost a week and a half ’s worth. We put her on a contract, which didn’t help for the first month, she was still missing class.

We gave her the interventions, community studies and one day she kind of snapped out of it and said I’m not going to do this anymore. From that day on, she started to go to class, her grades got better, and she never missed another day of class for that year. Her senior year, she was great, and we didn’t have to deal with her.

She comes back from time to time and thanks us for pushing her to success” (Daniel Rodriguez).

The second half of the day he works with the kids whose first language isn’t English. The program helps them learn English and creates a community where they can The second part of his day he works with ELD kids. Those are the kids that come to this country from Asia, South America, and he has to teach them how to speak English for three periods a day. These kids aren’t as privileged as some of the other kids in the school. Daniel’s mother , Martha Torres, told me a story about one kid who Daniel opened his heart for. The kid had never owned a pair of Nike shoes. Since Daniel had worked in a Nike store he bought a new pair of Nike shoes for the

kid. “He put them by the door so in the morning when he’s rushing, he doesn’t forget.

He goes, Mom, I know you so don’t pick those up, I’m going to take them tomorrow.

And he goes, so I have to explain to you? Okay fine.

No, I need to tell you – you know one of those kids at school, he has no shoes, to run and do this and that. Perfect, he is 10 and a half. He’s going to love them, Mom. He was so happy, he was practically jumping. Can you imagine, he has never had Nike shoes. He was so happy because he was going to give that pair of shoes to this guy that never wore Nike shoes”(Martha).

When his mom told me this story she was practically channeling Daniels energy. I almost expected her to jump out of her chair. Her eyes glowed with pride as she described her son’s warm generosity. She had the same grin from ear to ear, that Daniel does when he gets excited for someone.

In the final part of his day it’s off to the track, where he coaches Cross Country. I sat in on a couple of their practices, and I saw what kind of community he’s created. Everyone

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was picking each other up and pushing them to get better. It was like watching a bunch of young Daniels. I asked them what kind of values does Daniel teach during cross-country. They told me he teaches them “effort, selflessness, and also knowing how to treat yourself right, and also treat each other right” (Matt Flanagan). He does it by setting an example. After practice he’ll go home and try to figure out a way to have a more efficient practice than the last one.

It’s not just in the classroom where Daniel tries to save people. When he sees potential in a person he’ll do everything he can to make that person a great athlete. He had one student athlete help him realize that hard work can sometimes defeat talent.

“I had him as a freshman in high school. When he tried out, I was just like, I’m going to cut this kid.

But I sat down, I slept on it, the next day I said I’m going to let him be on the team, help me out. Once I told him, he was completely fine with it. When I saw how he took it, the very next day after that, I said you know what, I’m gonna give you a uniform.

He came to practice every day, never complained, worked his butt off, and he got better.

“But not enough to get the playing time, to be a

starter. So he comes to me at the end of sophomore year, Coach, I really want to play varsity.

I’m willing to do anything.

And so, three months straight that summer, we worked four or five days a week, at 5 or 6 in the morning, and as late night, 8, 9, 10 pm at night. Three months straight. His goal and dream was to make the team. And he makes the team. He doesn’t get any much playing time. But then the coaches started telling me, this guy is probably our best defender on the team, he takes the best routes.

That would definitely be the best success story, of coming from nowhere.

That taught me never to doubt any kid, because if you set your mind to it, it’s true, you can do whatever you want.” (Daniel Rodriguez) Daniel is a busy man. He has dedicated a lot of his time to giving back to the school he once attended.

In addition to his administrative duties, coaching

cross-country, and baseball, he recently started helping his brother coach the Hillsdale Knights soccer team. Keeping an eye out for his next protege. “When I first started working with the youth, I said, you know, I can help every single kid. But you have to be realistic, you can’t help every kid, you can only do as much as you can. And if you can get at least one out of a hundred, whatever it is, if you can get one kid turned around, you’ve done something. You’ve changed one person’s life, that’s what it’s really about. It’s super rewarding. I don’t do

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it for the money, I don’t get paid a lot of money to do it. I remember when I was a young kid, I come from a one-parent home.

My mom raised me, I was kind of raising myself. As a kid, having those adults in my life, to help me out, to become the man that I was, was the best thing I could have had happen.

Noticing that in my life, I was like, I need to do this for other people. If I don’t, I’m giving away a gift of mine, because I know I can relate to these kids, because I was once in their shoes.”(Daniel Rodriguez)