Whataburger Student Athlete of the Month:<br> Raymond S. Kellis High School's Alec Romero
Raymond S. Kellis High School sophomore Alec Romero is the Whataburger Student Athlete of the Month for December.
Now in his sophomore year at Kellis, Romero is a three-sport athlete. He has played basketball since he was 9 years old, but upon arriving at Kellis last year, he took up football and track and field. In football, Romero is a tight end; in basketball he plays guard and forward. In track, he's a sprinter and discus thrower.
Romero says basketball is his favorite and probably his best sport. Balancing the three sports can prove difficult when seasons overlap, but Romero says the greatest challenge of playing three sports is the transition that comes with each season.
"You get used to your teammates and friends and everything becomes a daily routine," Romero said. "Then all of a sudden you have to alter it and adjust to a different schedule."
Romero didn't always know how much he loved playing sports. Deb Moore, Romero's marketing teacher and DECA advisor, says that didn't happen until late in middle school when Romero became unhappy with his physical fitness.
"He used to be a pretty large kid, and all of a sudden he just decided he didn't want to be that anymore and he started working toward not being that," Moore said. "That's how he learned he had a great love for sports."
As Romero got involved in sports and lost weight, his self-confidence grew. He also began encouraging teammates to eat better. He says he tries to lead by example in sports, simply working hard and letting teammates see that, but also says he doesn't shy away from leadership moments.
Though he devotes a lot of time to sports, Romero has bigger plans outside the athletic realm.
As ambitious as Romero is in taking on three sports, he's even more ambitious academically and is never afraid to let people know it.
"He's very serious, very driven," Moore said. "When people ask him what his goal is, he always tells them it's to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. People always kind of laugh and go 'Well that's pretty ambitious,' and he goes 'Yeah, and that's what I want.' "
Romero, who holds a 3.75 GPA, said he hasn't always been committed to academics. He used to get good grades on natural ability. But after his grades slipped late in middle school, Romero realized he needed to refocus, and his grades started to improve.
"After that I've always felt like I've never been that kid again where I could just get straight A's without even having to think about it," Romero said. "Now I actually have to work hard in the classroom."
Romero knows he'll have to keep working extremely hard to achieve strong test scores as he tries to reach his goal of attending Harvard University in pursuit of an MBA. Romero hopes good test scores and his extra curricular profile will help him get into the Ivy League school, but he also has Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., in his sights.
Moore said Romero always stays on top of his work regardless of how much time other commitments require. She cited an example recently where the school's DECA chapter traveled to Seattle for a conference and Romero emailed teachers before leaving to get the work he would miss so he could do it on the trip.
"He doesn't use it as an excuse when he comes back to the classroom either," Moore said. "He's prepared when he goes back into the classroom."
In addition to his athletic and academic commitments, Romero participates in 20 clubs at Kellis. After joining DECA, an international sales and marketing association for students, as a freshman, he became president this year. Five other clubs have branched out from within DECA, and Romero is president of two of them.
Romero has also been involved in Key Club, speech club, freshman orientation and countless other groups but focuses most on business.
"He works to get himself in leadership positions so that he can learn all he can now about leadership, about business, about running a successful company," Moore said. "He's pretty serious about trying to achieve that goal (of being a CEO)."
Romero also does community projects with his church and the Best Buddies program at Kellis and says he can't recall a time he turned down the opportunity to be part of a new club.
FSAZ: What is your proudest moment so far as an athlete?
Romero: "I weighed 200 pounds in seventh grade, and there were a lot of problems that came with that. When I was a kid, I played center in basketball. It was like the fat-kid job. Now I'm in high school, I started working out and lost the weight, and every day now I get to see there's something I wasn't able to do. Like just this past weekend I was with some friends (playing basketball), and some of the guys were jumping up to hang on the rim. I never thought I could do that, but on Saturday night I did it. I got to hang on the rim, I was able to dunk. It was pretty cool because I never knew I could do that."
FSAZ: And off the field -- what's your proudest accomplishment as a member of the community or at school?
Romero: "With the weight issues I had, I've always kind of held myself low in my own eyes. Even though I've become president of a few things, I don't really feel like I've accomplished too much, even though maybe I have. My standards are so high, I honestly don't feel like I've outdone them enough where I could choose something like that."
FSAZ: What has been the biggest influence in your life that's led to your well-rounded focus on sports, academics and community involvement?
Romero: "When I was in sixth grade, my friend Kyle was on every sports team. Basketball, boys' softball, football -- he did all that, and I discovered he was also the student council president. So ever since sixth grade I've always had the idea in my mind that maybe a person can do more than one thing, maybe they can do everything and branch out farther than most people would. So I always had the plan to do something like that, but it wasn't until high school that my confidence was so high that I actually got out there and did it."
FSAZ: What is one experience you've had with Alec that displays what kind of person he is and the impact he tries to have?
Kellis marketing teacher Deb Moore: "He's very involved in a lot of programs, and one of the ones that probably touches his heart the most is Best Buddies. At our school we're a magnet program for special education, so we have a lot of special needs students here. Alec is very involved in Best Buddies and with unified sports, where general education and special education partners play sports together and compete against other schools. His (Best Buddies) partner, Isaiah, told Alec he had a birthday coming up, and Alec had a big birthday banner made. He had everyone take pictures with it and gave him this framed thing that said 'Happy Birthday Isaiah.' He took it home, and his parents were so touched that they wrote a beautiful letter back to the school to say how much it means for someone at the school to champion him at the school. At a time when kids are being bullied for being different or having special needs, here's a kid that's popular and professional who uses his influence to embrace this kid and bring him in."
