Alyssa Cervantes had a lot to balance through the last three months of her senior year.
The Lady Trojan was a multi-sport star, joining the volleyball, cross country, basketball and track and field, all while keeping up her grades during the pandemic. Meanwhile, she was also working on her fantasy novel.
“I’m always writing it, I’m always upgrading it, if I need to change something I’m changing something,” she said. “It’s definitely a story that I want to publish later on, in the future. I’m really excited about that.”
Two Mesa Vista athletes signed with Northeast Division III schools to continue their athletic pursuits. Cervantes will join the track and field team at Northern Vermont University-Johnson. Additionally, Celina McNamara will play volleyball at University of Maine at Presque Isle.
“It means a lot,” said Leonard Torrez, who coaches the girls sports at Mesa Vista High School. “It shows the direction of the school in terms of, it is possible to play at the next level.
Cervantes said she ultimately decided on Northern Vermont because they offered a creative writing major, and other finalist schools did not.
Her novel is “The Golden Garden,” which she has been working on for a few years. In it, a girl named Skylar finds a map to a secret island that hosts two dragons, one good and one evil. Along the way, she encounters pirates, monsters and other challenges.
“I was just bored in class one day, and I just started creating characters,” Cervantes said. “I like to draw, so I just started drawing random characters. And slowly but surely, it started to create a whole story process.”
She said she wants to become an author, and to get a degree in education and teach creative writing to high school students.
Torrez said Cervantes was able to be a leader in all sports for the team, and help them adjust to a new coach.
“The fact that she came in, took the initiative to learn the program from the inside out, and guide the other girls and show them what needed to be done in all of the sports, was something that was truly special to witness,” Torrez said. “She was one of the most vocal leaders I’ve ever seen as a coach.”
Through her time at Mesa Vista, Cervantes often had a hard time while being on struggling teams. The volleyball team, for example, did not win a single match between their second match in September 2018, through all of 2019, beating the Española Valley junior varsity team but not defeating a varsity opponent until late March this year.
“It was extremely tough,” she said. “We have a losing streak. When you hear, ‘I’m from Mesa Vista,’ a lot of people, they don’t look really highly at our school. We lose a lot at sports. It’s something that we need to change.”
But the Lady Trojans finally broke that volleyball losing streak, which Cervantes mentioned as one of her favorite memories.
They won the first match of a long Tuesday doubleheader against Menaul at home. In the second game, they were tired, and the Panthers pushed the match to five sets. The fifth set was tied 13-13 when Cervantes went to serve.
She took a deep breath, and her serve found the floor. Now at match point, her serve was misplayed for an ace and the win.
“I just have this memory of going over and hugging my coach, and everyone else just coming over and hugging me,” Cervantes said. “We hit that final moment, and it was a big thing for us.”
But state track was especially meaningful this year, as it was the first time Cervantes was able to compete. In the past, she missed the event with injuries her freshman and sophomore year, and it was canceled during the pandemic for her junior year.
The Lady Trojan finished seventh in the long jump, just a quarter-inch off from a podium finish, in her first year competing in that event.
She said in one of her first ever attempts, she was impressed with her distance and got excited at the event. At her first meet, she was nervous at the beginning, and struggled counting her steps while the coaches were at a meeting. But she finally found her coach to help her, and she took first place at the event.
“She was a little sketchy about it at first,” Torrez said. “She discovered that she was able to pair that speed with that jumping ability. And she really blossomed out of that.”
Cervantes was 11th in the 200 meters, and her finishing time in the 100 meters was ninth-best. But that sprint was especially challenging, as she qualified in the slowest of three heats. Rather than a finals race for the top finishers, the placements were determined only by the time in the heats.
So, while Cervantes easily won her heat, and broke her personal best by .2 seconds, she fell short of the podium.
“I felt like if I was in a faster heat, I definitely would have maybe made it sixth or fifth place,” she said. “When I’m in a faster heat, I tend to push myself more against bigger competition. If I’m against bigger competition, I do a lot better, I push myself a lot better. Watching the next two faster heats, I knew immediately, I wasn’t going to get on that podium.”
Cervantes signed up and created a recruiting profile on NCSASports.com, which she said helped her get looks from colleges.
She said she was stuck between going for basketball or track and field. She will try to walk on to the basketball team at Northern Vermont and play both sports, though that may not be possible until her second year.
While very nervous and scared about moving so far away from everyone she knows, Cervantes looks forward to the opportunity to continue her sports career.
“I’m definitely looking forward to competing,” she said. “I’m really glad my sports aren’t over. I’m just thankful that I managed to get into a school where I can compete and keep competing, and hopefully in the future still compete. Because I’m not done.”
Celina McNamara
McNamara concentrated more on volleyball during her time at Mesa Vista, though she also played basketball and ran track at various points in high school.
Torrez said McNamara brought leadership and enthusiasm to the volleyball team this year. She worked hard to mentor junior varsity players and lead them into battle.
“There were a few times during the course of the year that I asked her to do things that someone might have balked at,” he said. “She did it without question, and she did it without complaining.”
As a taller player, McNamara was a great blocker for the Lady Trojans, and Torrez said she worked hard to improve her defense.
He said McNamara is a hard worker, and is great academically.
“If she chooses to stick with the athletics, I know she’s going to do great,” he said. “But ultimately, I know her passion and her goal is to go forth with the academic aspect of college.”