Hispanic Heritage Month is a harmonious month that celebrates years of Hispanic history. Paso Robles High School has more than 50% students that are Hispanic, however, there are only a few who play for teams in school. The participation of Hispanics in sports is low; rising athletes, Gabriela Anaya, Dennise De La Cruz, and Jocelyn Soto-Garcia are Hispanic student-athletes that pave a path for others to follow. 

Gabriela Anaya has played soccer for four years, “My brother was the reason I started playing soccer. I looked up to him so naturally I wanted to do whatever sport he was doing,” Anaya said. Anaya plays center forward and her style of play is aggressive. She likes to use an aggressive method when playing soccer because it helps her win more.

Anaya is a junior and has a very rigorous academic schedule: engineering development & design, Ag welding, AP Pre-calc, APUSH, AP Physics, and AP Lang. She is also involved within various clubs on campus: one year in VIP club, Billiards club, and Wilderness club, and two years in beach club. She enjoys the wilderness club the most because it involves hiking with her friends. 

She has also played track & field for one year and focuses on shot put. She hopes to play it at a higher level the next following years. Anaya finished 2nd in a Nipomo track & field meet and 1st in the Paso, Righetti, Lompoc Tri Meet 2024.  She plans to attend a four year university with Cal Poly and UC Davis as potential dream schools  Anaya practices for 10 hours a week for both track & field and soccer. Anaya has a 4.0 GPA, “I do get good grades. It’s hard, but it’s rewarding because I put a lot of work into my academics and being an athlete I get to represent Paso,” Anaya said.

Dennise De La Cruz, a senior at PRHS,  is a high-level wrestling athlete who has participated in many tournaments. On January 6th, De La Cruz placed first at Morro Bay Women’s Wrestling CIT Tournament. She also won the Most Outstanding Wrestler for the women’s team. Thirteen days later on January 19, De La Cruz placed second at the Queen of Land Varsity tournament at Highland High School in Bakersfield.

 “When I was in fourth grade, I always liked combat sports because I did jiu jitsu and that’s fun. I did like MMA for a little bit too. I always liked combat sports and I ended up joining wrestling. It was a very cool experience and I’m really glad that I did it.” De La Cruz said. 

She credits AVID for helping her apply to universities and using her wrestling experience to obtain a scholarship to attend a four year university. “AVID really helps with showing you different pathways that you can take and they’ll show you that there is a chance to go to college with all these scholarships that they’re offering and all this community service that you’ve been doing. You end up having those people throughout your four years and AVID really is a family you grow to love those people a lot”, De La Cruz said. 

De La Cruz plans to attend a four-year university, she is aiming for a wrestling scholarship and is going to reach out to multiple universities. De La Cruz hopes to become a forensic scientist with UC San Diego as her dream school. She is taking multiple academic courses such as economics, ceramics, engineering and design, college math, AP Lit, and AVID.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Jocelyn Soto-Garcia, is an all star rounded student-athlete. Garcia is currently a senior who runs for cross country.  Garcia was introduced to the sport through track and field, where she was a distance runner. On September 8, the PRHS cross country team had a season opener in Arroyo Grande. Garica placed 10th overall, the highest time for the PRHS women’s varsity team. 

Garcia is very involved within our campus: GANAS club, Little Hero Alliance Club, and link crew. She is also taking academic classes such as AP Spanish, AP Environmental Science, AP Statistics, ceramics, economics, and short story popular novels; she completed the pathway of healthcare as well. Garcia believes that it can be challenging to manage everything, but it’s worth it, “I feel like it’s hard, it’s sometimes hard to manage, but being an athlete helps you gain discipline, so it helps with my performance,” Garcia said. 

This time of the month is when seniors are planning to apply to universities. Garcia hopes to become a pediatrician in the near future. She is planning to go straight into a four-year; her dream schools being UCSB or UC Davis. Garcia is a first generation student, bilingual, and has high hopes for her future. 

All these three inspirational Hispanic student-athletes have proven how impactful they are for their sport and how they are bridging cultures within PRHS.