Bonita Vista High (BVH) four year varsity girls’ soccer player, two year girls’ varsity soccer captain and three year varsity track and field athlete Natalie “Natty-G” Guevara has grown accustomed to the demanding student-athlete lifestyle. In February of this year, Guevara had just announced her commitment to the University of Chicago for track and field.
Guevara’s most dominant sport throughout her life had always been soccer. Starting from the age of three years old, Guevara followed similar footsteps to her older sister, Alexis Guevara, by competing and participating in club soccer teams. N. Guevara’s mother, Pam Guevara, shares her experience of watching her daughter grow up playing soccer.
“It is so fun to watch her because she loves the game a lot. She was very physical at it, and she just really got into the game. So it seemed like a possibility for her to continue playing it at a higher level, it was definitely something we thought about,” P. Guevara said.
One of P. Guevara’s favorite memories of watching her daughter play was seeing her hard work pay off once she reached highschool. She shares the reflective moment of being able to watch N. Guevara accomplish her goals.
“She was really excited when she was picked to play varsity as a freshman. Of course, as parents you think your children are good enough for everything,” P. Guevara said. “But that was something that she did on her own, and she made it, so that was really exciting for me to see her achieve that.”
After spending the majority of her life playing soccer, N. Guevara’s decided to join the BVH track and field team her sophomore year. She was first contacted by girls’ and boys’ track Head Coach Ray Peterson to join the team.
“I met Natalie probably three years ago when I went to a soccer game to support one of my former students. I saw Natalie running around on the field thinking ‘okay she looks athletic’. After the soccer game I told her, ‘Hey I want you to join track’ and that is how it started,” Peterson said.
In track, N. Guevara competes in triple jump, long jump, 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles. Due to her initial lack of experience in the sport, Peterson had to familiarize N. Guevara with the different events in which she instantly became a natural at. Peterson shares the moment of watching N. Guevara’s first attempt at hurdles.
“I don’t know how we introduced her to the hurdles, but before you know it, we were joking and playing around about going over these hurdles and she just jumped over them. She was jumping so high over those hurdles and I thought, ‘Whoa you are going to be good’,” Peterson said.
- Guevara faced some challenges with the events specifically for hurdles in which her main goal was to get over the mental block of just jumping over without technique. One of her coaches had her and her teammates do plyometrics and intense training for their form in running and jumping. Within her first year on the team, N. Guevara was able to break the BVH school record for triple jump.
“My first meet was an invitational, which usually there’s better athletes and it’s for varsity. I had only been doing track for a week, so I was nervous but I actually did good. I placed in the top three in a couple events and it made me really excited because they give out medals,” N. Guevara said.
During her junior year, several schools began reaching out to N. Guevara regarding track. This became a conflicting issue for her, as the sport that she mainly dedicated her time to was soccer, to which she thought she would continue playing in college.
“I was conflicted because I was only focused on soccer mainly and it kind of stressed me out. It was good that it gave me more options for college, but it also just made me feel really confused about what I wanted,” N. Guevara said.
- Guevara’s parents remained supportive of her decision to initially join the track team as her father saw it as an opportunity to build both strength and speed. P. Guevara shares how it was not a shock when her daughter first approached her about the sport and then eventually seeing it as something she could possibly pursue in college.
“We thought the whole high school experience of playing different sports was the way to go because of the social part of it. It wasn’t a surprise and I think we were happy that she was trying something new and different,” P. Guevara said. “I thought that it would be difficult as far as the time management of school and club soccer,”
With academics being a priority, N. Guevara had to keep up with her time management while having a committed schedule to both soccer and track. During the spring season, she finds it most difficult to prevent procrastination while maintaining a tight schedule.
“I would say it’s really hard staying up a lot of nights, but I just really like committing myself to getting my work done no matter what. I didn’t want to fall behind and I’m very competitive so I didn’t want my grades to drop,” N. Guevara said. “If my grades drop, my parents won’t let me play sports. I didn’t have many social outings during sophomore or junior year, but it was worth it to keep my grades up.”
Academics played a very important role outside of just her grades, it was a large determining factor in deciding which college N. Guevara would commit to. She shares how for most student-athletes they tend to focus more on their sport’s college division rather than academics which she opposed.
“Originally for soccer, you start looking at schools sophomore year and at that point I was still Division 1 soccer. While I was talking to schools I realized that I didn’t want that level of commitment,” N. Guevara said. “That was when I started learning about D3 schools that were actually really academic, and the sport was less focused on. I opened up my options to just D3 for [soccer and track], and so that’s when University of Chicago popped into my mind.”
Even though track may not have been the initial reason N. Guevara and her parents thought she would commit to a school, they considered some possible schools that were able to fulfill the academic and athletic opportunities she desires. With dedicated time and research, N. Guevara had decided that the University of Chicago would best suit her.
“It was her decision because she’s the one who has to live and whatever decision she made, it would not have been the wrong one. I think she definitely did her homework on the different options, the different choices,” P. Guevara said. “It was more of a relief thinking, ‘now she can relax and not worry about it.’ We were happy she finally made the decision.”
One of the things that intrigued N. Guevara about the University of Chicago was the high recognition the school received for all aspects ranging from its high ranked academics to its unique architecture. She shares how she can not wait for all of the opportunities the school can provide for her as she is interested in majoring in molecular bioengineering.
“It’s a great school with a good reputation, so once I get a degree there and go further in my education, that reputation will help me. There are a lot of interesting departments like molecular engineering, which is an option for me that you can’t always get places,” N. Guevara said. “They have great professors and internship programs which I’m definitely going to do because there are a lot of opportunities..”
When she visited the school, N. Guevara describes how the University of Chicago gave her a welcoming impression, relieving her of any nervousness she may have felt. Although the school and environment may take some time to adjust to, it gave her a lot of opportunities to be hopeful for.
“I went on a great day, it was the one day it was really pretty and sunny. I met up with this sophomore who’s from San Diego that does track, and she gave me her perspective on things, and I found out she’s a lot like me because she also played soccer,” N. Guevara said. “The track coach was so nice and he emphasized that I had a lot of potential, and that he could see big things for me. That made me feel comforted.”
After a successful season with the soccer team in which they were named the San Diego Section CIF Division 1 champions, N. Guevara must return to her intense track season. With not having a long break in between the sports, she must adjust to the different type of physical fitness track requires.
“For soccer, [our postseason] went so far into [the beginning of the track season] that there wasn’t really a smooth or easy transition. We had to get into it, but mentally I was just trying to prepare myself for the intensity of the workouts and I’m still preparing myself physically. It’s really hard, but I’m excited,” N. Guevara said.
March 2. was her first meet was at the Mount Carmel field distance invitational where N. Guevara competed in two events, long jump and triple jump. The first meet back already went well, as she noticed a significant improvement since last season.
“For my triple jump, I did well and I got second place overall. I jumped what I jumped at the end of last year, which is really good because it’s like I never took a break,” N. Guevara said. “I forgot what the atmosphere was like, but once you get one jump in, your nerves kind of go away and there’s a lot of nice girls so it’s kind of really positive energy.”
With this being her last season of highschool, N. Guevara states that since her first track meet she already set personal goals to improve for the next time she competes. With having no expectations of how her first meet would go and then doing well, N. Guevara shares what keeps her striving to do her best.
“[After my first meet], it kind of made me more excited and my expectations were even higher. I definitely want to set a new personal record (PR), and if I PR then I would probably break the school record again,” N. Guevara said. “So that makes me excited and I want to win league at least for one event. My goal is to go to states this year because I qualified last year, but I wasn’t able to go.”
Even though she is already committed to the University of Chicago for track, Guevara still explains that she feels some sort of pressure due to the expectations she has placed on herself. However she does not let this pressure affect her in a negative way, instead it motivates her to keep improving.
“I feel a lot of pressure because the events that I do are kind of specialized and so there’s not many people doing them. I’m kind of known to do really well or win and I get nervous sometimes I won’t, especially now that I’m committed to these events,” N. Guevara said. “I just want to prove to myself that it wasn’t a lucky season. I want to do even better than I did the past two years.”
One of the challenges of moving to a school so far is the distance between friends and family. P. Guevara shares some positive remarks about her daughter’s soon departure to a new school and environment.
“Don’t be afraid to meet people, make new friends. Don’t be afraid to try new things and just go for it,” P. Guevara said. “It’s a challenge and there’s going to be scary parts and fun parts with trying to navigate through it all. We’re always here, just a phone call away and we are very proud of her.”
