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I'll try a column

Discussion in 'Writers' Workshop' started by Angola!, Jan 30, 2007.

  1. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    I wrote columns once a week at my old shop, but with very little direction they tended to just be game previews. During football at my present shop I have to write a column a week and I think I am doing quite a bit better.
    This is old, but I am just curious as to what I could've done better. Thanks.
    Angola!



    hed: Aguilar's change turns doubters into believers

    Jacob Aguilar had a lot of free time to think about his decision to
    drop out of high school.
    Aguilar, citing an attitude of not caring, decided he didn’t want to continue “wasting” his time after his freshman year at George Bush High.
    But with his newfound freedom came thoughts of what he was missing out on.
    “I wouldn’t be anything when I wanted to get a job,” he said. “I wanted to come back and have fun and do sports and get a better education.”
    Aguilar returned to the small school for his sophomore year in 2005 and faced challenges from the start. Not only did he have to prove to himself that he could handle school and keep his grades up, he had to prove to friends and others that he had changed.
    “My friends didn’t think I was going to come back and be a totally changed person,” he said. “They didn’t think I would have the new attitude.”
    Aguilar proved everyone wrong, though. He didn’t play sports his sophomore year, choosing instead to concentrate on school.
    “It was kind of like I wanted to play, but more I needed to get my grades up and keep them up,” Aguilar said.
    Aguilar eventually got to the point where he had his grades at a manageable level, and he was able to participate in track and field and baseball for the Indians.
    Now, in his junior season, Aguilar has completed his comeback by starting for the undefeated George Bush High football team.
    Aguilar is not only enjoying a fine season on the field, but he is doing things few would have ever imagined from a high-school dropout: Being a leader.
    “I wanted to be a better person to our football team and lead everyone into what we have to do to be better,” he said.
    Tom Jones, the George Bush High head coach, seems a little stunned at the complete turnaround pulled off by Aguilar.
    “He is just an outstanding kid that could have gone the wrong direction,” Jones said. “He is contributing on both sides of the ball and is a leader. That is what kind of amazes me. The kids, they know and respect him for what he has gone through, and as a result they are looking to him as possibly the leader on the team right now. When he talks, they listen.”
    Aguilar isn’t sure whether he will be able to play next season because of UIL athletic eligibility rules, but he is sure he will attend school whether he can play sports or not.
    Once he graduates from high school, Aguilar plans to put his education on hold for a while.
    That hold will not be the result of another attitude change. Rather, Aguilar plans to serve his country by joining the Marines, a perfect fit for an athlete and a person with a new attitude to be a leader instead of a quitter.
     
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