DOWNEY — The Downey High School girls’ soccer program has been recognized as a recipient of the 2019-20 National High School Team Academic Award by the United Soccer Coaches Organization.

This award was created in 1996 and in order to qualify, a team must have a minimum grade point average of 3.25, on a 4.0 scale, to be eligible.

According to the organization, “there are currently 312 soccer teams (134 boys, 178 girls) from throughout the United States who have earned the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award for outstanding performance in the classroom as a team during the 2019-20 academic year.”

In order to qualify for this award, “a high school team must have a minimum grade point average of 3.25 for the entire academic year. The team GPA is determined by adding every player’s GPA, then dividing by the number of players on that team.”

Not only did the Downey High School girls’ soccer team qualify for the award, the Lady Vikings currently possess a team G.P.A. of 3.38.

What is more impressive about this accomplishment is that the Lady Vikings have earned this honor for the past three seasons. Downey High School girls’ head soccer coach Javier Aguiniga-Campos is to be recognized for his commitment to academic excellence and for his players efforts in defining what a student-athlete is. Aguiniga-Campos is a math teacher and soccer coach at Downey High School. Congratulations on a job well done.

Esports Competition 

The EA Sports High School Competition took place last week between Downey and Warren High Schools and Downey came away with their first win in three attempts. Warren won the previous two years and Downey won this year’s contest 3-0. Each player competed in Overwatch from their own location on a PC.

Downey was led by Gio Aguirre (Support), Andrew Escobedo (Main Tank), David Miranda (DPS), Brandon Asudillo (DPS), Amado Necochea (Support) and Nathan Ha (Off Tank). Coaches Beaver and Kraus are extremely proud of their gamers and how well they performed in this year’s competition.

This contest marked the first competition of the year between Downey and Warren. Hopefully this won’t be the last.

I had the opportunity to talk to a few of Downey’s players on Wednesday. David Miranda mentioned that Downey had a strong performance due to their synergy. Miranda said that each player complimented each other well and that played a key role in the win.

Amado Necochea echoed what David Miranda said and was pleased with the team’s effort. Necochea complimented team captain Gio Aguirre on how well he directed this team. Necochea also mentioned how pleased he was with the “swag” they received for the win and how they get a tour of Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine. Necochea wants to be a computer programmer and work in web development.