Vince D’Adamo: What did you enjoy most about competing in athletics throughout your life?
Frank Aguirre: Throughout my life, sports has created an opportunity to meet and connect with people I may have not had the chance to do so in regular daily life, throughout school or family functions. I can not say for sure if I athletics is where I learned to be more outgoing or if I came into sports already being outgoing, but I can say that athletics definitely facilitated the opportunity. I truly enjoyed meeting new people throughout athletic experience in life.
D’Adamo: What have you been doing since graduating from high school?
Aguirre: My career interest and dream throughout high school was to one day own my own restaurant. Since graduating high school almost 22 years ago, I have spent the first 15 years pursuing my dream to own and operate a restaurant which I did own from 2004 to 2009. Since getting out of the restaurant business, not through my own choice because it went bust on me, I have spent my time advocating, consulting and learning to help and support small business owners and entrepreneurs. I currently work for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in the Mayor's Office of Economic Development as a Business Development Specialist focusing on Small Business resources, initiatives and policy. I type these responses in a computer lab at Claremont Graduate University where I am slowly working on a PhD in Higher Education Leadership. My dream had been to own a restaurant, but things didn't go as expected. I feel fortunate to have a new passion in educating people and students about business and entrepreneurship.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite class at Justin-Siena High?
Aguirre: I enjoyed my study skills course my freshman year. It was made up of a wide range of grade level students. It allowed me to meet and connect with students in other grades and classes that I may not have had a chance to connect with otherwise. That type of class allowed me to feel comfortable and allowed me to connect with upperclassmen. I felt more comfortable in my high school environment as I made more friends. You might remember, you were also in that class and we continued our friendship by having a course together. When I was an upperclassman, I consciously made the effort to connect with the lowerclassmen because of the positive effect that type of goodwill had on my experience and I wanted to be sure and return that same effort to other members of the student body who may not have felt comfortable in their new school.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite athletic moment at Justin-Siena High?
Aguirre: Sophomore year in track and field. I was competing at the Sac-Joaquin Section track meet. My last throw in the competition and the last competitor in that event for my age group and I performed the best I had ever performed in my life and it was my personal record or my "PR" as we called it in that sport. While I had an excellent senior year in football and track in field, the experience I just described one specific moment that captures many situations that are and have been important to me for many different reasons.
To put things in context, this was for a shot put competition. I was the first one to use a spinning technique that I knew of in California, which is now a common technique used in competition. I was an undersized running back on the football field and I was not your typical shot put high level competitor in that I did not look like or resemble all the other shot putters at that level in any way shape or form. I simply looked different, I was one of the shortest, the smallest weight, and I sounded different with my typical grunt after each throw. My winning throw set me ahead at least by five feet from the nearest competitor, which was significant at that time. This might not sound like a big game story or 1,000 yard rushing milestone that some that know me might have expected for me to identify, but it was my favorite moment because it highlights the focus on technique, passion to compete and understanding of a personal commitment for reaching a personal record. The whole season and many seasons before that came down to one moment.
D’Adamo: How much do you feel you have grown personally since graduating from high school and how much of that do you trace to athletics?
Aguirre: I have grown a lot. I feel like a much more well rounded person. But most importantly I've learned that life is a constant maneuvering of Xs and Os, ups, downs, success and failures. Learning and continued development is key. I'm sure much of that came from the lessons earned by passing years, but I feel fortunate to have had athletics as a point of reference in my life. These lessons and experiences I learned in sports easily transferred to my other endeavors, such as higher education, entrepreneurship, and to my current job. Once I decided to competed in my last track meet at Sacramento Community College, I found success in my education by referring back to the skills, efforts and commitment I had applied in sports. Whether it is the the effort to score and A grade in a course, make a free throw, a personal record in a track and field meet or a touchdown or great block on the football field, the process, focus and effort is basically the same. I've learned that success is transferable, whether it’s from a classroom, the playing field or in overcoming personal challenges, the lessons learned in sports can apply to all situations in one’s life if we allow ourselves to learn and apply from them.
D’Adamo: Within your family, who have been the most influential people?
Aguirre: My immigrant mother and father. My mother is a courageous, but soft spoken lady. Over 50 years ago she came to this country, Napa specifically, as a single immigrant women, without knowing the language, the culture, and simply looking different. I was very fortunate that she and my father were able to square away their legal status before I was born, they were able to make a decent living, my mother as a janitor at the Veterans Home in Yountville, CA and my father as an Iron Worker and member of a local Iron Workers Union. I truly feel, especially as a child, that if they were not able to make a decent living working in one job, I would have had to spend my free time playing in a back yard instead of on a large practice field, I would have had to spend my time at a child care center instead of out at a track meet, I would have had to watch basketball on TV instead of traveling to Sonoma to play our rivals. I still feel very fortunate and blessed that they had and I had the opportunities we had in the past and continue to benefit from today.
D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports you would most like to meet.
Aguirre: Abraham Lincoln. Favorite Abraham Lincoln Quote: "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."
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