Squashing the Competition

Four years ago, Reyna Pacheco was ready to drop out of school. The then seventh-grader had poor grades, was constantly getting into trouble and had no faith in the idea of going to college. In fact, school administrators and other adults had told her parents that if they didn’t intervene she’d most likely be lost by age 16. Now as captain of her squash team and a top member of her class at the Preuss School, the high school junior is proving everyone wrong.

Name: Reyna Pacheco

Age: 16

School:

Accomplishment: Ranked No. 25 in the nation for squash in the under-17 group.

Key to Awesomeness: When Pacheco heard that her school would be holding open tryouts for a squash team, she thought it would be fun to get a rise out of people by attending.

“I thought I would try it because I was always the bad kid and no one was expecting me to do it,” she said.

As a seventh-grader at the Preuss School, Pacheco was hardly the type to play squash, a game that is usually regarded as a “rich kid” sport. Pacheco and her family had emigrated from Mexico a few years earlier, and times were tough. She remembers her family of six living out of a small room, heating water out of a hot pot. Rather than having big dreams about college, Pacheco was struggling to help put food on the table for her family. With no hopes for a bright future, Pacheco took little interest in school and was often getting into trouble.

“Compared to the other kids I really didn’t see myself going to college,” Pacheco said. “I thought it was ridiculous that they [the school] were telling me to think about something eight years away.”

Just when Pacheco was ready to leave Preuss, she heard about tryouts for a squash team. Access Youth Academy is a San Diego-based nonprofit organization that combines the game of squash with academic tutoring and community service. Despite the fact that she didn’t think she would be chosen, Pacheco attended the tryouts to prove to her fellow classmates that she had the same potential as all of them. To her surprise, Coach Renato Paiva quickly picked up on that as well and not only chose Pacheco for the team but made her captain.

“I remember thinking, ‘You’re nuts. Can’t you see I come from the wrong crowd and you want me to lead your team?' ” she said.

Turns out that Paiva’s faith in Pacheco was all it took for her to turn around. After being chosen for the team, Pacheco dedicated herself to the role of captain and started focusing on her grades. Because her family situation still hadn’t changed, it was especially challenging for her to make things work. Without a car, Pacheco woke up at 4 a.m. to travel to La Jolla by bus and practice before school. In addition, she slowly but surely turned her C grades into straight A's.

“Little by little I wound up being ranked No. 1 in my class,” she said. “I always had a narrow vision of what my life actually was, but this allowed me to see the bigger picture and view that there are more things out there for me.”

Today, Pacheco is nationally ranked at No. 25 for girls under age 17. She actively participates in tournaments throughout the country, fundraising completely on her own in order to be able to compete. Given the nature of the game of squash, many of the tournaments take place on college campuses, giving Pacheco a glimpse at a future that she previously thought she didn’t have.

“I went from a kid getting C’s and D’s to a kid who wants to go to Harvard,” she said. “I’ve grown more in three years than I have in my 16 years of life."

And although many have been fascinated by Pacheco’s story and give her credit for her hard work, she has no plans to sit back and relax. Pacheco will begin applying to colleges next year and hopes to study business at Columbia or Harvard. In addition, she hopes to continue playing squash.

“In my tournaments, I was the only Hispanic and the only urban kid,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling to know that you are breaking boundaries, especially as an immigrant. It has all become about going out there and reaching out for what no one thought I could do.”