Starting freshman year, Brandon Avila-Hernandez came in as a freshman, not playing any sports, as a very introverted student.

“Coming into high school, I didn’t adventure out of my middle school friend group. It wasn’t until sports like volleyball and basketball came into my life that I branched out,” said Avila-Hernandez.

He started to attend volleyball games on September 13th, 2023, a game against Valley Regional, to support his friend, Aaliyah Langner, alongside some of his other friends. After the game, Jessica Lynch, the head girls volleyball coach here at Morgan, noticed his presence and asked if he would be the manager for the team alongside junior Abbie Graham.

“I truthfully never wanted to be a manager, it wasn’t until I was asked that I truly wanted to participate,” Avila-Hernandez explains.

Becoming familiar with the girls on the team wasn’t easy as, together, they were full of energy, and he was known to be more of an introverted kid, said Avila-Hernandez. With the help of a senior at the time, Morgan alumni Ari Salgar, he built relationships with each individual player. Salgar has made a huge impact on Avila-Hernandez’s life.

“She would come over to me and introduce me to everyone, no matter who was in the room. She made me feel welcomed and appreciated, truthfully a part of the team” Avila-Hernandez explains. He talks about “how jealous [he] is that he cannot be on the court alongside [his] friends” that he has made over the years of him managing, but how important it is to him that he can be there on the sideline.

As a manager, Avila-Hernandez was first asked to record the games for film, which meant carrying the IPad around and filming each set – a task he considered boring.

“I wanted to move on to different tasks, find ways to help the team more, without physically being on the court with them” Avila-Hernandez said.

However, he then moved on to the clock after a couple of games, a challenging, but important task for the team, “it wasn’t always easy. I had to manage man y tasks at once, putting up points each play, starting the clock for timeouts, while paying attention to the game” Avila-Hernandez said.

He wasn’t always perfect. It took him a little bit of time to get used to, and he received a lot of backlash when messing up.

“I received a lot of backlash the first couple of games from parents, but, with the help of Ms. Lynch, I got the hang of it quicker, making way fewer mistakes, and struggling less” Avila-Hernandez explains.

But he kept coming back because he “loves volleyball, as a person who likes to help people, it fulfills that, side of [him], getting to support the girls from the other side of it,” Avila-Hernandez said. He feels it is “one of the happiest things in [his] life.”

Since he gained such a love for managing volleyball, he carried it on into basketball. He sat down with Mrs. Lynch and asked if him and his sister, Nathalie Avila-Hernandez, could manage the basketball team as well. Jessica Lynch, the assistant coach for the Morgan girls basketball team and the volleyball team, agreed, and he continued to build his relationships with the head coach, Caitlin Woods and the players on the team.

Now, as a junior, his role continues to be more empowering to those on the court, attending each practice and being a helpful addition to each team, sharing a love of sports.

He also worked alongside Shannon Robinson, one of the table managers in the past, and now assistant volleyball coach, Robinson explains “I love to see how dedicated he is to the team and he always, like, goes above and beyond to do things without being asked” Robinson explains. He looks forward to continuing to work with him in the future.

“The people, the coaches, are very welcoming. Even in practices where I don’t sometimes don’t do much, I could just be there, be a face. I get that team element, without being physically on the court, but still a part” Avila-Hernandez explains.

Being the super manager he is, he goes above and beyond to help out the team, attending practices, and taking pictures of the players. He gets the name from Ms. Lynch, who sparked his love for being a manager.