You can’t pick your teammates, but you can pick your friends.
Two kickers who were teammates in high school are vying for the starting position on the football team at Pierce College.
Oscar Gonzalez and Edward Avila, both 18, met when they were freshmen at Canoga Park High School and became close in their sophomore year when they were both on the football team.
“First time I met him, I didn’t really like him,” Avila said. “He didn’t look like a fun dude, then I got to know him and he was cool.”
As the years went by their relationship became closer, they now argue like best friends and compete like brothers.
“Sometimes he gets me mad, we always make up,” Avila said. “Our friendship has grown, we are like brothers now, we do everything together. If we aren’t together we’re texting.”
They would agree that they both can rattle one another’s cage, yet they can always keep a close relationship just as siblings do.
“He is outgoing and spontaneous, however, he does get on my nerves because Oscar says mean things sometimes but he is my brother, he’s the yin to my yang, I’m the white one who’s nice and he’s the evil one,” Avila said.
“He gets on my nervous as well sometimes but at the end Edward is like a brother to me,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez and Avila are competing with each other everyday during practice for the football team’s kicking position, but they both understand that the better man will get the starting job. The two insist that it does not cause any strain on their relationship. Oscar currently holds the starting position as Avila is redshirting this year.
Avila is assured that competition will not get in the way of their relationship.
“Every day we’re always competing, it doesn’t cause any strain on our friendship. We know it’s just a job and at the end of the day the better man’s going to start. Once practice is out and games are done it’s back to brotherhood,” Avila said. “This brotherhood is not going to break apart that easily.”
Teammate Eric Waters, cornerback, said that they’re very hardworking, they get better and better every day.
“Oscar is under a lot of pressure, but has been handling himself well,” Waters said. “Edward is learning and getting himself better.”
“They’re like Beavis and Butt-head,” said teammate Nick Fields, fullback.
Off the field Gonzalez and Avila are hanging out at each other’s houses, swimming or playing video games together.
Each also insists that the other is a copycat. Both of them are Criminal Justice Major’s, want to transfer to the same college, dress similarly and used to play soccer.
“I played soccer for a couple years, but I left because I felt like it wasn’t a man’s game,” Avila said.
Gonzalez said that he played soccer his whole life, but quit once he started playing football in college.
The two expressed interest in becoming police officers together.
“Maybe he could be my F.B.I partner,” Gonzalez said.
The teammates would also like to go to the same college together, whether that’s Oregon University or Washington University.
“If I get a scholarship, great, if I don’t I know my academic success will carry me through life,” Avila said.
