Hello everyone, this is the first Wizards Off Work podcast where we interview staff members and ask them questions to gain a better understanding on who they are. We hope that you all get to know these wonderful people better since we are a small school after all. As previously stated, this is our first podcast so the audio will sound off. Brace yourself for loud moments. We hope to learn from this experience and improve in our next podcast. 

JUAN ALVARADO: Welcome back… welcome back. Welcome to our podcast “Wizards off Work,” for the first time ever I am your host Juan Alvarado. We got our co-host and our editor.

NOE DE SANTIAGO: Noe, hello.

BRANDON RUBALCAVA: Our what? Our editor, Brandon.

ALVARADO: So for our first ever guest we have Mario.

MARIO NIETO: Hi it’s Mario.

ALVARADO: And we have our guest speaker.

AHMAD OBEIDALLAH: Ahmad you can also call me AJ.

ALVARADO: So in this podcast we are going to be talking about the hobbies of the staff members outside of work. Mario, the first question we have for you is what do you do outside of work?

MARIO: What do I do outside of work? Take care of my wife and I like to watch a lot of football.

ALVARADO: What team do you go for?

MARIO: The Broncos, they are the best.

SANTIAGO: What’s their record?

MARIO: Right now it’s 3-5. We are doing okay.

ALVARADO: What about you AJ?

AJ: Outside of school I mostly go to work.

RUBALCAVA: Where do you work at?

AJ: That is classified but I also go to the gym a lot at night.

ALVARADO: Do you watch any football?

AJ: Sometimes yeah. I go for the 49ers.

MARIO: They are okay. 

AJ: Okay? We have a better record than the Broncos.

Mario and AJ were asked what was one of their funniest experiences at MCHS.

MARIO: Yeah the other day when somebody broke a trophy. That was a really funny story.

AJ: You also saw the video?

MARIO: Yeah it was on the news on channel 34. No, it was on channel 52.

RUBALCAVA: It was on Telemundo? Nooooo, there is no way.

AJ: Telemundo is that the one with the red cube, the green cube.

SANTIAGO: No, that one is Univision.

BRANDON: Telemundo is the one with the red T.

Mario was asked, who is his favorite student at school?

MARIO: My favorite student, you know what? Every single student.

SANTIAGO: Noooo we need an answer!

RUBALCAVA: A past student so like the current students don’t get offended. 

MARIO: You know everybody is so nice but sometimes you got favorites. I have three kids and one of them is my favorite. Mr. AJ is a really good guy, he’s a cool guy. My captain right here too. A lot of girls are very nice too. Cecy the President. You know why I am here at this school. It’s because of you guys. The students at this school. You are very polite, very respectful to your teachers, even to me and I am only the lunch man. They offered me two different schools before and the money was a little more than how much I am at right now. But I am not going to leave my Middle College because the students deserve more than what we offer to them.

AJ: What were the two other schools?

MARIO: Mendez was one and Godinez.

RUBALCAVA: Now I understand why you stayed here, makes sense. How long ago was that? Or was it this year?

MARIO: The Mendez was COVID and they asked if I wanted to stay there for? I said, “No, I want to go back to my Middle College.” I don’t mind that I have to set up everyday because you guys are here to study and be somebody later on and I think you deserve more. Other schools have their own soccer field or basketball court and you guys have to ask permission from the college for everything. I think that you deserve more than what you get.

AJ: Mr. Voight if you could do anything that would be great.

RUBALCAVA: Aye Mr. Voight give this man a raise. You heard that bro.

Mario was asked what his favorite memory so far was at MCHS.

MARIO: Yeah when we won the first uhh champion soccer that was very nice because I think it was the first time that we won the trophy and that was 2018-2019. 

ALVARADO: Oh yeah that was the year before we played freshman year.

AJ: Yeah it was the week of until Covid hit.

ALVARADO: Yeah then Covid hit.

RUBALCAVA: Was that like the first or how many times did Middle College play soccer before?

MARIO: That was my second year to be a coach, but I think before that they played two years before.

AJ: So brand new.

RUBALCAVA: Oh so it was recent.

MARIO: Yeah yeah, you know what we, everybody was so excited, especially all the seniors, I remember their names still, Alan, uhhh, the guys were so happy because we brought the trophy, and I hope this year we can bring the trophy again.

RUBALCAVA: We got this gentlemen. We got our starting striker right there.

MARIO: I got four players, actually five players right here.

SANTIAGO: Yeah, for sure.

Mario and A.J. were asked, what is one thing they want students to take with them once they leave MCHS?

MARIO: Yeah, I don’t care what you want to be when you finish your school, always try to be a good neighbor, be a good person, because you could be the most important doctor in the world, if you’re not good to your neighbors and not a good person then you know that you’re missing something in the world, be kind to the people and be who you really are, keep the way that you are nice and I hope that everybody finishes their career and becomes somebody.

ALVARADO: What about you?

AJ: Wait what was the question?

SANTIAGO: Like if you were to tell everybody in the school one thing like a piece of information that they can carry on with them for the rest of their life what would it be?

AJ: Don’t forget to eat your lunch and breakfast; it’s very important because then you can’t be paying attention in class with an empty stomach, my second piece of information, uhhh I don’t know, oh always be nice to your teachers especially Mr. Ramos. He’s a very very nice teacher and if you’re a good friend with him he’ll be a very good friend back, actually uhm can I say it?

SANTIAGO: Say it.

AJ: Mr. Ramos is very nice, he helped me out when I didn’t have money, he gave me free tickets. He gave me three free tickets, one to winter formal last year, the second one was to the Halloween dance, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to give me a ticket to this year’s winter formal, thank you.

Thanks y’all for tuning into Wizards off Work. We hope you have amazing holidays and a happy new year. Hope to see you guys soon!! Thank you.