BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
On the football field Maverick Mack is an intimidating opponent, but off – he’s an affable young man.
That doesn't mean he is any less driven.
“I have a goal. I want to make it to college football so anytime I’m working out, or I don’t feel motivated to work out, I just think about that goal and what I have to do to get there,” Mack said.
If you’ve gone to local gym Valley Fitness over the past three years, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him there.
“During the season, I'm probably here, I want to say two to three hours a day and I come about five to six days a week.”
Mack attends high school in Bakersfield, playing on the Kern Resource’s Center football team.
“It’s an hour drive there and an hour back.”
With this time commitment – it was important that he have a place up here to workout.
“Maverick inspires me,” Victoria Diaz said.
That’s where Victoria Diaz comes in, the owner and manager of Valley Fitness in Lake Isabella who for the last three years has allowed him to workout at the gym free of charge.
“When I saw him trying to make an effort to be here, I felt like I wanted to feed that part of him. Just a simple gym membership is not too big a deal but I’ ve watched what he’s done with it. So he’s really really developed himself into a better person physically and mentally, and it's just something I wanted to be a part of.”
He’s a Junior in High school he’s already faced adversity –
“Last year I got an ACL tear on my left knee and played five games with it like that not knowing it was torn.”
He had to get surgery to do rehabilitation therapy to heal.
“That was definitely a lot of stress,” Mack said.
And this season, he again got injured –
“Same thing on my right knee,” Mack explained.
But just like he’s hard to take down on the field, he didn’t let his spirits get down, and says it was his teammates who helped him through.
“I'm four weeks out right now, and I'm doing pretty good,” Mac said, “You build a bond with your players, with your buddies, too. So it's more like a brotherhood, not just playing the game, it's kind of playing with your brothers.”
Continuing to work out while he heals, and he hasn’t lowered his expectations at all.
Racking up impressive stats that rank him second in the nation for tackles – his success something he credits his time at Valley Fitness with.
“It’s not only a place of fitness, it’s a place of connection, and because we are a small town, there is just an enormous sense of community,” Diaz said.
“It's a big part to me to be here, and I've gotten here from my family being really supportive and my friends being supportive through the surgeries.”
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