Conner Palluck is a Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover La Joya Community High School for AZPreps365. 

Jared Molina is just a sophomore at La Joya Community High School, but he is being thrust into a much bigger role than he expected coming into the season due to the team's struggles.

Molina was originally just the backup quarterback to begin the year, but as the Lobos continued to progress through the year without a win, he is now regularly splitting snaps with the original starter. 

“Jared is an extremely hard worker and a perfectionist. He’s extremely coachable and usually applies what we tell him after the first time, which is somewhat uncommon for most high school guys,” praised coach Adam Beene about the young quarterback.

Molina is very persistent as well as being a good learner, as when he fails at something he tries over and over to correct his mistake rather than just give up.

This is not a trait that is found in many young athletes as most of the time it takes time to develop a strong character and work ethic that he has at such a young age. 

 “Battling for the quarterback position is tough, but every time he gets a chance he takes advantage of it and plays like he has something to prove,” said teammate Jacob Rivera.

Rivera went on to talk about how he admires Molina’s sense of urgency when he is on the field going on to talk about how he helped them cut down on delay of game penalties that they struggled with before he came in. 

Rivera finished saying, “Jared has potential, if he continues to work hard during and after the season there’s no telling how good of a player he could be.”

Although Molina loves football and puts much of his time and effort into improving his game, he also said, 

“Off the field I love going to church, spending time with my family and hanging out with my friends,” he said.

Molina understands that although he must work hard on the field it is important for him to find time to separate himself from the game and spend quality time with his loved ones off the field. His faith is also a big part of his life as he thanks God for all the opportunities that he has been blessed with and all the people around him that support him.

Although Beene had high praises for Molina and his work ethic he still does believe he can work with Molina on improving some aspects in his game saying,

“He currently lacks a little arm strength and that’s what kept him from being in the mix from the start, but he makes up for it with his attitude, accuracy and he’s shown some anticipation of guys coming open which can help make up for the arm strength,” the coach said.

Molina knows that every opportunity he gets is a blessing and is not going to take advantage of the fact that he is now a bigger part of the offense. 

“Knowing that I was gonna be getting reps for varsity last week only made me want to work harder and to give my all into the game no matter how long I was gonna be in for," he said.

It’s things like this that make it obvious that Molina will continue to work hard and not take advantage of the chances he is given on the field.