ESCONDIDO — The young but mighty Orange Glen Skate Team now holds the title of best skate team in San Diego County.
The team, comprised of 45 student skateboarders from Orange Glen High School, recently won first place at the second annual National Team Skateboard League San Diego County Competition at CA Training Facility in Vista, an event organized by the Alternative Youth Athletics Foundation.
Sponsors of the event included the San Diego Padres, Nike SB, Arts-Rec Skateshop and others.
The students competed against 15 other schools in three rounds: open, best-trick and championship. Orange Glen’s overall team score in the three rounds earned them the title of “Best Skate Team in San Diego County.”
The team’s performance this year was a huge step up compared to last year’s competition, when they only earned fourth place.
“They weren’t very happy with that result, so this year they worked really, really hard and got first place,” said coach and team founder Carlos Felix. “It was a comeback story for them.”
Felix, a graphics production technologies teacher at Valley High School who also teaches after-school classes at Orange Glen, started the skate team as a club a few years ago during the pandemic.
Felix was working as an assistant to his friend Aled Anaya, a fellow print and graphics teacher at Orange Glen, who encouraged him to start the team and currently assists the team.
Escondido was well represented in the competition, with Orange Glen in the first place and San Pasqual High School’s skate team earning third place. Felix noted that the victory over San Pasqual is especially sweet for the Orange Glen team considering the historic rivalry between the two high schools.
“Orange Glen almost never beats San Pasqual in anything, so now we have some bragging rights,” Felix said.
Overall, the new Washington Park Skate Spot, where the Orange Glen Skate Team holds weekly practices, has proved to be a considerable benefit for skaters and students across the city.
“With the Skate Spot here, it gave Escondido an advantage to come up,” Felix said. “A lot of (students) would have went in the wrong direction if it wasn’t for the (skate) team. We’re keeping them out of trouble.”
Rising sophomore Natanael Lopez joined the team as a freshman. He has been skating for three years now.
“It seemed like a good environment, good community and I was into skateboarding,” he said.
Felix said his students have gone from misfits to being recognized by the district and the Escondido City Council, which presented a skateboard signed by the mayor and each council member during a May 10 meeting.
Orange Glen teacher Doug Paulson attributed a part of the team’s success to the city that invested in building the skate spot at Washington Park.
“We brought skaters out of the shadows and away from the businesses where they were being run off and legitimized these students,” Paulson said at the council meeting. “There were many students on our skate team who, if you look at their situations before, may not have graduated or taken advanced placement classes, or received a Rotary Club scholarship… we have not lost one member of our skate team to either our continuation school or to dropping out.”
Regarding providing for the kids, Felix and his fellow print team, including Anaya, print equipment operator Carlos Tirado and lab assistant Eduardo Balderas ensure things get done.
“This whole group works together to make everything happen for the kids and provide a good environment for them,” Felix said.
Felix wants to see the city vamp up its skating opportunities by building more skateparks around town or the Washington Park Skate Spot.
