si se puede 

By Emily Romero 

44 year old Omar Mendoza is a husband, father, teacher, and as of recently, a cross country coach. Even with his busy schedule and a lot more responsibilities he continues to have a really big passion for running. 

Mendoza is a Spanish teacher in YB , this would be Mendoza's 15th year as a Spanish teacher in Yerba Buena high school. Mendoza's favorite memory from yb is when the boys cross country qualified to ccs back in 2019. 

Mendoza is originally from Guanajuato Mexico both of his parents are from there too. He came to the US at seven years old. One of the major challenges he faced was the language barrier and translating to his parents.

Mendoza attended Salina’s Highschool where he says he was an average student with good grades. Mendoza joined cross country and track and field in high school because he found that as a way to distract himself from problems going on at home. When he played sports it provided a positive environment for him and it showed him his passion for running. In high school Mendoza struggled trying to fit in and accepting himself, it was almost as if everyone around him was always judging.

Mendoza: “I would try be more accepting of myself and not be too critical of who I am, but be more, just accept where I come from and how I look because I was very critical of myself because of the people around they were also critical of who I was.”

 When Mendoza graduated high school he decided to become a Spanish teacher. He started student teaching back in his old high school. His master teacher at that time was his former Spanish teacher.

His former Spanish teacher was excited to be teaching one of his former students. Mendoza went through a lot of struggles towards becoming a teacher and he believed in “si se puede” ( you can do it) , something that also inspired him to become a Spanish teacher was his sister. His sister struggled a lot in school and Mendoza encouraged her to go to school and not give up. He was a place where his sister felt safe and comfortable telling anything. 

Mendoza started his journey of becoming a Spanish teacher at Yerba Buena in 2011, where he later on became a cross country coach for 7 years. Mendoza enjoyed being a cross country teacher. He was able to experience being a cross country athlete to becoming a coach and coaching his own team.

 Mendoza: “I decided to coach because I was a former athlete myself in school and those were the most memorable times as a student and... l decided to coach because I thought I could give the same experience to the athletes where they can enjoy doing something outside the classroom.”

Mendoza challenged himself to provide his students with a positive memorable experience, something that they can enjoy outside school and home. Some students go through problems at home and he knows how it feels like having nowhere to fit in so he made sure when students go to his practices it is not somewhere where they feel forced to be, somewhere where they will have fun and make memories with one another. 

He wanted them to leave like it was something they enjoyed doing. Shortly after Mendoza stopped coaching cross country because he started his family and he wanted to be there in every step and not miss anything of his kids' childhood.

Outside of teaching, Mendoza has two kids and a wife where he enjoys going on trips and taking his kids out to libraries, parks, and other outdoor activities. He loves to spend time with his family. His last family trip was Honolulu Hawaii. 

Mendoza: “The last trip we took was to Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu. We were there for about 2 weeks and that’s my favorite moment"

He says being a parent is stressful, it makes him grow as a person because seeing his kids grow up is making him learn and understand. It's been a couple years since Mendoza stopped coaching cross country. He says he would love to return to coaching cross country in a few years.