By Blake Chadwick
Wichita Southeast’s senior defensive end and tight end Irving Ortega is a guy who you can say is a ‘late bloomer’ as he started his football days just a couple years ago when he was a Freshman.
Ortega has always had a love for football and now as a senior he came into the season with a few big goals.
“My personal goals this year relating to football were to do my best on both sides of the ball to help my team win and have a better record than the previous four years while still having fun,” Ortega said.
For the senior, after missing some games due to injury. His plans have had to change a little bit.
“Missing games as a senior and a leader was very difficult for me to deal with because of the limited amount of impact that I had only being able to talk on the sideline and not on the actual field,” Ortega said. “This year as a leader I have tried to help the underclassmen build good habits as well as helping them understand that football is a team sport and not an individual sport so that they don’t become too selfish or disrespectful to their peers.”
As much as Ortega wants to play at the next level, he has other plans after high school.
“I personally don’t plan to play football at the next level, however if I get an opportunity to get my education paid for to play football I would definitely not take that chance for granted,” Ortega said. “My current future plans are to enlist in the Army and get a job in cybersecurity.”
