It’s this sort of student interaction, coupled with continually making sure the high school campus is safe, that earned Gomez an employee of the year award a couple of weeks ago from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.
But at the heart of everything is handball — a blue-collar, rough-and-tumble sport that was all the rage long before racquetball showed its racquet.
As Gomez said, “All you need is a ball and buck, and you’re good to go.”
Plus, some gloves, if you’re so inclined. After all, the ball can reach speeds of up to 90 mph.
Gomez started talking up the sport at the high school in 1996, when he quickly took note of a somewhat gang-infested campus that needed some care.
“Handball was a way to keep the kids off the streets at the time,” said Gomez, with shadows and brick walls as a back drop on Wednesday, the midday heat revving up.
“Sometimes,” Gomez added, “students would get jumped by gangs in the handball courts here because they were out of the way and they didn’t seem like they were under supervision.”
Then came Gomez in his new role as campus security.
Cholos, a term sometimes applied to tough-looking Latinos, looked at him with disdain.
They wondered what Gomez was doing on their turf. He said he quickly challenged one of the better players to a game of handball to break the silence.
“Here I was. They looked at me as ‘The Man, The Authority,’” he said. “I ended up whipping him 7 to nothing.”
But then, true to his personality, Gomez softened the blow for the kid, letting him in on how he played handball in college and that that the kid, nonetheless, put up a good fight.
