Senior Candie Del Valle won the Student of Excellence award for her achievement in sport medicine.
This award is presented annually by the Contra Costa County Occupational Program (CCCOP). Sports Med teacher Ray Albiento nominated Del Valle. “After winning Sports Med of the Year [at Campo], Ray wrote a paper talking about all my contributions and all of the things I do for Sports Medicine,” Del Valle said.
Del Valle had to write a letter describing why she deserved to win county award and why the ROP Program has helped her.
According Del Valle, she was nominated by Albiento because of her performance on the interactive Sports Med Test, which was “all hands-on and included stress tests, first aid, a tape job, and bone landmarks.” Del Valle was recognized for her success on that test when she receive the school’s Sports Medicine Student of the Year honor.
As part of the award, Del Valle received scholarship money for Liberty University, where she will also be enrolling next year in the Sports Medicine Program.
“I realized what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, which was really special,” Del Valle said.
Junior Emily Holbrooke, who was mentored by Del Valle, believes that her work ethic is exemplary. “She works really hard all of the time and always does all the assignments,” she said.
According to Holbrooke, Del Valle is also a good teacher. “She is really good at teaching all of the anatomy and she is also good at explaining stress tests. She also always helps you out,” she said.
Del Valle chose the Sports Med course because of her brother. “He took it when I was a freshman and he would come home and tape my ankles and practice, and I thought it was really cool,” Del Valle added.
“I really enjoy helping out athletes, and having athletes go from not being able to play or being really hurt to back on the field and doing really well in their sport,” said Del Valle. “I think [Sports Med] is a really cool profession, to be able to help student athletes get back to what they love to do, while you’re doing what you love to do.”
