By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
In the fourth game of the 2023 season, Timber Creek senior Victor Oquendo watched from the sidelines as his team — which came into the game undefeated — fell behind Rancocas Valley 18-7 after three quarters.
The Chargers got to within 18-13 after a crazy defensive play that led to a touchdown, and then Oquendo took over. The starting quarterback as a junior when he completed 100 passes for nearly 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns, Oquendo lost his job to junior Reilly Hoffacker at the start of the 2023 season.
But he didn’t hang his head. Didn’t quit the team. Didn’t blame the coach.
In fact, coach Brian Wright said Oquendo did the exact opposite. The Timber Creek 2024 valedictorian took it upon himself to get better and instead of blaming the coaches, he sought out their advice on what he needed to do to have a shot at winning the starting job back.
“He’s a kid who was fun to be around, very coachable. He’s a kid who worked at his craft got the most out of his ability. The thing that I really appreciated with him was, not only was he very intelligent — he graduated No. 1 in his class — but he was the ultimate team player. He lost his spot for a good part of last year and when he was called upon to come in and perform for us, he did that at a high level. It was a lot of fun getting to know him and see him grow over the course of the last four years. We came in together — my first year was his freshman year — and he certainly developed, leaps and bounds, from where he was as a freshman to last year,” Wright said. “It gets old, once in a while, the whole thing with kids chasing (ratings) stars and scholarship opportunities. Deep down, I would hope that’s what every kid wants, but that wasn’t Victor’s personality. He just wanted to be the best version of himself for his team. It was the same thing with him as a baseball player as well. He’s kind of a throwback kid in that he played the sports because he loved the sports. It didn’t make a difference to him if it was Friday Night Lights or meeting up with his friends after school in sixth grade to go play football in the park. He always had the same demeanor.”
Oquendo came in against RV and led a game-winning drive that included converting a 4th-and-6 just before throwing a 28-yard touchdown pass with less than a minute remaining that gave Timber Creek a thrilling 21-18 victory. He started several games down the stretch, leading the Chargers into the state playoffs, where they were upset by Cedar Creek in the sectional semifinals.
“Coming off the bench in that game and taking charge and winning that game, that was unbelievable,” Oquendo said. “That feeling was unmatched. I was working hard that whole year as much as I could, and I finally got an opportunity. That was awesome. I was working so hard the entire year to get that spot back. And when I finally did, I finally proved everybody wrong. That felt awesome.”
Oquendo went on to complete 61-of-94 passes for 1,085 yards and 13 touchdowns against just four interceptions. He finished his career with nearly 2,400 passing yards and 23 touchdowns, but, more importantly, he finished his career with pride. He could easily have given up, having lost his spot as a senior, and turned his attention to baseball in the spring.
But he didn’t. He wanted to continue to inspire his teammates, no matter what it took. He was going to show them — and everybody else — what Victor Oquendo is all about.
“My junior year I could have done more, especially with preparation. It kind of hit me very hard just seeing what the varsity level was really like, but I’m glad that I had that experience to go into my senior year, even though I didn’t play (early on). That experience really let me just lead the team in a better way than I did the year prior,” Oquendo explained. “It definitely didn’t feel good (losing my spot), but that just gave me more motivation to keep my head down and keep working. There wasn’t anything else to really do besides just keep working every day, keep trying to get better, try to find some way to help out the team. Deep down, I just couldn’t give up. I’ve been playing for so long and I didn’t want to quit just because things didn’t go my way. I wanted to see what could happen, because you never know what can happen in football.”
Wright said it was a very difficult conversation to have with one of his favorite players, that he thought playing somebody else was the right move for the team. A coach never really knows how that’s going to land on a player.
“Some of my favorite conversations with him were some of the more difficult ones. He was a kid who started for us as a junior and did pretty well, then came in as a senior and lost a very close battle (for the starting spot). But anytime we called on him, he rose to the occasion. We were struggling a little bit against Rancocas Valley and he came in and didn’t miss a beat. Same thing against Eastern in the last game of the regular season. He starts throwing the ball all over the yard, running with it a little bit, and he ended up being our guy heading into the playoffs. He never wavered, at least publicly. I know he was disappointed (to lose his starting spot), but we had conversations heading into last season and his big thing was, ‘what do I need to work on? This isn’t the end of my story, I’m going to continue to show up and work. What do I need to do to get back on the field?’” Wright said. “Myself and my coaches went over it with him, showed him those things and he did them at a high level, with a smile on his face, which was refreshing. I’m sure it was difficult for him and his family because of all the work he put in, but he continued to show up. There’s a life lesson there that we try to teach our guys: football helps you build character. More times than not, things go against you in football. How will you respond? He responded as I expected, and even more than I had hoped. He’s a great kid with the kind of demeanor you want your quarterback to have.
“Whether he went home and blamed me and my coaches to his parents, you would never know because he handled it like a professional,” Wright added. “He’s going to do great things, because that’s how he handles everything. Those kinds of conversations aren’t easy, but it was better than conversations you have with other kids.”
Oquendo viewed the demotion as a teaching moment — for himself.
“I think everything happens for a reason. To say I have any regrets or anything that I would want to change, I don’t think that would be true. I think it went how it went and it taught me a lot, especially that senior year. All four years taught me a ton. My junior and senior years taught me so much about life and adversity, that although it didn’t go exactly how I planned, it was amazing to have that experience,” he said. “It just shows the entire person that I am and that will definitely help me in anything. If I can act this way and have that fight in me, I think that’s going to help me a ton, especially in life in general as I get older and out of college. I think the traits I possess now will definitely help me keep going.”
Wright said having to name somebody else as the starter instead of Oquendo caused a lot of sleepless nights because of how much he thought of Oquendo as a person and member of the football program.
“There are tough moments as a coach that you lose sleep over, and that was one of those moments,” the coach said. “You don’t want to see a kid like Victor hurt, especially because of a decision that you make as a coach, but sometimes you have to make decisions that you feel are best for the team overall. But it’s tough when the person on the other end of it is a kid like Victor, who in four years did everything we asked. He was a true student-athlete, No. 1 in his class, volunteers a lot. He’s a kid every parent would love having as a son. When you make decisions for your program, you’re naturally going to hurt someone and that was difficult. But he rebounded and that’s something I will remember for the rest of my life. Some of these decisions are not handled well by the athlete or parents, but he handled it the right way, and in the end everything worked out for him.”
No doubt Wright will use Oquendo’s story as a teaching moment for his players for years to come. Don’t be surprised if you see this story tacked to the wall in the locker room as a reminder of how a player should handle himself in a difficult situation.
“We always talk about handling things the right way. Our program is more than just wins and losses, and this is an example where we can use real life experiences of one of their peers to show players how to handle a situation the right way. It kind of speaks what we’re talking about into existence, and that makes our jobs a lot easier,” Wright said. “Here’s someone who worked so hard, was a starter as a junior, and senior year where things are looking pretty good for us and the ceiling kind of falls on him a little bit. But he showed up for work every day and did his job. At our end-of-season banquet, it seemed like Victor was being called up for all kinds of different awards. Those are the kinds of kids who make you feel good because you know he deserves it. It’s not based on just numbers, but the true essence of what a high school football player should be.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
