West Branch graduate Ayden Gutierrez has been chosen for Warrior Watch’s Alumni Watch for the month of December. Guiterrez is an Offensive Graduate Assistant football coach at the University of Akron, where he mainly works with wide receivers. While performing his coaching duties, he’s also pursuing a Masters of Science in Sports Science and Coaching at the University of Akron.
Gutierrez graduated from the class of 2020 at West Branch. After Gutierez’s high school career, he attended Grove City College where he studied Communication Arts and Marketing. During his time at Grove City College, he was quarterback on the football team, where he was given the honor of being named co-captain his senior year. He also worked with the on-campus student newspaper, the radio station, and was the president of the Epsilon Pi Fraternity. During his time on the football team, they won two bowl games and also won the school’s first-ever NCAA playoff game. During his senior year, the Wolverine football team also won the conference championship for the first time in over 20 years. Gutierrez graduated from Grove City College with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts and a minor in Marketing, with the plan to enter the broadcast journalism world.
Gutierrez’s high school career impacted his future from being a multi-sport athlete to finding out how journalism was important to him. Gutierrez’s initial love for the journalism field started from the efforts of Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Levonick, and Mrs. Fry, for starting Warrior Watch. Gutierrez especially thanks the teachers of Warrior Watch by stating,” Even though The Lord has called me elsewhere, that was the field I initially thought I wanted to end up in, and if it wouldn’t have been for their efforts, I never would’ve known that I wanted to, or was capable of, being a journalist.”
During his time at West Branch Gutierrez played baseball, basketball, and football. He was the quarterback on the football team which ultimately led him to play as the quarterback at Grove City College. Gutierrez comments, “ I had so many incredible coaches at West Branch, and my love for the coaching profession and the platform they can have was founded during my years as a Warrior. Coach Clark, Coach Hubler, Coach Learish, my dad, and all of the assistant coaches that I played for taught me what servant leadership, hard work, accountability, loyalty, and passion looked like.”
No matter where you are or who you are after you graduate from West Branch, there will always be a part of you who is a West Branch Warrior. Gutierrez expressed, “To me, it is a blessing and an honor to be a West Branch Warrior. Coming from a town and a school district that is often overlooked, passed by, and disrespected, I have always made it a point to let it be known that I am a Warrior. A West Branch Warrior is someone who works hard, is humble, is family-oriented, and treats others the way they want to be treated. Our school and our mascot has always been more than a name and an image to me; it is a lifestyle. No matter where God leads me, I will forever be a Warrior.”
Congratulations to Gutierrez for his accomplishments in his football career and a successful college career. Students at West Branch can look up to Gutierrez and many other Alumni’s as a role model, that even though we come from a small school, we can still have big futures.
