Celeste Rivas is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Tolleson Union High School for AZPreps365.com

TOLLESON– He’s heard it all. He’s been bullied for being openly gay. But that didn’t stop Jose Ojeda from leading with compassion.

Now that he is a senior at Tolleson Union High School, Ojeda uses his past to bring positivity to the spiritline and dance team he’s been on since his freshman year.

His coaches said that they applaud him for always bringing his confidence to each practice.

“You can tell he has confidence just by the way he performs,” pom coach Danielle Gonzalez said. 

However, Ojeda recalled a time when his confidence faltered after being bullied several times in elementary school due to his sexuality.

“It’s hard to love yourself in a world that might not love you back,” Ojeda said. “No 10-year-old should be going through that.”

Ojeda said that he would also be ridiculed for his Latino-rooted personality.

“In a Latino family, everyone is so loud, and we aren’t ashamed of being ourselves,” Ojeda said. “People weren’t around the same environment that I was.”

Ojeda said that since his parents are separated and his mother had him at only 16, he decided to keep the fact that he was being oppressed at school a secret so that he wouldn’t add to his mother’s plate.

“I basically grew up with my mom,” Ojeda said. “I didn’t want her worrying about me.”

That was until his grandmother found out and confronted one of his bullies.

Ojeda said that from that experience, he learned that people put up a facade when surrounded by other people to conceal their personal challenges. 

He has had enough with the bullying.

“It’s important to speak words of encouragement because you never know what anyone could be going through,” Ojeda said. “Being a great dancer doesn’t mean anything if you're not a great person.”

His kindness does not go unnoticed.

“He just wants everyone to feel like they belong,” cheer coach Raeann Southern said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on, he is always our solid foundation of positivity.”

Being bullied is not the only struggle Ojeda has endured. According to Southern, his first spiritline tryout was “horrible.”

“But we saw something in him that day– his willingness to try and his positivity,” Southern said.

Ojeda said he always wanted to dance and cheer while growing up, but due to financial issues, he was not able to get the proper training. 

But because both dance and cheer are offered in high school, he decided to take the long-awaited opportunity. 

Southern said Ojeda is now one of the most-improved and talented athletes on the team, but he had to dedicate an insane amount of effort to get there. 

“I would practice in my garage for five hours a day after practice,” Ojeda said. “It didn’t take me just one day–  it took years.”

Ojeda’s performance company teacher, Karla Marquez, said that she also sees Ojeda’s determination and diligence in the dance room, even while carrying the weight of being a student and attending morning and after-school spiritline practices. 

“He is a natural-born leader,” Marquez said. “He’s at school for more than 12 hours a day, but not once has he shown his exhaustion.” 

Transforming his past into something beautiful and being living proof that practice makes improvement, Ojeda seems to be the heart of Tolleson’s spiritline and performance company.

“I’ve been coaching for over 10 years now, and I don’t know if I’ve ever coached somebody that I’ve seen grow as much as I’ve seen him grow in all areas of life,” Southern said.