It’s the end of the day and students begin to line up at the weight room door waiting for Perez’s okay to come inside. He cranks up the music, writes the teams’ sport workouts on the board, and gets everyone started. You can hear the sound of weights clamping, and jump ropes hitting the floor as Perez walks around the weight room helping the athletes out on their workouts . He stops the varsity cheerleaders and gives them a pep talk and advice on their technique with the lifts.
Fernando Perez, head coach of strength and conditioning, will be approaching his 10-year anniversary of working at Niles West High School. From a young age, coach Perez has always had athletics present in his life which is what made him want to work with athletes.
“I played football in high school, continued in the Marines, and went on to playing Semi-Pro Football for three years. It was fun, it struck me, and it’s who I am,” Perez said.
After playing in semi-pro football, he was given the chance to train Brice Hunter, an American wide receiver that was drafted into the Miami Dolphins.
“Brice Hunter was a receiver that set a lot of records when playing college football in Georgia,” he said. “I met him when he was in the NFL. When Brice first started training for the Bears, he asked me to train him. Soon enough Brice was shot down in Chicago. Because he was able to take a chance on me, I felt like I needed to continue to do work in athletics in memory of him.”
As he finished his education, Perez began looking for jobs and Niles West had an unexpected opening.
“It was a long shot that I decided to take,” he said. “ I didn’t know anything outside of programming and working with athletes. Once I got the job, I had to learn infrastructure and construction.”
The first year of working at Niles West was a time to assess the program and what it could potentially become for the Niles West athletes, according to Perez.
“The strength and conditioning program was limited; like a baptism by fire,” he said. “Everything is a process in life, I had to learn school codes, go to meetings where I worked with staff from school and the district. It takes time, what’s important is going through the process, piece by piece. Since I first started to now, I think we are very close to completion of our system. There were long roads, lots of twists and turns. It’s the process that molds you, not the outcome.”
Like anything in life, you have to experience times of trials and times of joy in order to gain knowledge about yourself and the people around you. Perez grew up on the south side of Chicago where he faced the emotions of losing his role model, the one who introduced him to sports, his older brother Ricky Perez.
“When he died I spent a long time going against myself and my family,” he said. “My change of point was when I joined the Marines. I thought it was honorable to not come back, but to serve. God had a different plan for me. I came back and didn’t know why. I felt like Ricky brought me back, because there was a greater purpose to my life. The good part was I did it. It was everything I ever knew and what I wanted.”
Through the trials of life comes times of joy. Starting a family was a new beginning for Perez.
“The second part of my life is when I got married and started a family,” he said. “Looking at God and saying I vow to be a husband and father, it’s a time of self-reflect on how I can be better. How can I give them a better life, how do I discipline my daughters better, and show compassion. I look at the death of my brother, and my marriage and family as my yin and yang.”
Instead of looking at the negative things as something to forget, it enables him to talk to students and people differently since he’s went through it all.
“I have a perspective. When I look around I just appreciate it so much more, it’s something intimate,” he said.
Perez’s wisdom and knowledge is so abundant and widespread, in and outside of the weight room. He has inspired many students and staff at Niles West. Coach Billy Oline, who works beside Perez, describes him as knowledgeable and a leader.
“He’s very knowledgeable; he can educate you on the lifts and techniques to make a student stronger which helps me provide support for the athletes as well,” Oline said.
Senior Tommy Galanopoulos, quarterback on the varsity football team, has spent plenty of time during his four years at Niles West seeking guidance from Perez in order to be successful on and off the field.
“He has not only helped me grow as an athlete but also as a person. He’s been upfront and honest with everything and anything I’ve come with to ask him whether it’s in football or life. He’s given me guidance and motivation to be the best person and man I can be every day,” he said, “and I couldn’t thank him enough for all he has done for me.”
