The 0-5 City College football team hasn’t had much to smile about lately, except for back-to-back American Pacific Conference defensive player of the week Emmanuel “Manny” Hernandez.

Hernandez, the sophomore defensive captain for the Vaqueros was honored by the APC for his performances against Ventura and Moorpark. It marks the third and fourth time he has won this award in the last two seasons.

“Anytime you have a stand out player like Manny it raises the bar for everyone else,” said Athletic Director Ryan Byrne.

After being a stand out at San Marcos High School, he led the state in tackles his freshman year at City College with 130 and 12 for loss. This year he is on track to repeat that performance as he leads the state yet again with 69 tackles and three for loss. As of last week the runner up trailed him by 13 tackles.

“He’s just absolutely dominant,” said Jeff Santarosa, defensive coordinator and linebacker coach. “He’s one of the best linebackers I’ve ever coached here.”

Hernandez is considered small for his position, standing at six feet and 224 pounds. However, Santarosa says that size isn’t always the mark of a great player, the guy who makes the plays is — and Hernandez makes plays.

“Whenever we bring him, he gets it,” said head coach Craig Moropoulos. “He has great instinct and a knack for getting to the ball.”

His stats at linebacker are intimidating to most but he also possesses first team APC punting skills in his seemingly endless repertoire.

“Wherever the coaches put me to step up I’ll do it,” Hernandez said.

That kind of attitude is what coaches drool over. His coaches said he leads by example. The first thing you notice when talking to Manny is that he doesn’t talk, or more accurately, it’s hard to get him to talk.

“He’s a quiet leader,” said Moropoulos. “You would never know he was on the field until you saw the stat book.”

When he does talk, he focuses on others and carries a team first motto.

When he was asked at the beginning of the season if he was expecting to repeat last season’s performance, Hernandez said simply that he didn’t care, “as long as the team gets wins.”

Hernandez’s attitude carries with him in his off the field endeavors as well.  He boasts a 3.4 GPA that also takes the cake as a team best. He wouldn’t tell anyone any of this because he doesn’t need to.

His coaches and teammates speak about Hernandez in the highest regards, saying he consistently puts the work in whether it is 7 a.m. workouts, film studies, or academics. His actions show that he is a superior student-athlete.