The Redhound Way: Resilience in Action
- Corbin Independent Schools
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
The Rug Got Pulled Out From Under Him. He Kept Building.
Jose Torres, a 2022 graduate of the Corbin School of Innovation, shared his story at District Day as a real-life picture of what Resilience looks like at Corbin Independent Schools.
Jose Torres was 14 years old when he arrived in Corbin from Mexico to live with his mother and siblings, leaving behind the father and grandparents who had raised him. He spoke almost no English.
Jose graduated from the Corbin School of Innovation in December 2022. He came back to District Day this year to tell one story from what his former soccer coach, Coach Cima, calls a life of overcoming obstacles: "In my 30 years, he is the picture of resiliency."
Jose says the turning point in those early years was a middle school teacher. "A teacher helped me with so much love and patience. Her name is Mrs. Preston," he said. "Because of her, I started believing in myself and having confidence that I could achieve my goals."
Soccer became the place where that confidence turned into something concrete. Jose was talented enough to think he had to carry his team by himself.
Coach Cima taught him otherwise. "My coach taught me to focus on helping my teammates get better instead," Jose said. "When I start focusing on them, our team improved, and we start winning more games." Jose went on to win Kentucky's State Player of the Year award.
After high school, Jose kept playing and joined a semi-professional club based in Lexington. He'd also earned a full scholarship to college, though circumstances beyond his control meant he couldn't accept it. Not long into his time with the club, he re-injured his knee. The professional career he'd imagined for himself was over.
Jose says the lesson that carried him through it was one he'd already learned on the field: when you make a mistake, you don't dwell on it, you go on to the next thing. "I asked myself, what do I do now?" he said. "The answer was clear. There is always an opportunity to get better and help others."
That answer became a roofing business that he now runs with his brother, Santos. They set out to do 30 to 40 roofs in their first year. They finished with more than 100.
Every year, Jose says, they donate a free roof to someone in need, because of how much the Corbin community gave to him first: teachers who taught him English, a coach who took him into his own home for nearly two years when he had nowhere else to live (where Coach Cima's wife, Karen, cooked for him every day), and people who believed he could succeed before he believed it himself.
Jose closed his remarks with what he called the foundation of his life, in his own words: "First seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be given to you."
His second piece of advice was simpler: keep loving and helping students, because the small things adults do for them "might not seem to make a difference right now, but they will make a huge impact on their future."
Coach Cima had the final word. Helping a young person build resilience, he said, takes faith and support: "Faith that it will always somehow work out. And the support that when they feel like giving up . . . to push on to the next thing."
