Aaron Jaquez learned early in his baseball career the importance of processing a loss. 

As an eighth-grader preparing for his freshman year at Falcon, Jaquez traveled to Arizona for a tournament. Jaquez typically dominated in-state tournaments, hit the ball wherever he desired and fired pitches to his catcher’s mitt before the opposition could process whether or not to swing. 

That wasn’t the case in Arizona. 

“The kids I played out there were bigger and stronger,” said Jaquez, this year’s Gazette Preps baseball Peak Performer of the Year. “It was exciting because back then, I would never see kids hit balls backside and over the fence. That was happening to me and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ When that happened, I asked my dad if he could get me a gym set and ever since, I’ve been in the gym 24/7.” 

Jaquez spent years building his physique to resemble that of a Major League Baseball player and it showed. The Falcon star went from 6-foot-3, 190 pounds as an underclassman to 6-4, 205 as a junior.

This offseason, Jaquez added 15 pounds of muscle and tipped the scale at 220 for his senior campaign.

“I looked at MLB players to see how they’re built and they all have pretty big butts and ever since I noticed that, I knew if I got a big butt I’d hit the ball farther,” Jaquez said. “Every other day, I would drive to Denver, because I didn’t know what I was doing on my own, so I’d go up there and take it all in and they showed me how to get bigger and stronger the right way.” 

THROWformance, the facility in Denver where Jaquez trained, has a reputation for churning out astounding competitors. Former Coronado pitcher Trey Gregory-Alford trained at THROWformance and, in 2024, was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels and is in their minor league farm system. Jaquez hopes for similar success and noticed the fruits of his labor.

As a sophomore, Jaquez was the Falcons’ third-best hitter at .419. That jumped to .522 as a junior to lead the team.

Jaquez, who also owns a 92 mph fastball, finished second on the team in strikeouts with 32 in 18 2/3 innings as a junior. Falcon coach Brandon Stegman loved watching the maturity of Jaquez and his insatiable ambition.

“If the best player on your team is constantly working, everyone else is going to work,” Stegman said. “There are a lot of kids out there who are talented, but they don’t put in the work. When you see a kid like Aaron who has gone out there and he has worked that hard, it’s contagious. He sets the tone.” 

This year, Jaquez led the team with a .629 batting average, which was sixth in Colorado, and, as Falcon’s leadoff hitter, Jaquez led 4A with 45 RBIs, which placed him third in the state. Jaquez also managed five wins along with 56 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings.

“If your best player is your hardest worker, the team is going to be all right,” Stegman said. “A player of his stature, historically, is going to hit three hole for most teams. Instead, he hits leadoff because … from an opposing coach’s standpoint, I would not pitch to that guy. The way I force teams to pitch to him, and I usually get an additional at-bat for him, is to put him in the leadoff spot. … We scheduled our lineup to where we said if you don’t pitch to this guy, then you have to pitch to that guy. 

“There are some teams that have done a good job of that and it’s like we’ll see you in another inning because these guys are coming back around.”

In the regular season, Pueblo South challenged that logic and beat Falcon 7-2, the Falcons’ lowest run total this year. 

Stegman and Jaquez chatted after the loss. Jaquez told the Falcon coach, “I know I have to play well for us to win.” Jaquez finished the game against South with a pair of hits and, on the mound, allowed five hits and five earned runs in three innings. Stegman refused to let his senior shoulder the blame.

“I told him, ‘The team will go as you go, but there are other players who have to contribute,’” Stegman said. “I wouldn’t allow him to feel that loss was solely on him and we’re going to win this as a team. … I said, ‘These players have to learn how to win when you’re not here.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Coach, I’m here now. And we will win.’”

The Falcons finished 22-6, their best finish in the MaxPreps era, which dates to 2008, avenged their loss to the Colts with a 9-8 victory at regionals to advance to state, and finished as runners-up in the 4A title game, just the fifth second-place trophy in school history.

Sure, the Falcons didn’t win the title, which would have been the first baseball championship in school history.

But Jaquez’s final lesson as a prep athlete bubbled all season and surfaced as he held the runners-up trophy at Erdle Field on May 30.  

“We worked hard and bonded as a team this year,” Jaquez said after the championship game. “Even outside of practices, we would go hit on weekends and we’d all be together all the time. … I’m going to miss this a lot because I’ve grown to learn about all these kids and I’m going to miss them.”