Kevin Velasquez: The Yo-Yo King

Find out how this CB student became a yo-yo master.

The yo-yo has been around for centuries, but the beginning of its popularity is argued about today. Today there are competitions for yo-yoing where many yo-yo fanatics join to show off their skills. Today at CB we have yo-yoers of our own.

Kevin Velasquez (’17) has been doing yo-yo for more than sixth months, but found out about it from a friend, Sajan Sharma an eighth grader at the time.

“I decided to join him” says the calm and cool yo-yoer.

He got started with a plastic yo-yo that is pretty cheap, but there are many others to choose from.

“There are different styles depending on what you want to try” said Kevin.

There is the off-string yo-yo — also known as the Chinese yo-yo. Another one, which Kevin has, is a non-responsive one that stays in the same place when thrown down correctly.

Then there are the round looping yo-yos that come right back up that everyone knows from their childhood. Kevin said the reason why he yo-yo’s is because he sees no one else doing yo-yo anymore and thinks it is cool.

“It was pretty popular back in the day,” he claims

He learned most of his tricks from the internet as well as his friend, Sajan.

Matthew Signorotti (’17) is another one of the yo-yoers of the CB community.

“He convinced me to join the yo-yo club” Matthew says about meeting Kevin.

When Matthew first started, Kevin taught him most of the beginner tricks and after a while, Matthew started teaching himself new tricks.

Kevin also taught new tricks to David Rosas (’17). When they both got into the yo-yo club, David learned more advanced tricks. It takes a lot of repetition and patience to learn how to use a yo-yo such as Kevin’s.

“I wanted to learn how and he taught me” says the eager David.

The yo-yo has been around for centuries and has grasped Christian Brothers with the string wrapped around it’s finger.