Manuel Figueroa

[decoy73]

Name: Manuel Figueroa
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Baseball, football, filmmaking, drama

Appearance: Manuel Figueroa is five feet, seven inches tall and weighs 160 pounds with a medium build. His eyes are brown and his short hair is black. He has a dark complexion, an oval face with a square jaw, with a wide nose in the middle. He does get five o'clock shadow, but shaves it every so often so it never becomes a full beard. He prefers to wear polo shirts and jeans, along with Timberland boots, occasionally wearing an Oakland Raiders ball cap. On the day of the trip, Manuel was wearing his ball cap and boots, dark blue jeans, black tinted Oakley sunglasses, and a yellow short sleeved polo shirt under an unbuttoned white button down shirt.

Biography: Manuel Figueroa was born on June 1, 2001 to Mexican winemakers Francisco and Teresa in Napa Valley, California. He is the third of four children - junior to sister Kristina, age twenty five, brother Nathan, age twenty two, and senior to brother Max, age ten. He isn't very close to Nathan or Kristina, due to the age difference between them, but he is somewhat protective of Max.

Manuel was a relatively normal child growing up. Because he was a quiet person, he didn't have many friends, but he was able to get along well enough with the other kids his age. He was active, playing in the streets with the other children until evening came around, and started playing baseball at the age of five, mainly due to his love of throwing and catching balls, which he would do whenever possible, combined with the fact that his friends would play baseball. During this, he was also quite careful, as he was found to have haemophobia, and would get queasy and risked fainting at the sight of blood. When Manuel was nine, his mother signed him up for folk dance classes. While he was unwilling to go at first, it started to grow on him, partially because he enjoyed himself, and partially because girls liked it. When he was in middle school, Manuel joined the Boy Scouts, where he learned basic outdoor skills and first aid, enjoying the camping trips that the troop went on.

Since the 1950s, the Figueroa family, starting with Francisco's grandfather Carlos, ran the Issontre Negro winery, passing the winery over to Francisco's father and then Francisco himself. During Manuel's lifetime, Francisco made plans to expand the market for Issontre Negro wine, looking in various other cities to sell wine in, settling on Chattanooga, Tennessee due to the low number of wineries in Chattanooga making a new brand easier to sell, with an eventual goal of making a second winery in Tennessee. Over eight years, finishing the summer before freshman year, his family raised money and bought a store in Chattanooga, and delegated the day-to-day running of the winery to one of his uncles. Manuel was able to complete middle school in Napa when his parents finalized the decision to open a liquor store in and move to Chattanooga. Due to the long-term nature of the decision, Manuel knew of this decision for about two years before the actual move took place, making it relatively easy for him to leave with the family.

At George Hunter, Manuel was able to break out of his shell, first by continuing with dance classes and Boy Scouts, as well as joining the freshman football and baseball teams, starting out as a wide receiver on the football team and starting pitcher on the baseball team, working his way up to second string wide receiver on the junior varsity team in his sophomore year. Gradewise, a combination of natural intelligence, meticulousness, and hard work gave him a straight A average, and he has been accepted into advanced classes because of this. However, the new environment did give him a social challenge, as over the year, he was forced to make completely new friends. Also, due to his intelligence and experiences in Scouts and dancing, he continually corrected other people when he saw something wrong. Furthermore, he can get very pessimistic at times, and frequently asks about the worst case scenario. This has also caused him to start quite a few arguments with others as well as having him over-prepare at times due to fixating on a worst-case scenario.

As of senior year, Manuel has joined the drama club, having been inspired in sophomore year by the techniques used to make Orson Welles' “Citizen Kane.” Meanwhile, he is not as big or strong as one would require for the varsity football team, and so did not try out in senior year, although he still goes to the games when possible. He has kept up with dancing and Scouts, having scored very high in Tennessee's local community circuit, and is both a Star Scout and a junior assistant scoutmaster. He loves drama, and is now thinking of going into filmmaking as a career, having started with some basic drama and film courses, and is planning on applying to a school with a strong filmmaking program, which his parents have accepted, and most of his friends at George Hunter are either from baseball or drama, whom he’s close to.

Advantages: Manuel has some experience and skill at wilderness survival. His experiences in baseball, football, and dance have made him reasonably strong and coordinated, with his dancing giving him good lower body strength, and baseball and football making him good at sprinting.
Disadvantages: He is relatively defeatist, and always thinks of the worst case scenario. This may cause him to fixate on . He also has a fear of blood, and he risks fainting should he see it.

[backslash]

Hey decoy! Before Manuel can be given a proper critique, please make sure that his profile fully adheres to the template. Specifically, please make sure that all section headers are bolded. Thanks!

[decoy73]

Template issues fixed

[backslash]

The "Biography" header still needs to be bolded.

[decoy73]

Fixed

[Deamon]

Hi, decoy! I'll be critiquing Manuel for you today! He's off to a good start but is Denied pending some general expansion of some elements of the profile.

So in regards to what Manuel is wearing. Is the button down shirt open? Or is he just wearing two layers and getting really hot?

What does Manuel like about baseball?

What does he enjoy about scouts?

How did Manuel feel about having to move all the way to Tennessee? Additionally, why did his parents move all the way from Napa Valley to Tennessee?

The profile states that Manuel moved from Napa Valley to Nashville but pregame is set in Chattanooga, do they move house again after this? If not they will have to move to Chattanooga from Napa Valley or Nashville.

What made Manuel take up football as well as baseball? And what does he like about football?

What new ideas, in particular, was he exposed to?

What does Manuel enjoy about drama?

Does Manuel still follow football in general even though he isn't on the team? I ask because it is still listed in his hobbies and interests.

What subjects are Manuel's favorites and which ones does he not enjoy?

What is Manuel's social life at school like? Does he have many friends or does he have a smaller group of close friends?

What is Manuel's relationship with his parents like are they supportive of his desire to go to college to study filmmaking?

Post back here once all of that has been added and I'll take another look!

[decoy73]

Edits made as requested:

• So in regards to what Manuel is wearing. Is the button down shirt open? Or is he just wearing two layers and getting really hot? Shirt is open.
• What does Manuel like about baseball? He likes throwing the ball.
• What does he enjoy about scouts? He likes the camping
• How did Manuel feel about having to move all the way to Tennessee? Additionally, why did his parents move all the way from Napa Valley to Tennessee? Rising rent was mentioned.
• The profile states that Manuel moved from Napa Valley to Nashville but pregame is set in Chattanooga, do they move house again after this? If not they will have to move to Chattanooga from Napa Valley or Nashville. My mistake. Fixed to Chattanooga
• What made Manuel take up football as well as baseball? And what does he like about football?
• What new ideas, in particular, was he exposed to? Removed. Issue is now just being in a new environment.
• What does Manuel enjoy about drama? Added that he likes the techniques used in making the film.
• Does Manuel still follow football in general even though he isn't on the team? I ask because it is still listed in his hobbies and interests. Yes. He goes to the games.
• What subjects are Manuel's favorites and which ones does he not enjoy? Favorite subject is drama.
• What is Manuel's social life at school like? Does he have many friends or does he have a smaller group of close friends? He has some friends, mostly from baseball and drama.
• What is Manuel's relationship with his parents like are they supportive of his desire to go to college to study filmmaking? His parents are cool with it
• Removed a mental advantage to balance him out.

[Deamon]

I've noticed that Manuel's parents don't have names, this will need to be added.

How did Manuel feel about having to move all the way to Tennessee? Additionally, why did his parents move all the way from Napa Valley to Tennessee? Rising rent was mentioned.

Right, I'm not sure if I was clear enough on this one, but why did they choose Chattanooga specifically? There are other places in California that have cheaper rent than Napa Valley within a far shorter travel time or even states that are closer and cheaper. So I need some explanation as to why they decided to choose Chattanooga in Tennessee?

Also having read this over again I have some other questions. Was the winery not making enough to be profitable so they couldn't afford rent? Napa Valley is a very successful region for winemaking but also has a high start-up cost, so there would need to be some sort of event that made this unprofitable for the family besides rising rent. Also, I am unsure of how selling the winery to an uncle and then working in partnership with the winery will solve this problem. How does Manuel feel about leaving his old life behind for his new one? Does he resent the fact he had to move?

What does Manuel like about baseball? He likes throwing the ball.

Cool, but he can get this experience without playing baseball, so what does he enjoy about playing baseball. Plus, it's a lot of effort to commit to joining the high school baseball team if you just like have a throw around.

What does he enjoy about scouts? He likes the camping

Ok so like again, he doesn't need to be in Scouts to go camping, he can just go camping for that experience. There should be something specifically about scouts that he finds enjoyable as they do more than just go camping.

What made Manuel take up football as well as baseball? And what does he like about football?

This still needs to be done.

Also, due to his intelligence and experiences in Scouts and dancing, he continually corrected other people when he saw something wrong.

Did this ever cause arguments or upset people? Because it seems like something that would rub people the wrong way.

As of senior year, Manuel has joined the drama club, having been inspired in sophomore year by the techniques used to make Orson Welles' “Citizen Kane.”

This covers his interest in filmmaking more than drama. Drama typically refers to dramatic performances on stage, so musicals or plays. As such, I'd like some expansion as to what he likes about drama.

having scored very high in Arizona's local community circuit,

Pregame is set in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

What subjects does Manuel not enjoy or does he like all of them?

How does Manuel act around his friends? What's he like socially around school?

He is relatively defeatist, and always thinks of the worst case scenario.

This disadvantage will need some expansion within the main body of the profile as currently only one sentence is spent on it, which isn't enough for a disadvantage.

In addition to this, I'd like if you expanded fully on the things I've previously pointed out so that we can have the best understanding of the character possible, which I feel we don't have quite yet.

And that's everything, so post back here once you've made the changes and I'll take another look at Manuel for you!

[backslash]

This character biography has had no alterations for more than two weeks and has been put in the abandoned characters forum. This profile is eligible for resubmission by the handler upon alterations requested by the staff.