“He’s a very good kid; he’s this really loveable, mild mannered, great big teddy bear,” said Dan Yoder, history teacher, junior varsity and strength and conditioning coach at La Cañada High School.
Yoder has known Hughes primarily as his history student and with strength and conditioning. “One of my biggest regrets is that Joe skipped over JV and I never got to coach him that way,” Yoder said, adding that Hughes has a work ethic rivaled by few.
“He’s always in the weight room training and never wants to be out for anything. You’ll never see that kid down,” Yoder added.
Yoder also praised Hughes’ ability to laugh at himself. “I always say he’s a teddy bear, so I bet him a bag of brownies that he wouldn’t go to his final dressed as a teddy bear. But, he did. He made himself a panda bear costume and went through the entire two-hour final dressed as a panda bear,” Yoder recalled, with a laugh, adding that he went to the store that night and made brownies for the youth. “I never thought he’d really do it,” he said.
Hughes is the son of Karyn Smithson-Hughes and Donald Hughes, who are known around town primarily as “Joe’s parents,” his mom jokes. The family also has two dogs, a malti-poo named Chatsworth and Joe’s Siberian husky, named Juneau.
Hughes’ favorite activities are eating — “I’m a wrestler, I have to love to eat,” he said — hanging out with friends, sports, spending time with his family, and playing video games. He also loves history, reading Stephen King novels and watching movies.
