Seniors reflect on athletic careers
By Roland Li,
BlueDevilHub.com Staff–
From Sept. 2013 to June 2017, many seniors participated in a great length of sports throughout their high school careers. Football, diving and wrestling are only a few of the myriad of sports that the class of 2017 participates in. Through these last four years of training, spirit and games, the seniors have achieved the best they ever could.
This includes the enduring cross country runner and nimble hurdler, senior Brandon Hein. At Holmes Junior High, Hein participated in cross country and track which later led to his participation at the high school level. Unfortunately, Hein’s main incentive to participate in these sports programs was not his love for the sport, but for more important reason to Hein.
“The best thing about track and cross country is meeting new people and hanging out with friends,” Hein said.
Hein recollects the excitement of Denny’s at midnight during the annual Mt. Sac cross country race. Through his four years in two sports programs, Hein’s greatest achievement came in 2015 where he won the Delta League championship in the frosh-soph 300m hurdles.
Coming from a sport that focuses more on hand-eye coordination, senior Ivy Zhou can regularly be seen in the weekly open gym for badminton. After playing with more experienced players during these open gym hours, Zhou was advised by them to try out for the high school team. Zhou agrees that teammates are of most importance.
“Being with my teammates makes the activity special,” Zhou said.
In their last game against Rodriguez, Zhou led the badminton team to win the league title.
“It was a pretty glorious moment,” Zhou said. “It made me feel like all our efforts and hard work was worth it.”
Up three to one in the first round of the NorCal tennis regional championships, Dougherty Valley only needed one more win to secure their path to the semifinals. However, Davis launched a comeback and ended up winning four matches to Dougherty’s three. Davis became the first team ever to move to semifinals of the NorCal tournament after being a runner-up in its league.
Of the three clutch teams was No. 3 Doubles partners senior Jeffrey Yin and freshman Brian Liu. Yin remembers the moment him and Liu won their match 7-6, 7-6 as his favorite.
“We were projected to lose to Dougherty, but instead we launched an upset,” Yin said.
As a freshman, Yin found tennis and the coach very likable. Yin made the varsity tennis team as a freshman and stayed with it for three more years thereafter.
