Seniors reflect on sports careers

By Roland Li,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

From September 2013 to June 2017, Davis High senior athletes participated in a great length of sports, including cross country, track, badminton and tennis.

Senior Brandon Hein started running cross country and track at Holmes Junior High, which later led to his participation at the high school level as a cross country runner and hurdler. Hein’s main incentive to participate in these sports programs was not his love for the sport, but rather for the social aspect of being on a sports team.

“The best thing about track and cross country is meeting new people and hanging out with friends,” Hein said.

Hein recollects the excitement of going to 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 when he won the Delta League championship in the frosh-soph 300m hurdles.

Senior Ivy Zhou regularly attends the weekly open gym for badminton, a sport that focuses more on hand-eye coordination. After playing with more experienced players during these open gym hours, Zhou decided to try out for the high school team on their advice.

With her experience as part of the badminton team, Zhou agrees that her teammates are the most important part of the sport.

“Being with my teammates makes the activity special,” Zhou said.

Zhou led the badminton team to win the league title in its last game against Rodriguez.

“It was a pretty glorious moment,” Zhou said. “It made me feel like all our efforts and hard work was worth it.”

Tennis player and senior Jeffery Yin also has positive memories of his career.

As a freshman, Yin found tennis and the coach very likable. He made the varsity tennis team as a freshman and continued playing on the team for three more years.

This season, Dougherty Valley was up 3-1 against Davis in the first round of the NorCal tennis regional championships, and only needed one more win to secure its path to the semifinals. However, Davis launched a decisive comeback and ended up winning four matches to Dougherty’s three. This year’s squad is the first DHS tennis team ever to move to the semifinals of the NorCal tournament after being a runner-up in its league.

Yin and his doubles partner, freshman Brian Liu, contributed to the comeback. Yin cites this moment, when he 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.