Praneel Shah
Returning to the court for his last season, senior and outside hitter Praneel Shah reflected on how far he’d come since first picking up a volleyball when he was 11. He began playing when his older sister, who also played, encouraged him. Compared to other sports he played, he says what drew him to volleyball was the team aspect.
“I enjoyed volleyball practices since it was with a team versus tennis, which is a solo sport,” Shah said. “When you win in tennis, you’re alone. When you lose, you’re also alone – you have to deal with those emotions yourself. In volleyball, having a team makes winning is a lot more fun and losing feels a lot less bad.”
Shah started playing for Mountain View Volleyball Club in middle school, where he says he built confidence and solidified his love for the sport. Going into freshman year of high school, Shah hoped to make the Varsity team, but after trying out, he got a spot on the Junior Varsity team instead. That reality check pushed him to reassess his expectations and commitment to improving.
He says that this experience freshman year allowed him to develop a growth mindset for volleyball, realizing that progress takes time and consistent effort. He said this mindset paid off when the team earned a spot in the Central Coast Section Division III in the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California finals.
“Especially with the seniors that year — I had spent three years on the team with them, so we built a strong bond, and that made the win even more meaningful,” Shah said. “It felt really good that, toward the end of the season, we were able to find success and go far, especially with me starting that year. It made me feel proud on a personal level.”
Though Shah’s grown through volleyball, he says balancing academics, a social life and a packed game schedule, especially during junior year, was difficult. Still, he says the demanding nature of the sport helped him grow, teaching him time management and patience for the sport.
“You have to stay patient with volleyball because sometimes the game is not gonna go your way,” Shah said. “You’re not gonna win every single point on the court. But even though you don’t, there’s still a chance for you to win the game overall. For example, the point differential we had during a game was minus 10, but we still won the overall match. So you’re not gonna win every point, but it’s just one point at a time. Stay patient.”
Aruna Venkateswaran
Golf began as a casual pastime that senior and team manager Aruna Vekateswaran, her younger brother and her dad picked up during the pandemic. Three months before her freshman year, she began practicing at Deep Cliff Golf Course, and what began as a family activity evolved into a four-year journey through high school.
Since golf is an individual sport, Venkateswaran says staying motivated can be difficult without outside support and consistency remained a constant challenge, especially since golf required a practice regimen outside of school practices.
“Staying consistent was difficult, especially for golf, when you just keep on swinging over and over again to practice,” Venkateswaran said. “And it’s not just school practice. We had to practice outside on our own as well, because range practice, which is how you actually practice your swing, we only did it twice a week, so everybody would go to their own range near their house to practice.”
Venkateswaran says the biggest change she faced in golf was her confidence. When she first joined the Varsity girls golf team, she felt unsure of her abilities; however, through the years, she’s found herself enjoying the game more instead of constantly worrying about her performance.
“As time passed, I grew more confident,” Venkateswaran said. “I think freshman year again, I was only two months into practicing before joining the team, and everybody, a lot of people on the team had been playing since elementary school and they were really good. I got embarrassed at my skills, but I think when I got to senior year, I got more confident. Even though my swings weren’t amazing, I still had fun playing.”
Manvika Gopalasetty
For senior and right fielder Manvika Gopalasetty, soccer has comprised 11 years of memories, challenges and accomplishments. Gopalasetty began playing soccer when she was 6 years old through AYSO, but, over time, it evolved into something more important to her: a community.
When she first started playing soccer at MVHS, Gopalasetty came in with a mindset of trying to win every game. Over time, she says she developed a more nuanced mindset about working with the team as she realized the importance of teamwork in soccer rather than individually trying to score goals and win.
“Freshman year, I feel like I was more competitive with the way I approached the game,” Gopalasetty said. “But over time, I really came to value the people that I was with and playing the game with them. Valuing every single moment that you have with your teammates is important, because I think they are the most important on the field. Regardless of what the outcome of the game is, playing together is what matters the most.”
One of Gopalsetty’s favorite moments was her senior night because it was a full-circle moment for her with the same people she had known since childhood. She says that although it was sad to leave her team, it felt good to do it with the people she first began the sport with.
“Senior night was so fun to play because my team that I played with on my senior night was basically the team that I played with when I began playing soccer,” Gopalasetty said. “So we grew up playing soccer together. So it was a nice day to end this whole soccer career off with the same coach that I started with in the same team that I started with too as well.”
