From loose shirts and flowy skirts to medical scrubs and a stethoscope, Jacqueline Recinos has transitioned from being girls tennis’s captain and the star of the team to a future doctor. 

Last year, she held a great fondness for high school tennis and a passion for her future medical career. Taking the latter path, Recinos is no longer playing tennis in college. 

“I needed to sacrifice tennis for my future in being a part of the medical field,” Recinos said. “Since having a medical career requires a lot of my time and effort, it won’t allow me to be able to commit to being on the tennis team and competing as well as balancing out my work.”

If given the opportunity to change her decision about being on the girls tennis team, she would not change her decision and remain on the path of her career. 

“I wouldn’t take the opportunity to change my mind because I know I have a future with being in the medical field over tennis, because tennis for me was just a hobby,” Recinos said. “So I don’t regret my decision even though I get to play less now. I will still have it within my life. It grew to be part of me and won’t ever leave. Just for now, I’m going to focus more on my career and future.”

Jacqueline Recinos is currently attending California State University Northridge (CSUN) where she is studying to become a pediatric radiologist in the future. She continues to play tennis with her friends in her off time but her current primary focus is school.

From wearing maroon long sleeve shirts and shorts to wearing green and gold long sleeve shirts paired with shorts, Alyssa Islas fulfilled her long time dream of playing women’s college volleyball. 

Last year, Islas was the girls volleyball captain, starting setter, boys volleyball manager and, at times, girls volleyball coach. Her love for volleyball began when she was young and since then, she hasn’t stopped playing. 

At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, she took an athletic and academic scholarship to Pacific Union College, which she currently plays volleyball for. 

“I am fortunate enough to be on an athletic and academic scholarship and it’s been great,” Islas said. “I feel that I have grown a lot as an athlete and as a person. I started some of our games this year and have developed better classroom habits. I love challenging myself and pushing myself to be better and I have a great community around to support and encourage me.”

Playing college volleyball has been amazing for Islas, but she has seen a dramatic change between college and high school volleyball, such as individual conditioning for each player on the team. 

“A big difference is that a lot of it isn’t team practice and doing everything as a team, instead it’s having to hold ourselves accountable, doing individual work outs and applying it all on the court,” Islas said.

A struggle that she has faced this year is being separated from her family. In high school, her family would attend all her volleyball games. Now that she attends college farther away, it is harder for her family to make it to her games.

“I don’t have my family at every game or to talk about practice to,” Islas said. “Living 400 miles away from home was tough mentally and did have an effect on my play and ways of thought. Ultimately, what got me through all the pressure is remembering that my family, teammates and coaches from back home believed in me enough to get to this point, but it’s up to me to keep moving up in the ranks.”

Islas’s favorite part about playing volleyball for the Wolves were the relationships she built with her teammates. 

“I still talk to the girls I played with my freshman year and many who I played with my senior year,” she said. “My favorite memories include Senior Night bus rides back after wins and summer practice.”

Islas also believes that the experience of playing a sport has shaped her for the better. 

“As an athlete, I definitely overcome boundaries such as having to earn playing time and better myself all the way, to having to coach the team my junior year,” she said. “I learned what it truly means to be a leader which will stay with me as a person and an athlete for the rest of my life.”

Allison Prieto’s love for sports began when she was young, when she got hooked on basketball. She played all throughout high school and planned to continue playing basketball in college, so she had her eye on a basketball club on her college campus.

When she arrived at college, however, she found out that the club was canceled due to a lack of interest from female students. 

“As I entered college, I knew that I wanted to continue to play basketball,” Prieto explained. “However, I soon learned that the club had vanished after covid-19 when all the girls either left or graduated.” 

She was disappointed to hear this news, but the love she had for basketball didn’t leave her. She eventually decided to gather girls to reopen the club, taking up the position of club president.  

However, school work and extracurriculars started to compile shortly after. The responsibility of handling the club became too much for her to handle as a freshman in college, so she decided to step down.

“At first I was excited because I just wanted to be back on the court again and play the game I love,” Prieto said. “However, it soon became very difficult building up the club as a freshmen and being part of other extracurriculars became too difficult to juggle everything at once. I then took the hard decision to leave my position and team and focus on my studies.” 

Currently, she is a sophomore attending California State University Northridge (CSUN) where she participates in an intramural sports club, which allows students to join scrimmages and games with their self-made teams.

Although she does not play competitively, her love for her sport remains central to her, helping her choose physical therapy as a career path. 

“I will always have a strong connection and love for my sport,” Prieto said. “All the experiences, teams and people I’ve met through basketball have helped me grow into the person I am today. I’m currently majoring in kinesiology exercise science, with the hopes of becoming a physical therapist. This career path all comes back to my love for physical activity. I want to emphasize working with sports teams in the future, especially for basketball.” 

Prieto’s favorite part about playing basketball at Van Nuys was the friendships she gained. 

“Playing basketball through high school taught me how to be a leader, an active listener and to have perseverance and determination,” Prieto said. “My favorite memories playing basketball in high school were the after practice shoot around or going out with the team and getting food. I don’t remember my senior night because it was a bittersweet moment.”

Going into college, Nieco Erasmo knew that playing college volleyball would take up much of the free time that he already had. Instead of playing in college, Erasmo wanted to focus more on his major, Computer Science. 

“I decided not to play volleyball this year because I’m majoring in Computer Science, which takes up almost all of the time out of my day,” he said.

With the small scale of spare time Erasmo has, he wants to try new experiences instead of focusing on volleyball. 

“I want to spend the little free time I have on new experiences,” he said. “I still play for two intramural teams, but at least this year, club volleyball is a no-go for me.”

He has had thoughts on playing at a lower league school for volleyball, but eventually decided not to. 

“I don’t think I would change my mind on not playing,” Erasmo said. “In terms of going to another school to play competitively, like playing for a community college or a small Division III team, the thought has crossed my mind but more so as a ‘what if.’ And in terms of club volleyball here at Berkeley, I think I’m happy with my decision.” 

Playing volleyball in high school, however, has shaped him for handling college and the adult world beyond.

“I think being an athlete has definitely taught me a lot about navigating through the adult world. You learn about time management, uncomfortable conversations with teammates, and how to talk to higher ups with the right amount of respect without forgetting to be assertive and confident. Sports is an amazing character builder.”