Many students in the district regard DV as a competitive school in terms of academics. However, the school’s sports teams were often overshadowed by comments made by students regarding their capabilities and how they barely win games. Over the past 17 years, they adopted a strong work ethic and winding mindset to fight against students’ negative perceptions. This change has led to DV gaining more respect, replacing their previous reputation as a “weak school for sports.”
One such example is seen in DV’s track and field team in the past years, as they work on their game strategies and expand their work ethic. Though their season hasn’t begun yet for the 2024-2025 school year, the strategies they have used in the past seemed to be something that they plan on continuing throughout the years.
Junior Matthew Nguyen, a track and field athlete, explained, “There are a lot of people who are dedicated and run all-year long, and they put a lot of work into it. So, I definitely think that a lot of people see the work all the athletes put in.”
Their training regime involves a wide variety of exercises that prepare athletes for their respective events.
“A typical day looks like first having a team warm up, usually on the turf or the track depending on whether it’s raining or not,” Nguyen stated. “The workouts are all different each week, and there are usually hard days and easier days, so we’ll have that. And then at the very end we have a cooldown, which is usually as a team.”
Though basketball is vastly different from track and field, they both require effort and determination to be a successful team. Men’s basketball coach Mike Hansen believes their current status is based on the contributions of the team’s original members.
“The last few years have been built upon the early struggles those guys helped us figure out how to win,” Hansen shared.
Beginning with no seniors when they first started, and only 350 students in the school, their program grew over the school’s history. They won their first CIF North Coast Open Division championship title in 2023.
Hansen hopes that his players “grow as young men to realize that it’s important to be a part of a team, and [develop the] understanding it’s bigger than yourself. And understanding how to be healthy, and make healthy choices, and be responsible, and be a good citizen and, you know, just make for a better life for themselves.”
In 2009, the second basketball season of the school’s creation, they lost 73-32 against Las Lomas in one game. In 2015, DV lost 68-63. And, most recently in 2023, they won their away game against the same school 65-47.The basketball team has shown improvement over the years, although like all student athletes, they must juggle responsibilities to school as well as those to their sport.
“When someone looks at us they don’t see athletes, but then we are balancing academics and athletics,” Kenshin Lin, senior wrestling team captain, stated. “Given that [we compete] versus other schools that are skipping class just to excel in their athletic goals, we are still putting in the work and doing the things we need to do, and we are getting better at it.”
DV’s winning mindset, and their keenness to be successful through their own will rather than being fueled by external recognition, has also been something that has allowed athletes to maintain focus on their goals as a team.
“We want to do the hard things because we want to, and that makes us tougher and makes us better,” Lin said.
