Eagle Era

Sophomore Nirupama Balaji’s determination pushes her athletic career to new heights

By Angella Li

Each week, PE students can be seen begrudgingly dragging themselves to the AHS track for their weekly mile, wondering who could possibly enjoy running laps around a large dirt-lined oval. However, running miles is hsimply another normal day for Nirupama Balaji (10). “My favorite part of track has to be the actual racing. You genuinely feel like you’re flying sometimes,” she said.

Balaji started her athletic career with basketball as an athlete in the Thornton Middle School girls’ basketball team and the AHS girls’ basketball team in her freshman year. “I’ve been playing since I was little, and I have a lot of fun doing it,” she said. “I joined the track team because I thought it would be aura-ful and it’d help me get better for basketball, but as I got to know the girls on the team, it just was a super great environment.” After joining the track and field team in her freshman year following the end of the basketball season, Balaji found a love for distance running and went on to join the AHS Cross Country (XC) team in the fall of her sophomore year. 

As she transitioned into distance running, Balaji slowly made a name for herself within the running world, starting within the Mission Valley Athletic League. Despite being in her first year in XC, she was placed in the varsity division and qualified to race at the CIF North Coast Section (NCS) Championships, the primary deciding factor between going on to race at state level.

“Compared to others who would start running XC their freshman year, she started track her freshman year,” said Ishanvi Putta (11), Balaji’s teammate in XC and track. “She started really late, but now she’s one of the fastest people on the team. The way she pushes herself during every practice and race has led to her growth on the track and on the course, which is truly incredible.”

Balaji’s impressive athletic journey largely stems from her eagerness to improve. This determination and drive has always been an important part of Balaji’s identity, even throughout her time in basketball. “She always wanted to improve herself, and she wouldn’t let anyone take her down. If someone had told her something from the other team, she’d go fight back. She’d always bring everyone else up too,” said Prisha Patel (10), one of Balaji’s basketball teammates.

Yet Balaji’s extracurricular activities do not end at sports. Along with juggling academics and athletics, she also does Mock Trial, MUN, and research at the Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program (ASDRP). With such a large activity load, Balaji eventually started to notice impacts on her academics. She said, “I’ve realized that discipline and time management is something you need if you play any sports and do all these extracurriculars. If you don’t have that, you’re literally just juggling a billion things and not getting good at any of it.”

Balaji raced in the frosh/soph girls open 1600 meter race at the track and field invitational, Castro Valley Relays, and won first place by 15 seconds. She walked home that day with three medals: second place for frosh/soph girls Distance Medley Relay, second place for frosh/soph girls 4×800 relay, and first place for frosh/soph girls open 1600 meters (Photo Credit: Julian Alfonso).

Some of the biggest challenges that she has faced in balancing her busy schedule has been time and self-confidence. “With AP season coming up and practice right after school, I barely have 3 hours that I can use for my homework,” said Balaji. “I feel like it’s just so hard; I’m losing time and my own confidence because I’ve seen a drop in my academics, and that’s something that’s really important to me.”

Balaji has found that listening to music and confiding in her friends about her morale helps her push through the challenges. “I’ll talk to my friends about it, and that really helped to keep me motivated because I feel like, otherwise, I would have probably quit,” she said. “For track it was really hard at first. I was like ‘Bro, I can’t run, there’s so much work, and it’s so painful,’ but over time I talked to my friends and I made friends in track, and that’s what really helped.”

Despite her intense dedication to the sport, Balaji also makes sure to take care of her body to keep potential injuries at bay. “I try not to compare myself to my peers and what their training style is because my body hasn’t been built up to do certain things. I’m careful to manage that, because when I try pushing myself too far without listening to my own body, I end up really hurting my knees,” she said.

[Left to right] Phoebe Luo (11), Putta, and Balaji before racing at the XC NCS Championships. Balaji often shakes off pre-race nerves and pressure by singing and dancing. “We’ll be on the starting line and she’ll be singing or jumping while I’m nervous and trying to lock in,” said Putta (Photo Credit: Julian Alfonso).

Sports often demand as much mental energy as physical. “If you do bad in one race, you have to brush it off and run again the next day. You just have to take it with the mentality that ‘I can grow.’ Running has really put things into perspective. I feel like I’ve learned how to take things not as deeply,” said Balaji. “With everything in perspective, I might be good at one level, but at the next level, I’m just another person. I feel like that really applies to my daily life. One thing can’t shut me down. If one thing goes wrong, in the bigger scheme of things, I’m going to have so many races and so many other opportunities in life to better myself.”

Balaji also does not let her struggles impact how she treats the people around her. “I would describe her as very joyful, curious, and energetic,” said Putta. “She is definitely one of the most genuine, sweet people you’ll meet on the team and will always be one of the first people to make you [feel] welcome.”

Many new runners on the team look up to Balaji’s warmth and kindness. Elyse Lovellette (9) is new to the XC and track teams and feels that Balaji has greatly encouraged her to improve her times. “I really look up to her sister-like quality. She’s always treating us like her younger siblings. She talks to us with a fun but gentle tone; she’s always supporting us and making sure we know that she’s there for us,” said Lovellette. “She’s always encouraging me to do better and giving me new ideas for milestones I could reach.”

As she continues to chase increasingly faster times, Balaji hopes to continue her running career in college and help other kids with their sport. “I really hope athletics play a big part in my future, because right now, I genuinely don’t see a future without track,” she said. “I definitely think if I had not started running, even aside from basketball, I would not have grown as an individual. I feel like the person I am today—the way I think, the confidence I have, the people I hang out with—are all because of running. I feel like my life would have been completely different without it.”