Rose Xu

Junior Shay Mallempati serves during practice.

   The eternal question in the world of sports is: effort or talent? Either one can make you successful in a sport. But, being an accomplished athlete in two sports at the same time requires both. Junior Shay Mallempati, a tennis and track and field athlete, looks to be a high-level competitor in both sports this upcoming spring season.

   Last year, Mallempati was a key contributor to both teams. He was the number two singles player for the boys tennis team, and he ran the 800 and 1600-meter events for track and field.

   Mallempati says his decision to play both sports in the same season stems from his love for the both of them.

   “I did pretty well in cross country, and I wanted to continue that through track,” he said. “And tennis I’ve been playing for six to seven years, so I had to play that too.”

   Mallempati’s most recent cross country season was highlighted by setting a new Pinewood record, running three miles in under 18 minutes. 

   With conflicting practice schedules and an increased workload from school, Mallempati said he will employ similar time-management strategies as he used last year to maximize the amount of practice he gets for both of his sports. 

   “I plan to go to three days of track practice and two days of tennis practice,” Mallempati said. “It’s what I did last year, and I’m going to do it again this year.”

   During his sophomore year, Mallempati followed a special schedule that allowed him to find a balance between playing two sports and maintaining his grades in school. However, in contrast to last year, Mallempati has picked up more rigorous coursework, including a few AP courses and honors classes, forcing him to reconsider his approach.

   “I used to do my homework in the morning, so it makes everything easier after school,” Mallempati said. “But now I think I’ll go home and get as much homework done as possible, so I can sleep a little bit longer in the morning.”

   Outside of school practices, Mallempati supplements his training in various ways. Although Mallempati remains committed to both tennis and track, he has aspirations of running in college, which has caused him to put more effort into track and cross country. Mallempati runs seven miles every day, and on Saturdays, he runs with Menlo student-athletes with specially designed workouts. He said that he thinks of every day as an opportunity to improve. 

   As the season progresses, Mallempati looks to continue working hard to achieve his goals. On the other hand, he said he will also try to find joy in the process and deepen his love for the two sports. 

   “I’ll think of tennis more as a fun and entertaining thing, whereas for track I really want to grind it out to get to my end goals,” Mallempati said.