The life of a student-athlete is a demanding one that includes early morning practices, lifting sessions, matches both home and away, class and homework. Such a lifestyle is difficult enough to maintain on its own, but then there’s Bharani Sankar.
The Longwood men’s tennis senior has as many commitments off the court as he does on it. Sankar is a Business Administration major and, in addition to his devotion to being a Division I student-athlete, interns as a data analyst at Longwood, co-founded the Beyond the Numbers organization, has been a peer mentor, takes part in the Lancer Student Investment Fund, tutors mathematics and is a member of both Honor Board and Theta Chi, a campus fraternity.
“You learn a lot from those (organizations) in terms of leadership roles and understanding the dynamics of how people work in a team and I’ve been able to apply that to our team and I think it’s brought a fresh perspective,” said Sankar, believing his off-court involvements have developed him as a person and leader.
Through his many involvements, Sankar has given back to the school and helped the surrounding community while maintaining a 3.5 GPA in his major and being named to the Dean’s List in the fall of 2014 and 2015. Aside from the impression he leaves on paper, it is most notably his character on and off the court that makes him one of Longwood’s most involved and well-known student-athletes.
Pierre Tafelski, the men’s tennis head coach, has been at Longwood for less than a year and in his short time at the school he has been able to see Sankar’s influence. “He is a very mature athlete and student, and he’s very smart … he gets along very well with everybody and I use him a little bit as an assistant coach as well to help me,” Tafelski said, praising the senior captain.
It isn’t just the team’s head coach who appreciates Sankar’s influential presence, but also his teammates. Having played two years with Sankar, junior Florian Uffer, knows him better than most and values his role. Uffer highlights Sankar’s ability to communicate and bridge the gap between the coach and the players.
“He knows how to make people listen, he knows how to talk and he knows how to put things. In practice, if the coach doesn’t see it, Bharani does and he knows what to say,’ said Uffer.
Going in to his senior year as a captain and playing from the No. 3 spot, Sankar has worked hard to reach this stage in his tennis career. As a freshman and sophomore, Sankar saw very little action on the court. Now, he is also playing under his third head coach. However, under Tafelski, Sankar has seen the biggest and most promising development in the program.
“With Coach Tafelski, one thing has been mentality and that’s huge. I just think the last three years we knew what we needed to do, but went through the motions,” said Sankar. “But this past year we’ve really hit the ground running and he (Tafelski) has been phenomenal for us.”
It is clear to see that Sankar’s role as a member of the Longwood men’s tennis team goes further than just his performances on the court and Tafelski notices how important his captain is for the team off the court as well.
“Everybody knows Bharani, I am and our program is very fortunate to have somebody like this on the team because, on the court, it’s been tough for us … but having somebody that spreads such a positive word about men’s tennis across campus and in all the different organizations is important and it’s the first time I’ve come across a player that does this,” said the head coach.
After spending three and a half years on the team, Sankar reflected on what made his time as a Lancer stand out. He said, “I think it’s special because we’re just so different, there’s so many different cultures. I’m from India and we have guys from Switzerland and Australia. I think it’s special because we all bring something different to the group.”
Having reflected on the past, Sankar gave his opinion on the program moving forward after his final semester at Longwood and predicted “within a few years we’ll be competing for that top three or four spot in the Big South.”
“Realistically, it’s a tough conference for us to play in because every team is pretty even,” he said. Even with the competition, he feels like the program has a bright future ahead.
Sankar and the Longwood men’s tennis team are heading in to their third and fourth matches of the season this coming weekend against UNC Charlotte and Coastal Carolina and the team will be showing what they’ve got as they look to improve on last seasons 8-15 record in Tafelski’s first season and Sankar’s last.
Men’s tennis senior Bharani Sankar represents Longwood through athletics and campus organizations. This photo was taken at Longwood’s 4-3 win over West Virginia Wesleyan.
