SAN JOSE — Danylo Yavir was new to the United States, new to Silicon Valley culture, new to Branham High.
He wasn’t new to tennis, though.
When the Ukrainian teenager learned that his San Jose high school had a tennis team, he finally found something that reminded him of home as he adjusted to unfamiliar surroundings after finding refuge from his war-torn country.
Yavir sent an email to the coach, who told the kid to come to practice.
One problem.
It was girls tennis season and Yavir, unbeknown to Branham coach Rick Stanton, is a boy.
“I was quite surprised,” Stanton recalled with a laugh.
That was the fall of 2022, shortly after Yavir arrived in the United States from his home country, which had been invaded by Russia months earlier.
After straightening out his calendar, Yavir went out for the boys team that spring and has been its top player since then, helping Branham improve from 1-9 last season to 7-6 so far this year.
Through the Uniting for Ukraine program, which was launched by President Joe Biden weeks after the conflict began, Yavir left his hometown to live in San Jose with his aunt, Iryna Kulyasha, who served as his sponsor.
Kulyasha, a nurse, has lived and worked in the South Bay for over a decade, having originally come to the United States as an exchange student in 2001.
Her nephew’s transition to the United States hasn’t been easy, but tennis has helped.
The ball makes a startling pop every time Yavir, 18, unfurls his 6-foot-1 frame and unleashes his effortless right-handed swing. The sound echoes as the volley whistles through the air and lands inbounds for another point.
The Ukrainian refugee, whose shyness creates a mystery about him to teammates, makes plenty of noise inside the lines.
Some 6,000 miles from his parents and surrounded by a language he’s still learning, the tennis court is the closest thing the Branham senior has to familiarity.
Danylo Yavir, a senior tennis player for Branham who is a refugee from Ukraine, plays in a tennis match at Willow Glen High School in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
“I have some shots or points, where since I’ve been playing so long, and if I hit them down the line sliced, or I hit a smash right down the line, sometimes it reminds me of home,” Yavir said.
He avoids reading much about his home country’s ongoing war, instead devoting his focus to the sport.
“I think if Dany had his way, he would play tennis 24/7,” Stanton said. “It is probably the one thing that carries over from his life in Ukraine to his life in San Jose.”
Yavir spent hundreds of hours learning to play in his hometown of Lviv, a city of 720,000 in western Ukraine known for manufacturing electronics and software development — not unlike San Jose.
It was in Lviv that his older brother, Dmytro, started playing tennis as an 11-year-old. Yavir, then 4, soon followed suit.
Yavir said that his father, not a tennis player himself, supported his development by hiring a trainer and watching Yavir grow as a player.
But like so many of their compatriots, Yavir and his family’s lives were thrown into disarray by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. Although Lviv is closer to Poland than Russia, it has been the target of several airstrikes since the invasion started.
Yavir said his parents are not planning to join him and his brother. In Lviv, they run a hotel with a cafe and a small trucking company. Yavir said he calls his parents almost every day but talking to them is still no substitute for having both nearby.
“If it’s a good day, then it’s OK,” Yavir said about missing his parents. “But if I’m having a bad day, it’s so hard. Some days, I do happen to cry.”
The move that separated Yavir from his parents and older brother understandably left him homesick. But his aunt did her best to make the teen’s new environment feel like home.
“I think it was important for him to have me here at first because we speak Ukrainian at home,” Kulyasha said. “My husband is also Ukrainian. I know when I came here as an exchange student, I didn’t have that. So it’s nice to have your language and culture to help you cope.”
Yavir spent his first year away from home in silence, quietly moving around Branham’s halls alone, playing tennis and riding his bike to and from the school instead of carpooling with teammates or riding the bus.
He had none of the bravado typically associated with gifted young athletes.
“When I saw him in the hallways, I assumed he was a regular student,” teammate Hari Srivatsan said.
Kulyasha said that her nephew is shy by nature, even in his native Ukrainian. But the quietness is more noticeable now because he can’t always express what he’s thinking in his second language.
“Sometimes it’s hard when you can’t explain, fully, what you want to say,” Yavir said about speaking English. “Sometimes you’re not answering the question, like you’re skipping, but you know what the answer is.”
Danylo Yavir, center, a senior tennis player for Branham who is a refugee from Ukraine, cheers with his teammates after a tennis match at Willow Glen High School in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Yavir was reunited with Dmytro last year when Kulyasha sponsored the older brother, too. Dmytro is Yavir’s closest friend, driving him to and from away matches, practicing with him and, more importantly, giving him someone who can relate to his situation.
His aunt noticed the difference.
“I could see that he changed, because he was kind of sad all the time before,” Kulyasha said. “They have a lot in common, and they both play tennis, and you know, he looks up to his brother.”
When Yavir is having a tough time, he also leans on tennis.
Off the court, he’s slowly warmed up to his teammates, who are careful not to pry into his private life.
Teammate Frank Junkar said Yavir, who describes himself as “shy but sometimes funny,” has a dry sense of humor and will occasionally unleash a joke in the team’s group text chat.
Srivatsan revealed that his teammate is a car enthusiast who will share random Instagram videos of Aston Martins and other luxury vehicles.
But nobody brings up the war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, knowing Yavir does not like to talk about it.
“It’s so hard, and I’m not trying to read the news,” he said. “But sometimes I read them, and it’s so hard to read.”
Yavir prefers to focus on schoolwork and tennis, often staying an hour or two after practice to get a few more swings in during twilight.
Even though the sun will soon set on his time at Branham, Yavir’s career as a tennis player could continue in college.
Although the Uniting for Ukraine program lasts only through the summer, Yavir and his family are confident he will be able to stay in the United States through the Temporary Protected Status program, which includes Ukraine.
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He’s looking at junior colleges for now, and Stanton is confident that Yavir has the talent to win at that level and earn a two-year degree.
Whether Yavir stays in the South Bay, or even the country, after that is anybody’s guess.
“Maybe I’ll stay here, or maybe I’ll try to go home. We’ll see,” Yavir said.
Until that day comes, you can find Yavir honing his craft in his sanctuary, away from war, language and culture.
A tennis court where, if given the opportunity, he would spend every second of every day.
“If someone gave me the chance to, I would,” Yavir said. “I would.”