Former McCallum student Andrew Lavine, who graduated in 2025, has had many challenges during his tennis career. Moving around between cities, such as Austin, Houston and in his senior year, Barcelona, Spain, combined with the passing of his mother, put a roadblock in his journey. However, Andrew Lavine was able to overcome grief, loss and inconvenience through the support of his family and his beloved sport. He will be attending University of California, Riverside to play Division 1 tennis in the fall. 

Andrew lost his mom in December 2021. Because of this, Andrew, who had been playing tennis for around a decade, took a few months off from the sport and moved from Houston to Austin. 

“Moving from Houston to Austin was very difficult because I lived in Houston for 15 years, so I was leaving everything I’ve ever known for a new place,” Andrew said. “Then, on top of that, losing my mother three months later set me back socially, and I just went full forward for tennis.” 

Despite the six months Andrew took off from tennis, he eventually arrived back at the court. Lavine and his older brother, Alex Lavine, agree that keeping busy with tennis helped with their grief. 

“After our mom passed, we used tennis eventually as a way to escape from reality,” Alex said. ”Tennis [is] Andrew’s passion for life, and it was a goal that we both wanted to achieve of him getting to division one, and that kept him going in life, and that gave me a purpose in helping him.” 

Juan Bracho, Andrew and Alex’s grandfather, inspired both brothers to pursue tennis throughout their childhood and into college for Andrew. According to Bracho, tennis takes a lot of focus. 

“There’s something about tennis,” Bracho said. “In tennis, when you’re hitting, you have to look at the ball and you have to focus on the ball, you can’t just space out, [which helped Lavine].” 

Andrew carries his mother with him everywhere he goes, especially to the tennis court. Despite the pain of grief, Andrew believes he was able to come out the other end as a better person and tennis player. 

“When I step on court with an edge of heart and fuel that I bring to the sport with the pain I have faced,” Andrew said. “If I lose a point or match, I know it’s not that big of a deal because I have dealt with much worse.” 

Alex and Andrew agree that losses and points lost do not matter as much in the grand scheme of everything. According to Alex, grief makes people, especially younger adults, unique. 

“[My counselor] told me that people, especially younger people who go through trauma at a young age, have the superpower,” Alex said. “[They just see] life through a different lens as I’ve seen before, just appreciating waking up in the morning, going to sleep at night [and] eating food.” 

Although the grief for Andrew was rough to deal with at first, he came out the other side stronger. The loss provided motivation to continue tennis and try to go D1. 

“The passing of my mother affected me by giving me a fire inside, an edge,” Andrew said. “It gave me a hunger to accomplish my goals, knowing that I’ve been through more and then I could face difficult times.” 

According to Alex, being preoccupied with tennis was a crucial turning point in the brothers’ journey through grief. Alex believes that the key to making it to the other side of grief is finding the people to lean on and depend on when you need it most. 

“It’s really hard to talk about these things with people that don’t want to be vulnerable and actually listen to you because it’s an uncomfortable subject,” Alex said. “But if you have those people who are not afraid to listen and share their feelings with you, that is something that you need and that was my family in my case.”

Alex and Andrew believe the grief of loss will stay with them forever.  However, the strategies of support systems, dedication of time to various activities, and passage of time serve as the perfect concoction. 

“Of course, the feeling of grief never goes away for someone who has lost someone,” Alex said. “[But,] the pain is not as bad as it once was because over time your heart slowly heals.”

Bracho feels indebted to the sport and what it was able to do for Andrew. In turn, Bracho teaches tennis lessons at the McCallum courts and helps to keep them in clean condition. 

Andrew now gets to live out his dream of playin D1 because of his path through grief and the wide support of his family. 

“It gave me an urgency because I didn’t know how long I have had on this earth losing someone so unexpectedly,” Andrew said. “It taught me to enjoy every single day because you don’t know when your last day is.”