The life of a Pepperdine athlete is not one that brings many easy days, but often difficult ones that each athlete learns to embrace and endure.
Three of Pepperdine’s own athletes — Mahanth Chirravuri, junior Men’s Golf athlete, Makena Mastora, senior Women’s Basketball guard and Hannah Miller, sophomore Track Distance runner — each delve into their daily life as an athlete in their respective sports, engrained with discipline, passion and resilience.
“Just like the community of the athletes here, it’s very uplifting to be around such hardworking and driven people,” Miller said. “Everyone’s worked so hard to get to this point. That’s a big thing that I love about Pepperdine — it’s just very tight knit, and we’re all very close.”
Mahanth Chirravuri: Being a Good Person, Being a Good Teammate
At Pepperdine, Men’s Golf has continued to solidify their place as one of the elite programs in the country, competing against top teams each year. This season is no different.
Chirravuri is currently in his second year at Pepperdine after transferring from University of Southern California when recently, he received the PING All-West Region First Team 2024 and the All West Coast Conference First Team 2024.
His collegiate journey took a different direction during his sophomore year when he decided to transfer to Pepperdine to continue his athletic career. Chirravuri explains his decision to choose Pepperdine as his next home, emphasizing all it has to offer.
“Pepperdine’s such a unique place,” Chirravuri said. “You need to have like a certain fit to come here to begin with, and I really enjoyed the team. We have such a great group of guys. And the coaching staff at Pepperdine is one of the best, so that also exceeded my expectations.”
Despite his willingness and gratitude for this opportunity to play, Chirravuri cannot deny the day-to-day expectations that are set on athletes when it comes to performing at a very high-level institution, he said.
“It’s definitely a full day, whether it’s workouts in the morning to classes all throughout the morning, and then go to the course, which is like a 30-minute drive, and basically there until dark,” Chirravuri said.
Yet, he expressed how once some time of adjustment passes, each day’s schedule becomes enjoyable. His optimistic attitude carries on to how he deals with both sides of being a student-athlete.
“Whether sometimes you spend too much time in athletics or then you spend too much time in academics, it’s really hard to find that balance,” Chirravuri said. “But, over the course of your time here, you learn some techniques, and you get better at it.”
Being a golf athlete in a premier program brings the additional commitment of investing time in traveling around the country to represent Pepperdine, he says.
“Traveling makes it hard because you’re missing classes,” Chirravuri said. “So, you’re already behind, and then now you’re even more behind.”
Yet, he finds the enjoyment through all this process — it’s his favorite part, Chirravuri says. Traveling with his coaches and all his friends while still playing in a competitive environment is something that he would never trade for anything.
He expressed the importance of discipline, a universal trait that student-athletes often have to learn and hone to succeed in all aspects of their collegiate life.
“Staying disciplined is really big,” Chirravuri said. “If you start falling behind, it just doubles and just harder to catch back up. If you can stay on track in your classes and athletically, the stress level is just a lot lower.”
As for dealing with the everyday pressure that athletes face from outside or within, Chirravuri is no different. He said it’s tough because he has to deal with other things while experiencing the pressure that comes from himself as well as other people.
However, he said he believed the key to navigating the stress comes from his personal ability to enjoy the game.
“I truly enjoy the game so much, and I feel like I play it for the right reasons that the burden is less,” Chirravuri said. “You kind of tend to have that [burden] more when you’re focusing more on the outside noise rather than what’s within your control.”
Makena Mastora: Levelheaded Confidence
Women’s Basketball has experienced new highs and lows as they have undertaken another season under the guidance of the new head coach, Katie Faulkner.
Mastora embraces her year with seasoned familiarity. Her previous school was Saint Mary’s College, where she earned the 2021-22 West Coast Conference All-Freshman team. Spending her final year with Pepperdine, she has a career high of 15 points against the University of San Diego so far.
By now, her day-to-day routine is established as a student-athlete. She expressed how a typical day could look like for her.
She usually has morning classes from 8 a.m. to noon. After classes, she goes straight to practice from 12:30 p.m. to around 3:30 p.m., then, straight to lift for about 45 minutes to an hour and ends the day with class or schoolwork, Mastora said.
Mastora said staying on top of the workload and having discipline means having an organized schedule and making sure with all the craziness she has to go through, she has clear to-do lists to get everything done.
Something else she notes is the support Pepperdine provides the athletes as they deal with busy schedules that often lead to missed classes and being behind on work.
“Just talking with a lot of professors when we’re traveling — they’re always very attentive to the things that I’m asking for, able to give me help where I need it,” Mastora said.
Through it all, she understands feeling drained as athletes due to their repetition within their everyday schedules, she says.
“For me, is just understanding that this doesn’t last forever,” Mastora said. “Trying to appreciate every second of it, even the highs and the lows of it. I’m really appreciative that I get to do this.”
As for dealing with all the internal and external pressure that comes with it, she lives by this mantra and understands that she is human at the end of the day, Mastora said.
“No one’s perfect, and no one will ever be perfect,” Mastora said. “So, just making sure that I’m able to give all that I have in that day and each moment.”
Mastora expresses how living a Division I athlete life has taught her valuable lessons that she carries over in her leadership and personal attitude. She’s cultivated the ability to understand conflict and how to resolve it through healthy communication and how important it is to lean on one another within the community, she said.
A last piece of advice that she would give to her younger self is that everything isn’t as big of a deal as she thinks it is.
“Things can be overwhelming and challenging and feel like you need to fix it right there in the moment but it takes time and experience,” Mastora said. “You need to be level-headed and can’t be so enraged with emotions to make good decisions.”
Hannah Miller: Hope and Faith
As Pepperdine Women’s Cross Country season came to a close, Pepperdine Women’s Track has already kickstarted by debuting their indoor track season.
Miller has been diligently working hard alongside her team to prepare for their exciting season. Throughout her two years at Pepperdine, she has already accumulated accolades: West Coast Conference All-Academic Honorable Mention 2024 and West Coast Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll (Silver) 2023-24. Recently, at the Waves Invite, she placed third with her four-kilometer time of 14:18.0.
Miller’s daily athletic schedule is robust and consumed with hard training days that can lead to fatigue and yet, fulfillment, she says.
“It’s really different every day because we have different workouts,” Miller said. “On recovery days, those are usually practices off campus with earlier wake-ups, like before six. We’ll usually be driving to either Zuma or Malibu Creek to do five to six miles. For Tuesdays and Fridays are speed workouts.”
But the work doesn’t end, because it is not even including team lift and recovery stretching after, a vital aspect of keeping runners healthy. Miller said that she goes through a day of practice while managing classes all day and schoolwork.
“You’re just tired all the time,” Miller said. “It can be harder to focus sometimes because you’re just exhausted.”
For her, like many others, time management is crucial and keeping track of everything she has to do. Yet, she finds comfort in her teammates and building a social life through her team and friends from her classes.
Mental health is prioritized within her sport. Pepperdine offers athletes free counseling through their Pepperdine Counseling Center and an emphasis on a healthy mind and body to perform to the best of their abilities.
Miller expressed the challenges she particularly struggles with in regard to balancing her student-athlete life.
“It’s definitely a challenge to not have as much time to study as everyone else,” Miller said. “We don’t get to stay up late because we have to wake up so early. A lot of social things are also sacrificed.”
Nonetheless, Miller doesn’t take anything for granted as she continues to be inspired and driven within the Pepperdine community, working towards her purpose, Miller said.
“No matter how hard a moment of your life might be, it’s always going to go up,” Miller said. “I would say to have hope and faith even when things may seem really dark.”
Within Pepperdine, students can understand their peers’ daily lives better through the lens of a multifaceted community of athletes, many carrying the pressures and expectations that come with the privilege of being a Pepperdine athlete with strength and humility.
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Contact Christine Park via email: christine.park@pepperdine.edu
