Yurika Yebbal is not only a student at Pennridge High School but she plays on the women’s tennis team as well. Yebbal has played tennis for two years, junior and senior years, and plays doubles. She enjoys playing the game and hanging out with her friends at practice. Not only does she play tennis but she also has played powderpuff these past couple of years. Every single year she has played her team has won the championship. She plays left and right tackle and occasionally will play guard if someone is injured or does not show up.
Yebbal is very family-oriented, especially because she doesn’t get to see them all the time. She travels to Algeria every summer and, occasionally to Paris to visit her family. “Typically, people say that their experiences have taught them always to show kindness, but it is just something that has always been built into me, you never know what people are going through.” She loves learning new things that will be useful to her. Besides tennis, she is a part of the chamber orchestra for Pennridge, playing the viola, in link crew, and is a part of the Model UN club as well. She works really hard in school taking mostly honors and AP classes; she values her education a lot. She always tries to participate as much as she can and she always makes sure to turn in her assignments on time.
Her favorite thing to do is go to Chipotle, she tries to go at least two times a week. She either gets a bowl or a burrito with white rice, black beans, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole with a side of chips and queso every single time. She loves it so much she has a private story called “Chipotle and chips.” “Every single day Yurika comes into lunch with a new story, she’s just an overall fun person to be around. I remember the first time I met Yurika was at the first Model UN meeting. She came up to me and introduced herself and from there we became really good friends” says Daisy, a junior at Pennridge High School.
During Yebbal’s senior year, she got the senior superlative of perseverance because she never gave up when she got hit in the face with a tennis racket junior year. The team was playing a tennis game together called racket in the fence. Right after Yebbal got out, Bella did. They all were just hanging around hitting balls into the fence and suddenly Bella’s racket swung right into her face which ended up giving her a broken nose and a concussion. Everyone was shocked when she came back to the tennis team for her senior year. It was never a thought to quit tennis, this hardship only made her a better and stronger player. She had to wear blue light glasses and had bruises on her nose but she still showed up to school every day and never complained. “It was a funny story to tell,” she says. Her teammate Erica says “I didn’t know if I would ever see Yurika play tennis again but I am glad to see her back for our senior season. Every single day she comes to practice with a good attitude and a smile on her face.” Not only does she have a positive attitude on the court she shows up for practice every day, only misses school when she has to, and attends every club meeting.
It’s the little things that Yebbel does to make the community a better place like helping students in the hallway who don’t know where to go or volunteering in her free time. She is always showing her support for other Pennridge sports teams like going to the football games on Friday nights or attending a couple of the track meets. She plans to join the Air Force when she turns 18 and study intelligence analysis to hopefully help with her career when she does eventually get out of it. Yebbal does not plan on playing tennis beyond high school but she is really glad that she played and is thankful for all the memories she has made these past couple of years.
