The tennis career of Braun Levi ’25 will go down in the annals of Loyola’s athletic history. Freshman Cubs typically walk onto Loyola’s campus intimidated. Not Levi, though. As a freshman he confidently made the Loyola varsity tennis team, which is an amazing feat in and of itself. Even more impressive was how Levi worked his way that very season to Mission League MVP in the individual tournament and doubles champion with Darren Ignatius ’24.
After this amazing first-year run, Levi was named one of the team captains. He continued his domination with Ignatius on the doubles court, claiming back-to-back Mission League MVPs. During his junior year, he was once again named captain of the team and the season went much like the ones before. Except, this year, he switched partners to his lifelong friend Cooper Schwartz ’25, and together they absolutely dominated their competition. Yet again, Levi, for the third time in three years, won Mission League MVP.
This year, he was on track to make history. Walking into his senior year, Levi had almost nothing left to prove in his high school tennis career, yet he continued to beat his own records. To start, for the third year in a row, he was named team captain.
Head tennis coach and AP Economics and Statistics teacher Brian Held ’93 was Levi’s coach all four years. Held got to see Levi in action almost every day.
When asked the reason for Levi’s tennis domination, Held said, “He is naturally athletic, has long limbs, and great hand-eye coordination. He was able to keep his focus through the long grueling games. And in tennis there are momentum swings, and he was really good at riding out the waves and keeping the bad stuff out of his head and looking forward to the future.”
Teammate Connor Beerbower ’25 always loved Levi’s play on the court. Beerbower said, “He was a multi-year captain, and the team was built around Levi’s energy. When he would be playing doubles, he would constantly get fired up after winning points, and his infectious spirit would give everyone else playing a momentous boost. From his few moments on the bench, he would keep everyone else in good spirits with persistent jokes and screaming out ‘CHOU’ (referencing Johnathan Chou ’25) or ‘TANAKA’ (referencing Louis Tanaka).”
And with Schwartz again, Levi took home his fourth consecutive Mission League MVP as doubles champ.
There were two distinct accomplishments that made his senior year his greatest: his Ojai performance and his top-50 national rank.
Levi and Cooper signed up for the annual Ojai tournament in the Boys CIF division, which would have them playing some of the best competition in California. This did not frighten the duo, and they dominated their first two matches, only giving up three games between the matches. In the round of 16, even though the opposing team was formidable, the Cubs did not waver and won the match 8 to 4. In the quarterfinals, Levi and Cooper pulled off a hard-fought victory in the extra set 10 to 6 to move onto the semifinals. They fought their absolute hardest, but were ultimately defeated in two sets to the eventual champions of the tournament.
Held got to experience this run firsthand. When asked about his favorite memory of Levi, he said, “It is hard not to put his run at Ojai. He competed at this tournament for three years and on those trips we went up to Ojai and spent a couple of days at the tennis Mecca of Southern California. To see the enjoyment of the competition and to make the semifinals was a huge thrill—it captured a little bit of everything about him. It was over spring break, but a handful of guys from the team came up and watched them play.”
With this run and other insane play from Levi in 2025, he was ranked in the top 50 in the nation in UTR with an astounding 10.84 UTR (Universal Tennis Rating). This rating system was made to track how good individual players are, and it goes up to 16.50 for top professional players like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. A high school recruit with a rating of 10 is considered a very good recruit. With this rating of a 10.84, Levi was in the top 0.03% of all high school players in the United States.
Beyond tennis, Levi was able to juggle amazing academics and a fruitful social life. Andrew Sweeney ’27 has followed in Levi’s footsteps, as he was also a freshman to make the varsity team. When asked about how Levi affected his life, he said, “Braun was someone I always looked up to, inside of tennis and outside. There were a few times that I asked him how to balance my academics and outside of school with friends. He seemed to always have the answer. He has all the accolades, but that wasn’t the reason I would always talk to him. He was just always the right guy to talk to about things.”
As Held put it, “Everywhere he went, people wanted to be a part of his life. He had that sense of fun that everyone was a part of and he never let people feel left out. Not in a goofball way, but he always had people smiling and laughing. He welcomed everyone into enjoying that realm of life.”
Levi’s life has been immortalized through the phrase “Live Like Braun.” This saying has expanded beyond just the Loyola community out into the world. The entire Virginia men’s tennis team wore LLB on their sleeves. Professional tennis player Emilio Nava also wore LLB on his shoulder in a recent match. Even the Mira Costa volleyball team wore LLB shirts when they won the Division One finals. His impact on the world will never be forgotten.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This sentiment about Braun’s friendship is everywhere. There are so many stories about how Braun interacted so easily and sincerely with everyone. I, too, had the great pleasure of calling him a classmate and a friend, and this is because he was so approachable and open minded. On a retreat, some of us were playing ultimate frisbee during outdoor free time. Braun walked up and joined in on our game without hesitating, and that is all it took for us to become friends. His constant smile and humorous personality made it immediately impossible for me to not like him. We all have stories like this of Braun. Tennis, school, friendship—when someone asks what Live Like Braun means, I think this captures a piece of it.
