Despite being the youngest in the family, his brothers taught him everything they knew about tennis and about life in general.
“Without their love and support, who knows where I would be now?”
Entering Torrance High School was a tough transition for Buenaventura since he didn’t have many friends or a team.
“I told myself ‘What the hell, I might as well play tennis’ and I did all through high school,” Buenaventura said. “I wasn’t the weakest player on the team. I was the fat Filipino guy that would make everyone pee their pants.”
Buenaventura, now playing on the men’s tennis team, a team that he calls his family.
“The team loves Kevin,” teammate Sammy Macias said. “Without him on the team, we wouldn’t have nearly as much fun.”
Buenaventura also enjoys spending time with his teammates outside the court as well.
“We hang out and literally laugh our butts off at practices,” Buenaventura said. “I bet the coach wishes we were more serious.”
Steve Van Kanegan, coach, is proud of what Buenaventura has brought to the team.
“He’s not only talented, but he brings joy to the team as well, especially when a match doesn’t go well.”
Besides playing tennis, Buenaventura always had a knack for comedy, idolizing comics like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle.
“The guys on the team know me as the ‘team clown’, but all the ladies knew me as ‘sexy beast.'”
Coach Van Kanegan knows that Kevin cannot always be serious and sometimes that can “cause unneeded distractions.”
“[Kevin] is always yelling and laughing and definitely won his title as the team clown,” Van Kanegan said. “If I didn’t have a sense of humor I would be having him run laps all practice long.”
Kevin has used laughter as a way to escape the harsh reality of what life has to offer.
“Laughter is without a doubt the best remedy for life,” he said.
While he is known for cracking jokes on the court, Buenaventura also shows great sportsmanship towards his fellow teammates.
Tennis player Usama Ehsan recalls a time when Buenaventura saved him from blowing up on the court.
“Kevin and I were doubles partners one match and towards the end, I was so mad from losing that I nearly broke my racquet,” Ehsan said. “But do you know what Kevin did? He walked up to me and gave me a big bear hug. No one has ever done that in the middle of one of my temper tantrums.”
Buenaventura doesn’t know what he wants to do after college, but that he “might as well follow the Filipino trend and become a male nurse.”
“I want to be one of those old people at the park playing tennis with their senior friends. That’s what I call the good life.”