Dek: Spark Plug is a feature series that seeks to profile multi-faceted athletes who have the unique ability to excel both in sports and in other aspects of their lives. In the seventh installment, we get to know Ateneo Women’s Volleyball Team (AWVT) Libero Dani Ravena, who has surpassed the pressures of her family name by making her impact felt both on and off the court.
AT SEVEN years old, Dani Ravena dedicated her life to badminton, competing in various National Capital Region competitions against other badminton prodigies and spending countless hours training to be the best in her age group. However, as the years went by, Dani started falling in love with a different sport: Volleyball. Watching talented volleyball professionals alongside her mother, Dani could not help but picture herself in the middle of the jam-packed arena with fans cheering her on. Eventually, Dani went on to shock her entire family by announcing that she wanted to try her luck in volleyball. In the present time, she stands tall as a collegiate volleyball champion.
Off the taraflex, the Lady Eagle has breathed life into her advocacies for animal rights and climate action through donation drives and online businesses. With these off-the-court pursuits and her on-court success, she has distinguished herself from the rest of her star-studded family and has fought through the impossibly high expectations that came with the Ravena name.
A change of courts
When Dani initially made the switch to volleyball, she knew that the transition would be no easy task because of her fiery personality and her lack of experience in a team sport. Apart from struggling to effectively communicate with her teammates, Dani would unintentionally antagonize them on the court. “I would get frustrated easily, I would get mad, and I wouldn’t know how to control my anger because I was so competitive,” explained Dani.
However, Dani eventually improved her communication skills upon joining the Miriam College High School Volleyball Team where she developed a better sense of camaraderie as their setter. With her renewed sense of teamwork, Dani spent her high school years honing her skills by competing in Quezon City Meets and Women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association events.
Eventually, with her high school graduation looming, the time came for her to move onto the collegiate level. Although she had made great strides in improving her play, she failed to stand out due to her raw skill set that sprung from her lack of competitive experience. Ultimately, she entered college without an athletic scholarship offer.
Despite this setback, Dani did not let the absence of a scholarship stop her. Instead, she doubled down on developing her own skills. Wanting to join her brothers at her dream school, she entered Ateneo’s tryouts as a walk-in without any assured slot on the roster. After spending weeks working tirelessly to hone her defensive skills and develop chemistry with the rest of the team, she eventually secured a spot as the Ateneo Women’s Volleyball Team’s (AWVT) new libero.
As Dani spent most of her first few seasons coming off the bench, she constantly prepared for her number and always stepped up on the court when she needed to. Her efforts finally paid off in UAAP Season 81 as she went from being an undersized walk-in player with little experience in volleyball to an impactful player in the UAAP finals. At the end of the season, Dani left the floor hoisting Ateneo’s third championship trophy.
Passion and action
Unfortunately, Dani and the rest of the AWVT had to postpone their bid for back-to-back championships when UAAP Season 82 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With her volleyball career pushed to the side, Dani shifted her attention to her advocacies.
After Typhoon Ulysses ravaged the country in November 2020, many people died or suffered injuries due to the floods. One of those severely affected by the storm’s floods was the San Mateo Pound, which Dani heard about through the Animal Kingdom Foundation’s Facebook post.
Having been passionate about taking care of animals in her childhood years, Dani donated the profits she made from her Instagram thrift store, LookatDaniRavs, to the San Mateo Pound. On top of the money she donated, Dani, a few members of her family, and her friends also went to the dog pound to help with the cleanup despite the risk of contracting COVID-19. The group shovelled mud out of the flooded building while the Ravena family provided food to the staff and volunteers.
Despite her act of goodwill, Dani’s proactiveness in helping those in need caught the ire of her bashers, with many people telling her to focus on volleyball instead of dipping her toes in issues outside of her sport.
Under pressure
Born into a family of sports icons, Dani had known all her life that carrying the Ravena mantle was no easy task. Being the daughter and sister to three basketball superstars, every fan and critic of the Ravenas were eager to see whether the youngest member of the family would contribute to their legacy or fail to live up to expectations. Despite having a multitude of naysayers, Dani never saw her family name as a burden.
On the flipside, she acknowledged how fortunate she was for the privileges that came along with a family of sports icons—with her mom’s connections with veteran coaches being a big help in her volleyball journey. “Growing up, I was like, ‘Ano ba iyan (Why is it like that), being a Ravena doesn’t make me any [more] special than others.’ But then when you think about it, other people would do so much more things because if they had the same means as I do, if they were in my shoes I know they would do anything to just reach their dreams,” Dani noted.
Looking back on how far she has come and all the hours of work she had put into becoming a better athlete, Dani continues to give her 100% effort in all her passions on and off the court. As she matured as a person, she has taken control of her fiery, unabashed personality, and has left a lasting impact on the Ateneo community to shine her own name as bright as the rest of her star-studded family.
