Sofia Mendes entering senior season with the Southeast High School volleyball program

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - This week’s ABC7 Athlete of the Week is Southeast High School’s (SEHS) Sofia Mendes. She’s a senior for the Lady Seminoles volleyball team.

They are preparing to begin their 2026 season this week. Mendes was apart of last year’s team that went 17-4, but they enter this season with a new head coach who wasn’t in their building a year ago.

Despite the change in program leadership, Mendes is confident this group can duplicate those results, and go even further in the playoffs.

“We have a great team of hitters and passers,” Mendes said. “She really helps us. She teaches us in a way that makes us want to learn, and love the sport even more. She’s one of those coaches that you can tell she’s passionate. It just makes you love the sport even more, while learning.”

Since it is her final year of high school, this is all bittersweet for Mendes. “I’m really sad that this season’s coming,” Mendes said. “It’s so fast. It feels like I just started playing volleyball.”

Mendes has only been in the United States for a few years. She’s originally from Brazil. “My mom actually lived here when she was 16,” Mendes said. “She graduated from Bayshore High School. She came back here [the United States] because she knew that there were better opportunities for me and my sister.”

Mendes says she keeps in contact with her family members that are still in Brazil. They want to see everything that she’s doing in volleyball, and all of her extracurricular activities.

“I’m in T.S.A. That’s our Technology Student Association,” Mendes said. “I am also apart of our science club. I’m apart of our Future Business Leaders of America. I’m an officer with our student government.”

It’s a lot to balance, but Menes does it effortlessly. She also encourages her teammates to do the same thing. “She’s so energetic,” Alicia Martinez, Mendes’s friend and teammate, said. “She’s very kind. She’s very uplifting. She celebrates every hit you had.”

The thing that stands out the most to her coach, Daris Rodriguez, about Mendes is her leadership. “Sofia doesn’t let anything get in her head,” Rodriguez said. “So, when things are going a little bit south, she keeps a leveled head. She’s always uplifting her teammates.”

When it comes to this season. Mendes wants to accomplish one thing with the game that also helps her teammates stand out too. “I just want to make my team shine,” Mendes said. “As a setter, it’s in your hands to run the offense. I want to be able to showcase to everyone what my hitters can do.”

Mendes and her teammates begin their 2026 season on Thursday at Palmetto High School to face the Lady Tigers.