While the Bay Area may seem to many like a wide mix of transplants from other places, one actually doesn’t have to look all that closely to find small-town vibes and long-time native families in our local suburbs.
The city of Sunnyvale has been home to the Kaprelian and Henell families dating back to the 1950s. Brad Kaprelian and Lindi Henell began dating in the late 1970s, both of whom went to Fremont High School.
Lindi has always been extremely proud of having been part of the Fremont Featherettes, while Brad played both baseball and football for the then-Indians. Fremont changed its mascot in the mid 90’s.
Kaprelian and Henell have two children who followed in their parents’ footsteps to Fremont. Erin Kaprelian played both water polo and soccer during high school, while younger brother JT Kaprelian played water polo and baseball.
“It’s been amazing,” remarked Henell on watching her kids go to school and play sports at her and her husband’s alma mater. “They had a totally different experience at Fremont than we did, but it was a good experience, just different as it’s a different school than back in the day when we went there. It was equally great, though, for them and for us. It was fun to watch them go through and do the same things we did.”
“Erin wouldn’t have been caught dead being a Featherette, though,” joked Henell on her daughter’s extracurricular preferences. “But it had been my life goal to be a Featherette from the time I was old enough to understand what that was. I was going to do that.”
According to Henell, they aren’t the only Sunnyvale family still passing on the Fremont tradition.
“I actually have quite a few of my friends, their kids went through Fremont,” added Henell. “There are a lot of us from the early 80s that are still here, and our kids went to Fremont. It’s neat to see.”
It’s also neat to see alumni like Henell’s daughter Erin return to coach at their former school. Erin Kaprelian recently finished up her college career playing water polo at the University of the Pacific and is now co-head coach of the varsity girls water polo team at Fremont.
“It’s been kind of a dream to come back and coach at my old high school,” admitted Kaprelian. “I’ve long been in the ear of the athletic director, and when there was a change in athletic directors, the old athletic director [Jason Townsend] passed my name along to [Dan McCune]. Just every year, I was telling them that I’m trying to get back into the area as soon as I can and I do want to take over the team if it’s open. I do want to be back with the team that gave me so much. I do want to be able to give back to the program that helped me get to where I am.”
Kaprelian’s water polo squad is currently performing at a high level in the pool. It is sitting at 9-1 on the season, with its only loss coming against Wilcox on Sept. 19. Fremont has since avenged that loss with an 11-9 double-overtime victory over the Chargers on Oct. 8.
It seems safe to say that the Firebird fire is everlasting.