Written By: Jonathan Viene, Staff Writer
SUPERNOVA: Like a real collapsing star, Nova’s presence radiates across campus.
There is truly nobody like Nova Camacho. An ASB member, volleyball player, AP student, TikTok star, and Poly bear—there is an extraordinary depth to his personality. A Bear for all four years, he has made quite an impact at Poly. After returning to in-person classes his sophomore year, and a “slow start” to his high school experience, Nova immediately started making up for lost time. Drawn to “how fast-paced it is,” he tried out and made the varsity boys volleyball team. Simply “getting better and liking it more” was all it took for Nova to never look back. After a 2-20 season his first year, he helped turn the tides as an outside hitter to score back to back winning seasons his Junior and Senior years, and is now looking forward to CIF Finals. Anyone who has been to one of the team’s many home games over the past two seasons will remember the chant “SU-PER-NO-VA” that breaks out any time Nova scores. Started first by his father, who is in frequent attendance at his games, the JV kids and now the entire team along with spectators have embraced it. A fierce competitor on the court and energetic personality off it, he will leave a lasting impression on the team.
And of course, Nova’s ambitious personality meant he wouldn’t stop at just volleyball. In his Junior year, things “finally started becoming fun” once he got more involved. He joined Principle Centered Leadership, where he started to branch out even further. His time with PCL meant he started “going out to things and doing things” — which he explained meant making some of his fondest memories and meeting some of his favorite people. This included his favorite high school memory: the 2022 homecoming lip sync battle, where his and PCL’s performance of “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’” earned them the title of the year’s best lip sync-ers. Still feeling as though he wanted to make a bigger impact, he joined the ASB his Senior year, where he has become a valued member of the Senior class. Even in this new setting, he has continued thriving—and dancing.
Of course though, you cannot talk about Nova dancing without mentioning his Tiktok career. Nova has been known post his TikTok dances, which if you ask, he will happily demonstrate. He has also embarked on trends of his own, too; he has challenged himself to get a new signature on his backpack for each day of his senior year along with a “Quote of the Day” from whoever signs, which he posts on his page. He felt that there was “something missing” — physically and figuratively — after missing freshman year, and these signatures represented the people he did not get to meet and the experiences he didn’t get to experience in that lost time. Staying dedicated to his goal, with well over 150 people interviewed, Nova has a completely covered backpack and an impressively long playlist of videos, although not quite finished yet.
Nova faces a tough decision. His standout character and academic achievement earned him admission at both UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz, and he’s still weighing the two. Between his math-oriented mind and the “thought of building things” which has always stuck with him, he plans on majoring in Mechanical Engineering at whichever university he picks. He hasn’t completely ruled out his college volleyball career quite yet, either. He left it at simply, “Maybe.”
In the future, we can be sure to expect great things from Nova, no matter what he decides to pursue. His dream job is to be a stay-at-home-dad, only so that he could “pick up a gambling hobby,” he joked. Taking after his own experiences and constant willingness to involve himself, his advice for others is to “Do everything. The memories you make sleeping in are not worth missing the memories you’ll make… not sleeping in. Call me John Philosophical.” Nova certainly benefited from his own advice, truly making the most of his time at Poly. He will be missed on campus. Good luck Nova!