DERRY — Like most kids growing up in England, Arav Mahajin’s passion was soccer.

His family moved to the U.S. in elementary school and soccer was still his favorite sport. Until a torn meniscus in his left knee first slowed and then ended soccer days.

Mahajin turned his sights to another sport, sort of a hobby growing up across the Atlantic Ocean — tennis. It soon became his new athletic passion.

Lessons, determination and learning about the game helped him climb the ladder on the tennis courts. Now in his fourth varsity season as a member of the Pinkerton High boys team, he’s gone from the No. 4 singles spot, to his second year at No. 1.

The No. 1 status doesn’t stop with tennis.

The senior currently ranks No. 1 out of approximately 350 students in his soon-to-be 2026 graduating class.

Hard work, determination, and a deep passion for learning, has enabled him to be on a waiting list of three Ivy League Universities (accepted to seven others), while being recognized state and nationally in a number of academic accolades and achievements.

Mahajan is a part of the National Honor and fourth other school national society groups; he is the Communications Leader for the Astros’ Leadership Council of Athletics; he tutors peers in math; and has volunteered at two local hospitals.

He was recently part of the state’s Quiz Bowl Championship team, he took Gold at the HOSA State Championship, was a semi-finalist in the USA Biology Olympiad, and recently wrote a paper on “Emerging Therapies for Mitochondrial Dysfunction for the Cambridge Centre for International Research.”

On graduation night, June 12 — around the same time he hopes to lead the tennis team to its first state tournament appearance since his freshman season — he is scheduled to be the class valedictorian.

“We are more than twice as big as any other school in New Hampshire, so to be numero uno (academically) at Pinkerton is quite a feat,” said tennis coach Toby Frank.

Frank has watched Mahajan evolve into a terrific tennis player. As a freshman, he played No. 4 on a team that had 12 seniors and two juniors. The Astros reached the state tournament and lost to Keene, but Mahajan won his match.

“He came in as a freshman and played in our No. 4 singles spot,” said Frank. “The next year he led our team in wins. Then junior and senior years he has moved to No. 1 spot. I think that says a lot about him as a player.”

Before his soccer injury, Mahajan didn’t even know the rules of tennis.

“I started playing for fun with my dad when I was three years old back in England,” said Mahajan. “I knew how to play and had pretty good form but honestly I didn’t know the rules. I had to learn the rules and just the fundamentals of the sport.”

Mahajan, who is an only child, and his parents moved from England to Acton, Mass. when he was seven years old. A few years later, when the family relocated to Hooksett, N.H., he suffered his knee injury, which required surgery. He didn’t want to take a chance of getting re-injured so he traded in his cleats for a racquet.

“Arav has good footwork, real good hand-eye coordination and he just had an all court game,” said Frank. “He has a nice touch, a good backhand with top spin; and he’s just solid in every phase of the game. His serve is good — it’s on and off but in general he has good form.

“When he goes off the rails, he’s able to find himself and reset,” added his coach. “That’s part of his positivity is that he is able to forget things and move ahead and in tennis that’s important to do that.”

And that’s something Mahajan has also done in the classroom.

“Throughout high school, I have definitely cared about academics. That has always been very important to me,” said Mahajan, who plans on majoring in biology with a minor in economics, with plans of working for a Bio-Tech Company.

Mahajan applied to 11 colleges/universities. He’s on the waiting list for Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and Vanderbilt.

“I love all four and would go to any of them if I get the chance,” he said. “I absolutely love all four of those schools.”

Besides that, he’s been accepted to the University of Virginia, Emory, UNC Chapel Hill, BC, University of Georgia, UMass Amherst and UNH.

Focusing on a difficult academics curriculum beginning next September, he will not play tennis in college.

“I don’t honestly put too much pressure or too much stress on myself,” he noted. “I got the number one spot my freshman year and have just kept it since. I’ve gotten used to it a bit but not putting too much pressure on myself and that’s probably why I have succeeded, not caring too much if I don’t get the best grades. It just comes with effort and the mentality that I want to learn and do well.”