Angles are crucial to soccer. Whether it be scoring, defending or passing, the difference between a few degrees can be dramatic. 

Although while playing a match, most players do not worry about solving for variables or graphing intercepts, RHS senior Rohit Dasanoor is bringing his extensive math skills to the field, helping lead the team to an undefeated season. 

Dasanoor has brought back many trophies to Revere throughout his four years. This year, the Revere men’s soccer team is undefeated, boasting a record of 14-0-2 in the regular season along with being the Suburban League and District Champions.

In addition to soccer, Dasanoor also won the Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star Award, placing first in the country. He also was first in Ohio in the Oh-Mio math contest and won a gold medal at the National Math-Con finals. Additionally, he, along with fellow RHS senior Drake Du, received perfect scores on all six of the Ohio math league contests last year, earning them first place in the state. Although math is a big part of Rohit’s life, his passions stem beyond the subject, as he has earned the title of National Merit Semifinalist after placing in the top 0.5% of PSAT test takers in Ohio. The PSAT not only measures one’s math skills, but also one’s ability to comprehend and process reading and writing. 

Dasanoor explained how he brings his math skills to the soccer field. 

“Angles are a part of it. It sounds a bit cliche, but you have to find the right angle to pass off to or just to make sure you can pass the ball off to someone,” Dasanoor said. 

Beyond math and soccer, Dasanoor is also the class council secretary, a member of Science Olympiad, speech and debate, Academic Challenge, chess club, tennis and is the secretary of Mu Alpha Theta. 

Dasanoor explained what Mu Alpha Theta society is. 

“[It is the] math honors society, so basically its main purpose is to teach people math, but we have math competitions and we have some meetings where we just talk about different math topics and how to solve various problems,” Dasanoor said. 

Joanne Gillette has been teaching math at Revere for over thirty years and is the adviser of Mu Alpha Theta, where she has taught Dasanoor for the past four years. Gillette explained how Dasanoor stands out. 

“Rohit is able to help other students find the quickest mathematical way to solve these problems, and he is encouraging to the other students. Rohit likes to work with anybody and has the patience to even go over to the middle school and work with middle school students on Math Counts,” Gillette said.

Dasanoor has been a member of Mu Alpha Theta for all four years of high school. Gillette explained his contributions to the club. 

“He helps make the meetings fun, but then he also helps students improve their math contest skills, so I’m thankful for that. And on top of that, he is a nice young man who is a good character role model, and I enjoy the work he has done,” Gillette said. 

Throughout Mu Alpha Theta, students have many opportunities to take varying math based tests, assessing students’ math skills in different areas. The National Trig-Star, which is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors, focuses on trigonometry and geometry.

“Trig-Star is a competition where students use trigonometry and geometry to solve problems, and it’s put on by the National Professional Surveyors, and so the last question [of the test] is always a plot of land where you have to find distances and angles,” Gillette said. 

To make it to the national competition, a student must place first in their state. There is only one test taken to qualify for the national competition, which is given at local high schools. Throughout all the high schools within a state, only the person with the highest score with the test completed in the least amount of time moves on. Dasanoor explained what the process of getting to the national contest was like. 

“First there is the regional level, which is schoolwide, so from that competition, they pick the first in the state, and the first from all the states participates in the national competition. It is the scores from that which are in the national competition,” Dasanoor said. 

Getting a perfect score on the test is no small feat, but Revere actually had two seniors achieve perfect scores. When continuing on to the national competition, Dasanoor continued his streak, becoming the only student to receive two perfect scores. 

“Rohit received a perfect score on the state contest and Drake Du also received a perfect score, but it was the student who completed the problems in the shortest time that moved onto the national competition. In the national competition, he also received a perfect score, and he is the only student in the nation to receive a perfect score,” Gillette said. 

Although winning math competitions is nothing new for Dasanoor, he explained his surprise about his success in Trig-Star.

“I did it for the past two years, and I didn’t get any [awards] the past few years, so it was kind of surprising this year,” Dasanoor said. 

As a result of his victory, Dasanoor received a 2,000 dollar check. 

Although Revere has had a strong math program and competition team for many years, Dasanoor stands out. 

“I’ve never had a student excel in so many national competitions, so he is the best math contest student that I have ever had, and I have taught for over thirty years,” Gillette said. 

In addition to standing out academically, Dasanoor also stands out on the field. Nicholas DePompei is the head men’s varsity soccer coach and head coach of the program. DePompei has worked with Dasanoor for the past few years and explained what makes him unique. 

“His senior leadership [stands out]. We have 7 seniors, and he is a part of it and the framework that they’ve built. We haven’t had a tighter group of 22 players here, and I think that has a lot to do with him and the other seniors on the team because they get along with everyone so well and set an expectation of doing things a certain way both on and off the field,” DePompei said.

From teaching middle schoolers math to leading drills on the soccer field, Dasanoor is always helping others. DePompei accredits the team’s success this season to the aid of Dasanoor along with the other seniors. 

 “Rohit. . . is a man of few words, so he leads by example, so I think that still leads a ton of underclassmen to watch how he acts and how he deals with things at practice and how he carries himself of the field and I think that is a huge, huge aspect that has made our team successful this year,” DePompei said. 

Dasanoor typically plays midfield, which is an important role as he is positioned in between the defenders and forwards. DePompei explained what makes him good at his position.

“Specifically in our team’s shape, he plays an outside wingback. He plays that position because he is fast, skillful [and] he can defend and attack in a soccer setting, and he has a pretty good understanding of the game as far as when he is supposed to go forward and track back,” DePompei said.

Similar to its math legacy, Revere also has a traditionally strong soccer program. The men’s soccer program at the high school alone has three different teams: Men’s Varsity, Men’s Junior Varsity and Men’s Freshman. DePompei explained how RHS’ soccer program works and the difficulty of achieving varsity status on the high school team. 

“We had 65 players come out at the beginning of the season and the summer to play soccer and he, [Dasanoor], made the team as one of the top 22 kids on the varsity team, on the team that’s undefeated, number 1 in the state, so if you put him in all these other high schools, he is in a very small percentage of players that are at that point, so he is at the top as far as soccer goes, so that is impressive,” DePompei said. 

DePompei talked about the process it took to get to the point the team is at and how Dasanoor contributes to their success. 

 “When you go 14-0-2 and are undefeated, and you try to win state championships, you always talk to the players about how it takes every little detail for that result. At the end of the year, to be where they’re at, the number one team in the state, it takes every single small detail to make it work, and I think those small details come in the things that [Dasanoor] is doing,” DePompei said. 

Dasanoor plans to major in Computer Science in college. The men’s soccer team lost 1-0 against Bay Village High School in the regional championship, ending their season as the Suburban league and district champions.