Portrait Photography Series:

Otters Making Waves

Original Photo by Mary Sullivan

The following portraits all belong to a series begun by Cal State Monterey Bay’s Athletics department entitled “Otters Making Waves”. The project was intended to highlight athletes outside of their sports through a series of portraits.

I had the honor of conducting the first ever portrait series with Roberto (story below) along with covering two additional athletes and their stories before my graduation.

Read more about CSUMB’s athletes at otterathletics.com

Lisa Irvine

Lisa Irvine is a junior Cross Country student-athlete majoring in environmental science, technology, and policy. She started running 5k’s with her mom.

She chose to come to CSUMB because of the great environmental science program and she fell in love with the team. Outside of running, Lisa loves to be outside doing anything like participating in rock climbing classes, going on hikes, reading and just being around her friends.

Mitsy Ramirez

Mitsy Ramirez is a humanities and communication major in her second year CSUMB.

She is a first-generation college student and began her collegiate academic career at San Francisco State (where she didn’t play soccer) before being recruited to play soccer at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Mitsy began playing soccer because of her father. She grew up watching him play alongside her uncle and that inspired her curiosity about the game.

Roberto Banegas

Roberto Banegas' round-about journey to CSUMB included two years MPC and one year SUNY Potsdam. After a move back home to Marina, some convincing by his friends, and being recruited by head coach Graeme Jaap, he decided to continue his education at CSUMB and join the Soccer team.

"To my peers, teammates, or future otters — follow your passion! I wouldn’t be where I am today without taking the plunge and following my passion for playing soccer."

Sports Photography