Nicole Tyner (right)
The sport of Water Polo has been growing more and more in the Southern California area for youth athletes. We have an athlete that has been playing Water Polo for the past seven years and she has been performing well beyond her peers at every level in the pool. The athlete that we are talking about is an incoming Freshmen at Mater Dei High School by the name of Nicole Tyner. She fell in love with the sport from watching her uncle play and from seeing how much fun he had in the pool made her interest spark to become a dominant player on her team.
Nicole has been a part of our family here at Champion’s QUEST since September of last year and since then she has excelled in all levels. Nicole has been increasing her athletic performance through strength training her with our staff. She has gained an extreme amount of confidence and power that shows in the pool. Nicole has used her newly found strength to help her at the Set position for the USA Water Polo Junior Olympic Championships couple of weeks ago up in Northern California. On her Shore Aquatics 14U team, Nicole was able to score 37 goals within seven games during the tournament, which helped her team reach the Championship match but fell short to a team that they had beat in the early rounds.
On her Shore Aquatics team, she is one of the oldest athletes that is moving onto high school. For the past three months, Nicole has been focused on making an impact during the Junior Olympic Tournament. She knew that there would be some tough teams to beat and she was the target for most of the teams they faced because they would eventually double team her in the water. Even with the number of opponents trying to stop Nicole from getting to the goal, she still managed to get them off her back and score such a big amount of goals during the tournament.
The Junior Olympic Championship Tournament is the largest in the country for youth Water Polo athletes and it is a strong predictor of upcoming talent for high school and collegiate scouts. Nicole is just about to start a new chapter in life by becoming a Freshman in high school. With one of her Shore Aquatics teammate, Addison Farris is also a member of our program and plays the 4 or 5 on their team, which puts her in a position to assist Nicole with scoring goals.
This is the true reason why we do what we do as coaches, to see our athletes reach levels that they can excel in the biggest spotlight for their sport. I wish Nicole the best at Mater Dei and we will continue to provide the guidance for her and all athletes that want to improve in sport and life.
