How This Sophomore Became A Two-Sport, Varsity Athlete
This past High School Girls Water Polo season at Cypress High was a very exciting year for the teams and fans of the sport. The Junior Varsity and Varsity Girls teams were both able to become Empire League Champions for 2019, with the help of a Champion’s QUEST athlete by the name of Hannah Thode, who started her training over two years ago to help her make the Cypress Freshman Volleyball team.
After her first Volleyball season, Hannah decided to join the Swim team at Cypress. She had started swimming when she was younger up until middle school, where she drifted away from it to pursue Volleyball. Hannah has always wanted to make the varsity team at Cypress which is one of the reasons why she decided to enroll into the Champion’s QUEST program. Hannah understands that skill alone is not a strong factor within high school sports today, performance is the key to all athlete’s success!
After her Freshman season for Swim, Hannah performed well above what the Cypress Coaches had expected, which caused them to invite her to join the JV Water Polo team the following school year. During her Sophomore year, the coaching staff placed Hannah at goalie so she can use her quickness and visual tracking to bock the opponents’ shots. Hannah performed above the coach’s expectation once again, because when both JV and Varsity started the 2018-19 season playoffs for the Empire League, they moved her up to the Varsity team.
During this time Hannah was able to step her game up to the level of a Varsity athlete and did not collapse under the pressure of filling the spot of another varsity athlete. Hannah was able to help the team finish the season strong and earn herself the “Most Improved Player Award” for the team. She had filled in for the two goalies that had both gotten injured just before CIF and Hannah executed exactly what we train our athletes to do when called upon. Raise to the occasion and perform!
Congratulations to Hannah’s success on the Volleyball, Swim and Water Polo teams at Cypress High School.
