BY JULYSSA MENDIOLA
Over her past four years at WCHS, water polo captain Justine Garcia has had a wonderful time filled with great memories over the course of her high school career, and water polo has played a large impact on Garcia’s life.
Before high school, Garcia had originally never played water polo. She began her freshman year after being encouraged by former staff member, Coach Geist.
“I first started playing water polo my freshman year. Former coach Geist really encouraged me to give it a try, and when I finally did, I absolutely loved it,” Garcia said.
This is Garcia’s third year as captain of water polo, and she feels it is a great honor. However, even though she has been captain for such a long time, she still worries about her team and how they are excelling.
“In the beginning of the season, I would get really stressed out during games, but we’ve been playing a lot better so I don’t get as stressed,” Garcia said.
Garcia also feels that the team as a whole has had significant improvement since the very beginning of the year.
“I feel like we have improved so much! We’ve been working so hard everyday, even during break, to become better, faster, and stronger,” Garcia said.
Besides water polo, Garcia is also involved in class council, swim, golf, Link Crew, Interact, is the voice of West Covina and is also the president of aquatics. As you can imagine, balancing all of these extracurricular activities could be a bit stressful and hectic, but Garcia manages just fine and is still able to keep up with all her school work.
“Well, I know that school always comes first. If I have a long practice or a game, I’ll work on homework during my free time at school and as soon as I get home. It’s really hard to balance extracurricular activities like class council though because I have to come all the way back from Edgewood since we don’t have a pool on campus,” she said.
Of course, besides working hard to get all of her stuff done, Garcia also works hard during water polo and while preparing for a game.
“We do a few swim sets and warm up our legs and do some shooting drills before a game,” Garcia said.
She hopes to continue water polo in her future, but as of right now, she does not have any plans.
