Talented water polo athletes across the nation try out for the USA Water Polo Olympic Development Program.
Of these athletes, 169 make it to the Olympic development zone championship level and 65 make it to the USA National Team Selection Camp (NTSC). It is from these athletes that four goalies and nineteen field players are selected to represent the United States National Women’s Water Polo team
On May 25, local athlete Kennedy East was selected to be part of that team.
“I had this dream for [a] really long time and now it’s finally true,” said East, who lives in Redondo Beach and attends Parras Middle School.
The Olympic development level is for athletes 14 years old and under. East, 12, was the youngest selected for the team. The selection camp took place at Citrus College and began May 21. East currently plays for SOCAL Water Polo Club under the coaching of Ed Reynolds Jr. and David Baia. One of her strongest skills in water polo is her excellent perimeter shot.
“Water polo lets me get a chance to be athletic and have fun doing it,” she said.
East said she is aiming to play for USC, Stanford, or Cal, but her dream is to become an Olympic water polo player. She started playing the sport when she was 7.
“Before I started water polo I ate well and was athletic,” she said. “Something that I had to work on was my swimming. I wasn’t fast enough, so in order to improve this my coach had me do a lot of swim sets [practicing a certain stroke for a certain amount of time] and after a great deal of effort i got faster.”
Athletic prowess appears to run in the family as Kennedy’s sister, Madison East, age 18, is also a prodigious water polo player. Both sisters began playing water polo about the same time. It wasn’t long till Madison East fell in love with the sport. She is a soon to be graduate of Redondo Union High School and was a four year varsity athlete on the water polo team. She also plays for the Huntington Beach Water Polo Club team. This fall, she will be attending San Jose State University, where she will play on the school’s nationally-ranked water polo team.
