Tag: water polo

YHS Tiger, Danielle Signs with NCAA Div.1 University of Maryland

Danielle has done it all for the York House Tigers over her 13 year school career. Starting at YHS in kindergarten and now about to graduate with the class of 2011, Danielle has been a major player in York House Athletics throughout her life here.

Today, Danielle signed a National Letter of Intent to join NCAA Division 1 University of Maryland Terrapins Water Polo Team. A Terrapin, or Terps, as they are affectionately known, are turtles and the University of Maryland is a major player in many NCAA Div. 1 sports. This is an amazing accomplishment and one we are very proud of Danielle for.

There is little doubt that Danielle was active in our Jr. School Athletic program and once in high school, she has played almost everything. She played volleyball throughout her career and swam for our swim team and played water polo. She played basketball until Grade 11 and this year is also playing soccer.

Danielle has been an active student coach, an official and scorekeeper, as well as an Athletics Head. All along the way she has been mature, hardworking, a leader amongst her peers and well respected by her teammates and coaches.

In her senior years, Danielle focused her attention to water polo. Water polo is not a high profile sport nor is it a common sport in BC high schools. Though YHS and St. George’s do team up for water polo competitions, Danielle’s training and participation was primarily out of school. Yet, despite the fact she was fully committed to water polo outside of York House, she never turned her back on athletics at YHS. She continued to play a huge role on teams here at school right up until her final days. In fact, as a senior, Danielle helped lead our 2010-11 Tigers Swim Team to our first ever BCSS Provincial Championship.

So just how did her water polo career take off?
Danielle joined Burnaby Barracudas summer swim club’s water polo team because they needed more girls in 2005. “The sport grew on me”, she says. “It seemed to combine some of my favorite sports, soccer and swimming.”

In 2006, she made the BC Summer Games Zone 4 team and then joined the Pacific Storm Water Polo Club – an elite team coached by James Gardiner and John Stockdale.

In May 2008, during her first season with Pacific Storm, she attended two National Championships and placed 3rd for her U16 team and 1st with the U18 team. Here she gained experience from great players who were part of National Team. Many went off to play at NCAA schools such as Hawaii, UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, Indiana, and the University of Maryland.

In 2008-2009, she attended U18 Nationals in Winnipeg and came second, losing the final by 1 goal. In the summer of 2009 she was part of Team BC and the U18 Team Captain. She travelled to Hawaii for an international. Since, she has been at U18 Nationals in and U22 Nationals in Langley where she was named to the all-star team.

Moving on to the University of Maryland provides ample motivation to continue to improve. “Now after signing with Maryland, it has helped me work harder and motivated me to push to reach my full potential,” Danielle admits.

At YHS, she has been playing for the Saints/York combined team since Grade 7. She was captain in Grade 11 and grade 12 years and was on named a BC all-star for the past 3 years

Danielle explains how these past couple years have made the difference in getting to the next level:
“I had an amazing opportunity this past summer where I was selected as one of the top 25 athletes in Canada for those born 1991 and later. I trained with the other selected athletes before the team was selected for Worlds. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the National Team but even making the top 25 selection was a great accomplishment for me and helped me improve.”

This past fall, she was selected to be a part of the Canadian Select League where the top athletes from all around Canada are chosen to play and then later drafted into 5 teams. There were some athletes as young as 16, while others were the women who will be participating in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Danielle also gives credit to the people who have helped her along the way: “My family has been so supportive and has really made everything I have accomplished possible. All my teachers have been great, understanding when I had to miss a few classes for tournaments, as well as my coaches in every other sport…thank you for helping me be the athlete that I am.”

The decision to go to Maryland was easy.

“For me I knew I wanted to go to Maryland and that was amplified in February after I went on my recruiting trip. I will be joining Allison Campbell (Maple Ridge Secondary, Class of 2009). The team was so nice and the coaching staff was very welcoming. I fell in love with the campus and I knew this was somewhere I could see myself fitting in next year.”

As Athletic Director, I cannot say enough about the contributions Danielle has made over the years at YHS. Her attitude, work ethic and leadership have helped continue our tradition of athletic excellence at YHS. We are very proud of her and happy that she will continue to be so involved in such a high level of athletics for many years to come. Good luck, Danielle and congratulations.

David Prissinotti
Athletic Diretor