Leiana Gonzalez '22 Recruiting Profile

My name is Leiana Gonzalez. I am currently going into my senior year of high school, and I would love to continue sports in college especially swimming and waterpolo because for as long as I can remember, I have always loved the water and the ocean. It keeps me at peace. Sports also keep me motivated and happy. I am able to do better academically and take care of my mental health. From my experience, during this pandemic I wasn’t able to do sports for about a year. It was the worst thing ever. I was stuck inside the house every day. I had no motivation for school, I was getting out of shape, and I was not happy. Finally, I went back into swim for the second semester of my Junior year, and I was so much happier. It was difficult to get back into shape, but I worked hard, and I was able to compete in the Los Angeles City CIF championships for 4 events after only 6 weeks of practice. I got my best times in some of these events. I would have also gone to the state championships for one event if they had the state championships. I am different from other recruits because I am able to bounce back and learn new skills very quickly. For example, I just started swimming competitively in my freshman year of high school, while almost all of my teammates have been in a club or have had a swimming past. I was never in club swimming, I didn’t know how to play waterpolo or even know the proper way to swim before I went to high school. That same year I learned how to  eggbeat, play waterpolo, and swim properly through my high school coaches and on my own. I moved up to varsity swimming, and competed in the Los Angeles city CIF prelims for backstroke. During my sophomore year, I had a different coach for waterpolo, and I played much more. I am very good at defense. I do not let other players get pass me, and I can rise up very high. I can also shoot very hard and high up.  We were one win away from the state championships. I was also improving much more in my swimming times until the pandemic started. I am a very positive person and always try to make everyone feel included. I can learn knew skills quickly, and I try to perfect any new activity I take up. I would describe myself as a jack of all trades because of all the skills I have learned to do. I have done art, I skateboard, I body surf in the ocean, I can climb trees, I like to edit videos, I can take photographs, I play volleyball, I do swimming and waterpolo, I play basketball, I ski, I get straight As in school, I am good at math, I love fashion, etc. Everything I take up I try to do my best in, and with my ability to learn knew skills quickly, I feel like I can improve so much more in a college team based on what I have already done by learning to swim and play waterpolo just through my high school team and only playing for about 2 years.