Isabella Schraa '22 Recruiting Profile

My love and passion for the sport of water polo is really what has characterized me as a person. I am so interested in this sport due to the feeling I get everytime I get into the pool. Water polo is a getaway that I use to help me stay calm and happy learn skills that I wouldn’t learn in school. Every teenager in life has stress and high demands academically and must find coping mechanisms; for me, that is water polo. Along with water polo being a coping mechanism, it has also led me to have more confidence and pride in myself. One of my biggest accomplishments that has built up my confidence was making the 2019 USA Cadet National Team, the roster for Senior nationals that same year, and when I went to Barcelona with the Futures team in August 2019. Not making the National Team Selection Camp in 2018 made me realize how much I actually wanted it. The next year, I worked 10 times harder, meaning that I took on more training not only in the water but on land as well. All the extra hours and effort that I put in ended up paying off the next year when not only did I make National Team Selection Camp but also the National Team, and the Senior Nationals roster. Another great accomplishment for me was being the 3rd highest scorer on my varsity high school team as a freshman. All of these accomplishments have helped me not only as a player, but as a person as well.

I started as a swimmer and then over time I decided I wanted to do more than just swim, and so I began to play water polo. I first joined the swim team at age 8 and then took up water polo at age 10. Ever since I went to my first water polo practice I could not go a day without it. It has taught me many life skills already that I think will prove very useful in the future such as leadership, sacrifice, loyalty, stamina and teamwork. These skills will continue to be useful after college when I enter the real world. Along with water polo I have a true passion for mathematics. My goal in school is to make the National Honors Society and also continue to bring up my GPA. I am continuing to develop more skills in test taking, studying, etc in order to improve my grades. In college I will keep up that work effort in not only water polo but academics as well. As a leader of my club team, I hope to continue that skill in college along with being a player of the highest level. I know I have what it takes to do all of this. My task now is to find a college that can fit me not only athletically, but also academically.