Sophia Beilharz '21 Recruiting Profile

As a student-athlete throughout my high school career, I have been able to find a perfect harmony of my love for school as well as my love for athletics.  Academics has always played a major role in my life; from a young age, I have always wanted to succeed as well as challenge myself, which can be seen with my 4.0 unweighted GPA as well as my rigorous course load of all AP and Honors classes. Through this, I have seen much success, receiving 5's on my AP exams,  being enrolled in the highest academic program offered at my high school (making me eligible for the AP Capstone Diploma), and also being a member of my school's Honors College and the National Honor Society. This drive to succeed has also transferred over to my athletic life; while I began water polo as a freshman in high school, my love for the sport and want to succeed as taken me to a level I could never imagine. This year alone,  my team as won our local tournament (the McDowell Cup) along with Western Conferences where I was named first team. We also placed 6th at States- this was the first time our high school team had competed at the State tournament in the last ten years (with only a team of ten girls). I was also named defensive player of the year. While the accolades are a great indication of success and improvement, the greatest gifts I have received from being a student athlete would have to be learning how to efficiently time manage and how to become a leader. In both areas, I have learned how to guide others in a way that  is best for the team, especially in stepping up, taking the initiative, and making split second decisions that have a major impact on the group. I have also developed a drive and passion to want to see, not only individual success, but team success. Being a team player has allowed me to be more conscious of myself and how I impact others.  I wish to transfer my love for athletics and academics over to a collegiate level so that I may be able to continue playing a sport I love and also learn valuable information and improve myself in and out of the water and classroom.