Even before entering high school, already busy from the moment she wakes up till she goes to bed, Freshman Lucy Menschner qualified for Junior Olympics in the sport of water polo, she was scouted by a regional team while managing more than 15 hours of practice a week, Along with being in honors and AP classes. She switched sports from swimming due to a passion for water polo at age 9 and by age 14, has traveled across the nation competing in water polo Junior Olympic tournaments.  

After 6 days of practice a week for months, Lucy was recognized across state for water polo Junior olympics and joined a regional team.”I’m really proud of her for her Olympic development program. She has trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and she was selected first as so last year she was selected from the Olympic development program. She not only was on a regional team for the southeast, because we were living in Alabama so it was based on where you live. She played for the southeast and that was her second year playing for ODP, which are regional teams that they make up and then from that she competed here in California and then was selected to attend the National Training camp here in California last May”, Katie Menschner, Lucy’s mother said.

During the Junior olympics, Lucy traveled and played states all across America in the tournaments.

“I really enjoyed playing against a lot of different teams from all over the country. And last year, I was on a team that was from New York, we got to play against Stanford, so that was cool. But I think my favorite one was probably against Oahu Hawaii”, Lucy said. 

Even as focused and motivated Lucy is now, it wasn’t love at first sight with water polo. 

“At first I really didn’t want to try [water polo], for the first three months my mom had to force me to go because I hated it so much, because water polo is hard, especially if you’re not used to it, it’s a struggle. The first few months were just kind of like strength training and it was just super hard, but after that, I just fell in love with it”, Lucy said.

Despite all the glory of being in Junior Olympics, some challenges such as moving homes frequently interrupts her schedule. 

“Moving away from California where there’s not that much water polo. I used to live in Virginia, right after and there happened to be one club, but it was all boys. So there were four girls, including me across 12u-16u. It was very challenging, especially playing with like the older boys because just boys in general [are] strong. It was definitely a challenge and also living in Alabama last year, there was no water polo. I just swam the whole year and tried to work out by myself and train on my own, which was definitely a challenge. I was getting ready to quit [swimming], because I love water polo”, Lucy said. 

Having many challenges that come between her passion for water polo and school, Lucy finds a balance between being a student athlete with her conflicting schedule along with taking AP classes as a freshman.

“The waterpolo club I’m at now has practices from 6am to 8pm. I just have to do my homework before going to practice. Then I’ll come home late, eat dinner and then do whatever homework I have left”, Lucy said.

Lucy Menschner’s mom Mrs. Menschner sees how busy her daughter’s schedule is and notices how she still manages to do well in school and in water polo and keep up. 

“I’m sure she would agree that you know, I’m going to say academics always comes first. She’s gotta stay focused on school and that’s gonna come first before water polo. She has practies from 6-8 with AP classes in tween. So always be pushing her on that, but she’s really capable. She’s a smart girl. She balances both”, Mrs. Menschner said.