The Voice: What is your favorite part about playing for Presentation?
MR: Seeing my teammates every day is great and being a part of the soccer team boosts my competitive nature. I love how close our soccer team is–you don’t see that type of chemistry on many teams.

The Voice: Each year the team has new players. How long does it take for the team to become bonded?
MR: Usually not long. I have been on varsity for three years and the entire team has been close from the start.

The Voice: Who is the soccer team’s biggest rival, and how do you prepare for the game against them?
MR: Mitty is definitely our biggest rival. We try not to get cocky yet at the same time we try to build our confidence. We have to prepare for a rough game.

The Voice: How do you see the soccer team doing this year?
MR: We are one of the best teams in WCAL this year. I think we will go far and do fairly well in CCS.

The Voice: What has been the greatest challenge personally for you in soccer?
MR: I’m really lazy, so staying fit is a struggle. During the season, it’s relatively easy to stay in shape, but it’s the off season when I’m faced with a challenge.

The Voice: The soccer team practices for two hours every day; do you find it difficult to manage schoolwork and sports?
MR: Yes, it’s definitely hard to keep up with both at sometimes, especially when we have away games. Sometimes I get home at 8:30 and have yet to begin my homework.

The Voice: Who has been the most inspirational person in your life?
MR: My dad, he has helped me with sports my whole life. He has always been committed to helping me grow as a soccer player.

The Voice: I hear you are going to play soccer at San Jose State. What makes you the most nervous about playing at the college level?
MR: I’m really nervous for the fitness tests and the practices in general. The level of play is much higher in college. It just seems really scary.

The Voice: If you did not play soccer, do you see yourself playing another sport?
MR: I used to play volleyball. I played on the JV team freshman year, but I decided to quit so I could just focus on soccer.

The Voice: What has been your most memorable experience as a member of the Pres soccer team?
MR: My sophomore year when we won WCAL and CCS. I was really close with the whole team, including the upper classmen.

The Voice: What specifically will you miss most about playing for Pres?
MR: I will miss the coaches and seeing my teammates every day. I have developed strong friendships with a lot of the girls on the team and it will be difficult not being able to see them next year.

The Voice: When and why did you start playing basketball?
AM: I started playing basketball when I was in kindergarten because my brother used to play and I just wanted to be like him. My parents also played when they were younger too, so it just runs in the family.

The Voice: What’s your typical week schedule like during the season?
AM: During the season we practice Monday through Saturday and we have games at least twice a week. So after school I normally go home, do homework for a few hours and come back to Pres to practice. I try not to waste time and do my best to get things done as soon as possible.

The Voice: What’s your favorite thing about this sport? What’s the hardest thing about it?
AM: I like how basketball is a team sport.  My teammates push me as hard as I push them, which is helpful. But, I think the hardest part about the sport is just being able to read the game because it takes a lot of intelligence to understand what things need to be done, especially as a point guard.

The Voice: What are you most looking forward to this season?
AM: We have a really young team this season, so I’m looking forward to helping the new players because I was in their situation four years ago. Also, I’m looking forward to having a good season by keeping the C.C.S. title and hopefully win W.C.A.L. again.

The Voice: The team lost some key players from last year; how do you feel about this and how will this affect the team?
AM: We lost nine people; eight of them were seniors. Also, four out of our five starters are gone so we’re going to have a completely different team this year and a different style of playing.

The Voice: What makes Pres’ basketball team unique from all the other teams out there?
AM: I think this year we’re really close and we work well with each other around the court.

The Voice: Who’s your biggest rival and how will the team prepare?
AM: Our biggest rival has always been Mitty. We know their style because we play them all the time, so I think we’re just going to work hard in practices and prepare on defense and offense.

The Voice: If you didn’t play basketball, what other sport(s) would you play?
AM: I think soccer because I used to play when I was younger, until I stopped in eighth grade to play basketball.

The Voice: What was your proudest basketball moment?
AM: It might have been when our team won the C.C.S. championships last year.

The Voice: What advice would you give to a person who just started playing basketball?
AM: Probably just to work hard during practices and keep learning from your mistakes.

The Voice: What do you do in the off-season?
AM: I play basketball year-round, so there’s not much off-season for me.

The Voice: If you could play one on one against one player, alive or dead, who would it be? Why?
AM: I would probably want to play against Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics because I think he’s a really good player and I could learn a lot from him just by playing one-on-one.

The Voice: How did you become interested in running?

LV: I became interested in running my freshman year—I wanted to try something new.

The Voice: How much do you run during practice?

LV: Our mileage changes depending on when we race. On average, we usually run six to seven miles a day. When we do not have a race we can run up to nine miles a day, however, when we have a race coming up we usually cut down our mileage to about three miles the day before.

The Voice: You are a member of both cross-country and track. Do you prefer one to the other?

LV: I don’t; I really like both of the sports. I like cross country because of the time of season and the hills, but I also like track because we have more races.

The Voice: How do you prepare for the cross-country season?

LV: I build my base mileage over the summer. This helps me recover from the track season and transition into cross country.

The Voice: What’s the fastest time you’ve run in your event?

LV: The fastest time I ran for three miles was an 18:10 just recently this season!

The Voice: What is your most memorable running experience?

LV: I have had many memorable experiences with my team, but I think the team trip to the Clovis Invitational last year was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to it this year. Another memorable experience was when my team placed first at the Lowell Invitational. I was really happy and it was nice to see everyone else excited too.

The Voice: How do you balance schoolwork and sports?

LV: By trying to complete the assignments on the day they were given. However, I also try to catch up on a lot of my school work when we have morning practice because then I have the whole afternoon to catch up. I also do a lot of work over the weekends.

The Voice: How has running affected you as a person?

LV: Running always makes me feel better. When I am having a bad day, running always makes me feel good.

The Voice: Do you have any advice for someone who might be considering joining cross-country or track and field?

LV: My advice for anyone that is interested in running is that you should try it! You don’t have to already be running; when I began my freshman year I had never run before and ended up enjoying it a lot. The team is very supportive and the sport is so much fun!

The Voice: Do you plan on running in college?

LV: Yes, I plan to run in college. I have sent out athletic resumes and letters to the colleges that I’m interested in. I’ve gotten a few calls from some of the coaches and have been staying in contact through email by sending them updates about my season.

The Voice: When and how did you start playing volleyball?

ES: I started in the fifth grade, but I didn’t really think I would do it seriously. During my freshman year, tryouts were the first week of school and the Athletic Director was Ryan [Cooling] then. He came up to me at lunch and asked me why I hadn’t tried out. So I came the last day of tryouts and he put me on the freshman team.

The Voice: Do you play on a club team? Which one?

ES: Yes, I play for Vision.

The Voice: What’s your favorite thing about the sport?

ES: My favorite thing is probably no contact because you don’t get hurt; but it’s just satisfying to hit the ball and have it hit the ground.

The Voice: If you didn’t play volleyball, what other sport(s) would you play and why?

ES: I would probably play soccer because I used to play since I was in kindergarten. I played freshman year, but I quit after that.

The Voice: What are your goals for this upcoming season?

ES: This season I feel like we’re kind of underdogs, since we lost a lot of people. So I think we just want to be a come-from-behind team that no one expects. I don’t want to be overlooked, but I think I just want to surprise people.

The Voice: Who do you think would be the team to beat this year? How will the team prepare?

ES: I think the team to beat this year would be Saint Francis. We would have to prepare mentally because we lost to them either four or five times last year, so I think it’s kind of a revenge match.

The Voice: Do you think the team is closely bonded? Do you have any traditions you like to do during the season?

ES: I think we have a lot of new players, so we don’t really know each other all that well yet, but I think that everyone gets along so far and we bond pretty well. We have our initiation and we kind of just make that up as we go along. We have a lot of people to initiate this year and we do little pregame dance, which is a little hard to explain.

The Voice: Have you experienced any downfall? What have you learned from it?

ES: The biggest downfall was probably losing to Saint Francis three times in the post season last year. I think it was kind of upsetting because we beat them three times before and we came to the matches when it really mattered and we couldn’t pull through.

The Voice: When you receive any constructive criticism from your coaches, how do you turn it around into something positive?

ES: I guess I just look at what they’re saying is something that I should be doing and they just want me to be a better player, looking out for me and the team. I think listening to it is important, because it’s just not about me it’s about helping the whole team plan.

The Voice: What would you like to improve on?

ES: Maybe being more of a leader and being louder. I’m naturally not very talkative, so I probably would like to be more emotional and encouraging, I guess.

The Voice: What was your proudest volleyball moment?

ES: When we won the Santa Barbara Tournament last year.

1.       When did you first start swimming?

I started swimming about 10 years ago

2.       Why did you start swimming?

My mom was a swimmer, so she put me on swim teams at an early age, so I just kind of evolved a love for it and then that is when I started swimming competitively.

3.       Did you ever try any other sports?

I tried volleyball, soccer and other normal sports during middle school, but I always liked swimming more.

4.       What is your favorite event?

I like distance and breast stroke, so I swim the mile and the 500 and the 1000 meter.

5.       Do you have a proudest moment?

At CCS Freshman year and I just did really well compared to the beginning of the season and I dropped 40 seconds total time in the 500 meter so that was a really happy moment for me and Marisa was cheering on the sidelines for me. It was also at Stanford which was pretty cool.

6.       Do you plan to swim in college?

Ya, I think so, but I don’t know where I’m going to go yet.

7.       Do you swim for a club? What club?

I swim on DACA DeAnza Cupertino Aquatics.

8.       Where is the coolest place you have ever travelled for a meet?

I don’t know if this is exactly cool, but we went down to Mission Viejo one year which is a little bit South of LA.

9.       Do you know your 50 free style time?

27 seconds

10.    What is some advice that you would give to a girl trying to become a swimmer?

Try hard every practice; working hard really helps. Also, always try to improve yourself by working hard and keep at it, even if you had a bad day. Just because you had a bad day, doesn’t mean you’re a bad swimmer.

11.    Who was your main inspiration in the sport?

My mom from the beginning and now it is Natalie Coughlin because she can balance swimming and a social life.

12.    Swimming is usually an individual sport. How close are your team members to each other?

We’re very close! If there is a social event that we are hosting, we will invite swimmers. You build a sense of community even though you’re like dying at practice [laughs].

13.    How do you expect the team will do this year?

I think it is going to be a transition year because we don’t have a lot of seniors. It’s going to be a challenge but I think we will pull through.

V: How long have you been playing Basketball?
CP: Since forever. No, I think I started playing real competitive basketball in 4^th grade.
V: Why did you start playing basketball?
CP: My mom suggested it to me. I was tall and she thought that she might as well bet me into basketball.
V: What position do you play?
CP: Shooting guard.
V: On average, how many points do you score in one game?
CP: I think around 13 or 14.
V: How close are the players on the varsity team?
CP: I think we are all pretty close. The eight seniors are definitely close because we have been playing together. There is no negativity, it’s all positive.
V: What is the worst injury you have ever received during a game?
CP: My nose. I’m not actually sure what happened. I was diving for the ball, and one part of the other player’s body–she’s actually my friend–89either her head or her elbow connected with my nose. It was really swollen and started bleeding on the court. I still played on it, but it was really painful.
V: What is one thing a coach has taught you that you will never forget?
Keep your head up because I used to be really hard on myself. Don’t be in your head too much because I am overly critical of everything I do. My JV coach really taught me to have more confidence in myself.

 
V: What is your favorite memory from basketball?
CP: I would say beating Mitty, but it’s kind of cliché. I think our upset over Saint Ignatius sophomore year would be my best memory. No one expected us to go to the WCAL semifinals and we played so well as a team. Even though they had beat us twice that year, we came out on fire. We were all pumped, and we all went out to dinner after we beat them. That was the best.
V: Do you plan on playing in college? Have you committed anywhere?
CP: I weighed my options between basketball and school, and I realized that the schools I wanted to go to weren’t looking at me for basketball. I have a couple schools where if I get in, I will probably play, but I think for me the education was more important that playing basketball.
V: Who is the team’s biggest rival this year?
CP: It’s normally Mitty, but I think its Saint Ignatius right now.
V: Any hopes for the Presentation basketball team this season?
CP: State. We want to go to state. That’s our goal this year. At the very least get to NorCal finals, but state all the way.

Megan Shah

Voice: How did you first become interested in ice skating?

MS: When I was nine I went to my friend’s birthday party. It was an ice skating party in the dead of winter, so it was really cold.  I had skated before, but this was the only time I was aware of what I was doing, and I loved it. I got on the cheap rental skates on the ice, and I really liked it.  I went home and told my mom, “Mom, skating is so cool!” So she enrolled me in lessons.  I have to thank my friend for having a birthday party that I was invited to.  

Voice: What do you love about ice skating?

MS: I love the fact that it’s really different from the other sports that I would play at school.  The nature of the sport is really free; I can do a lot of what I want to do.  It’s not a super strict set of rules. It’s just a lot of openness to do what I want and it’s very unique. 

Voice:  Can you explain a little about your sport?  

MS: There are lots of different divisions:  solo skating, pair skating, synchronized skating and theater on ice skating.  I do solo skating, and then I also do theater on ice.  We have a really big team, and it’s like productions on ice.  They are ten-minute programs that you do, and then ten people will take part in them.  All of these programs go to nationals, and there are judges that give your team critiques.  It’s actually really competitive.  There are four different divisions in skating, and in each division there are a lot of different tracks, like recreational skating, competition skating, elite level and Olympic level.  

Voice:  What is your practice schedule like?   

MS: Before I came to Pres, I practiced 26 hours a week.  And then I came here, and it had to change.  I used to wake up in the mornings at 4:15 a.m. and then be on the ice by 5:15-5:30 a.m., then skate until 7 a.m. and go to school.  But because I live far away, that didn’t exactly work.  So right now, a lot of the times I’ll go home on 12:30 days and skate, or I’ll skate in the afternoon until the evening.  I take advantage of the weekends, too, and practice then.  But I can’t do mornings anymore because of my schedule at Pres.  

Voice:  Are there tournaments?  Do you have to go to other states or cities to compete?  

MS: There are qualifying competitions, which are not taking placing right now.  The season hasn’t started yet; it’ll start in the winter.  Right now we are doing recreational competitions to practice our programs and work on them for the qualify comp.  We’re all working on our programs and competing against local teams so that we can build ourselves up and get criticism from the judges.  By the time nationals come in April, we’ll be set.   This summer, Junior Olympics are in Ohio, and I’ve also been to Southern California, way up in northern California cities and Lake Placid, New York.  A couple of summers ago I spent four weeks at the Olympic training center in Lake Placid skating for a month.  It was really fun because I was in a boarding house with all skaters, and my parents let me go for some strange reason.  And then this April I’m going to Cape Cod, which is going to be super fun.  

Voice: Are you at a certain level?

MS: Last year we competed at the junior level.  This year we are competing at the senior level because we have enough qualifications.  But the problem is that there are thirty or forty teams competing senior this year, so it’s going to be really intense.  Last year we competed in junior and got third, so we’ll see what happens.  

Voice: Is it cold on the ice when you wear your skating costume?  

MS: Yes, it actually is.  During practice I am never cold because I am usually in long stretchy pants with tights under, a tank and a jacket that I take off after ten minutes.  But during comp you are so nervous, and you have to take off your jacket and give it to your coach, and you feel like you’re wearing nothing.  You can’t wear gloves either, so if you fall, ice just gets everywhere.  At competitions I freeze every single time.  My mom brings me two blankets, and as soon as I get off the ice, she engulfs me.

Voice: Do you have a preference as to what kind of choreography or music you perform your routine to?  

MS: A lot of people do really classical stuff, but I like upbeat music.  I like taking the lyrics out of songs and skating to instrumental music.  I skated to an instrumental version of a Kelly Clarkson song for three years in a row, and I really liked that one.  I think those are a lot nicer than classical music.  There are also a lot of lyric restrictions, so taking them out helps.  

Voice: What are your future goals for ice skating?  

MS: Since it’s not a NCAA sport, I actually want to start a club wherever I go to college.  The US Figure Skating Association feels really bad that colleges don’t recognize it, so they make it really easy to start a club.  Some colleges already have clubs; I know Berkeley has one.  Basically, wherever I go, I want to band up all the people I know who skate at any level, whether that’s recreational, elite or whatever.  I’m sure that wherever I go, there will be at least half a dozen.  The new members can all skate for fun and compete against other club teams in the area.  I’m taking my skates with me wherever I go because I am too attached to them.  Skating has been such a big part of my life.

Raylene Chew

Voice: How did you first become interested in/start cross country skiing?

RC: My parents used to downhill ski, but when I was born they couldn’t go downhill skiing with me, so they got into cross-country skiing. They would pull me around in a little sled so they could cross country ski with me.  When I got older, they bought a pair of skis for me.  I really liked it, so I started racing.

Voice:  Can you explain a little about your sport?  What is it like?  

RC: There are two types: classic and skating.  Classic is like running on snow, except a lot of technique is involved.  And skating, there is still a lot of technique involved, but it’s like hockey skating with poles.  It’s really fun because you get to be out there in nature and you don’t have to worry about anything except focusing and concentrating on skiing.  If you’re racing, you have to do both, but I prefer skating.

Voice:  What is the most challenging thing about cross country skiing?   

RC: It’s a lot of hard work because the races are a sprint race at Junior Nationals, and there is the five-kilometer race which is about three miles, if you’re 14 or 15. But then when you are 16 to 18 or older you have to do ten-kilometer races, which are six miles.  You have to build up your endurance and perfect your technique as well because if your technique is bad, it’s going to be really hard to win any races.  

Voice: Obviously it doesn’t snow in San Jose, so how do you practice?

RC: Since we live in San Jose, I have a pair of roller skis, which is kind of like roller blading except that there are only two wheels and they are filled with air.  They are about one and a half feet long, and you have poles too.  My dad and I picked out a ten-kilometer course that we do, and it has hills and down hills.  It mimics cross-country skiing on snow, and it’s pretty much the best training that we can get down here.  In the winter we’ll go up practically every weekend to ski on snow.  I also do cross-country running for Pres, too, and that helps me a ton as well.  I did track last year, too.  It was after the season, but it still kept me in shape.  

Voice: How do you handle your practice schedule with school?

RC: I have to do it ahead of time, whenever I have free time, or when I’m in Tahoe.  So it’s really hard to keep up with my schoolwork.  Last year, my grades dropped a little bit, but not that much because I was on top of things.  I really wanted to ski, and my parents want me to keep up my grades.  If I ski, I have to keep them up.  

Voice: Are there tournaments or competitions?  

RC: There are fun races, but not really, because no race is fun and you don’t slack off in a race.  There are races on Sundays at different resorts in Truckee and Tahoe City.  There are Junior Olympic qualifiers, too.  You have to do three of them in order to qualify for Junior Olympics. And it’s skate and classic so you have to qualify for both in each race. Then at the end of the year, there is a week of races in March and I have to miss a whole week of school for that as well. I’m on a team so my team organizes for us to go to races in different states too.  

Voice: Are you at a certain level?

RC: We have a development team, and I used to be on that when I was younger.  Once you qualify for Junior Nationals you can be on the comp team and that’s the highest team that we have in the organization that I belong to.  It’s the only comp organization in California.  You have to be selected to be on there.  There are 42 athletes on my team, 21 girls and 21 boys, so if you’re 14 or 15 (depending on your age group) you automatically qualify.  If you’re younger, you have to petition, like I did when I was thirteen.

Voice:  What do you love most about cross country skiing?  

RC: I think that it keeps me in shape.  It calms me down, and I don’t have to focus on school when I’m out there, so I’m really calm whenever I ski.  And I just really enjoy it, and I have a lot of friends in Tahoe. It’s my passion; I really enjoy just being out in the snow.  

Voice:  Do you have a favorite memory of cross country skiing?

RC: I kind of remember getting frustrated when I was younger.  I didn’t like it that much in the beginning, but as I grew older, I latched onto it, and I liked it a lot more.  

Voice:  What has been your greatest achievement so far?

RC: My greatest achievement is probably going to Junior Nationals when I was thirteen because it’s really hard to get in when you’re that young.

Voice:  What are your future goals in cross country skiing?  

RC: Even when I’m an adult, I still want to be able to do cross-country skiing.  I think I want to race for a college.  So I want to go to a school back East because most of the teams are over there.  That’s probably where I want to go with it, at least to college.

The Voice: What kind of dance do you do?

MC: I do ballet, jazz, hip-hop, en Pointe [classical ballet technique], tap, lyrical and contemporary.

The Voice: When did you start dancing?

MC: I started when I was three and I just did ballet and tap. And then I just went on from there. I added on jazz when I was six. And I added tap and hip-hop and all that when I was eight.

The Voice: What do you love about dance?

MC: I love it because it’s my way of expressing myself. If I can’t say it, I know I can dance it. I know it sounds bad, but it’s like a high—when I’m on stage and stuff. That’s my favorite part; my favorite part is just performing.

The Voice: Are you planning on dancing in college?

MC: Yes, for sure. I’m either going to double major—have dance as one of my majors then major in something else—or, depending on what school, join their dance team, or if their dance team isn’t that great, a dance company around the area.

The Voice: What’s your favorite dance memory?

MC: Last year, when I competed solo at a regional competition, I got this award that invited me to be in a music video [along with] 10 other girls around the country who had won it at their competition. So I got to do that over the summer. It was a really good experience because I got to shoot a music video and it was really fun to be in an environment with directors and stuff.

The Voice: Can you explain what went on when you shot the music video?

MC: We had to create our own look, and that was kind of cool. And we learned choreography on the spot—like on stage, no mirrors or anything, which was kind of difficult without a mirror, but it was realistic.

We had rehearsal for three nights in a row from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. And we actually shot the whole thing on video from this angle and then this angle, upside down, like 50 million different angles so they had everything they needed. That took forever. The shooting of the video was at the nationals of that competition, so we got to perform the choreography live for all the dancers so it was a really cool and fun experience.

The Voice: Do you have a mentor or a role model that you look up to?

MC: Sara Cuddie, she’s a coach here, so definitely her. The past two years I’ve been on the team, she inspired me to improve and push myself so much more. I have a lot of favorite dancers. I’m constantly inspired by people that I watch on my dance team.

The Voice: Why do you dance?

MC: It’s such a big part of me. I can’t even imagine not dancing. I dance every day of my life. I’m not very good at making speeches. If I’m feeling angry or sad, I go dance. It’s just my outlet and it brings me so much joy.

The Voice: What can you say about the Dance Team?

MC: I think it’s really cool how we have different choreographers from everywhere. Our hip-hop choreographer is from L.A. and so is our contemporary choreographer. I think it’s really cool to be exposed to different choreographers, not just the same person over and over again. And I feel like we excel in all the dance styles. I love the Dance Team because it’s like my third family.

The Voice: What’s your favorite style?

MC: I love contemporary and hip-hop. Contemporary is also called modern dance. People say it’s kind of like a blend between ballet and lyrical, but I feel like it can be whatever you want. I feel like it’s the most expressive type of dance. So that and hip-hop.

The Voice: What’s the thing you’re going to miss most after you graduate Pres?

MC: Just being in the studio four days a week with those girls and working our butts off. I love being there. I never dread practice. I’m going to miss competition season because it’s so much fun—just to be performing with your team in costumes and seeing your results and getting your trophies and stuff. It’s just a lot of fun. So just like practices and competitions and especially at Nationals. At Nationals, we perform all our dances, and we have a day to go to Disney World, which is really fun. And we have our own hotel room and we get to stay up.

The Voice: Any other comments?

MC: Pres Dance Team gets really cool hip-hop shoes every year. So, if any freshmen are interested in cool shoes, they should try out!

JP:       I started playing when I was 8 years old at a summer camp where I learned the basics of water polo like treading water and throwing the ball.  I started playing competitively when I was 10.

The Voice:     Is water polo as vicious as people say it is? What are some examples of aggressive play?
JP:       Woman’s Water polo is very vicious; however, I don’t really realize it as much anymore because I have played for so long. In order to survive in water polo you have to be aggressive, but there are a lot of girls that are just dirty. There’s a lot of scratching, punching, kicking, head butting, elbowing, and suit grabbing.

The Voice:     What do you love about water polo?

JP: I am very competitive, so I love the competitiveness of the sport.  I also love being part of a team.

The Voice:     When did you first make varsity?
JP: I first made varsity when I was a sophomore.

The Voice:     How is the varsity team doing this year?  What are the team’s goals for the season?
JP:       The varsity team has being doing really well. We have played amazing games, upset some teams, and are strong going into WCALs and CCS. We have had a few bumps in the road, but it helped us grow as a team. One goal we had this season is to make it far in WCALs and CCS. We came out with a bang this year and I hope we finish the season even better!

The Voice:     Who do you think will be Pres’s toughest competitor this season?  How will the team prepare to play them?
JP:       I think we had a lot of tough competitors and good match ups this season. I truly believe we are good enough to beat any team when we come out prepared. For example, one of our best match ups this season was against Mitty. We lost to them once and we watched the video and worked on how to beat them in practice. It worked out well and we beat them 10-7. We also will be playing them in the first round of WCALs.

The Voice:     When did you first make the junior national team?
JP:       There are three national teams (the youth team, the junior team, and the senior team) based on age group.  I first made the youth national team two years ago, and I moved up to the junior national team this summer.

The Voice:     What did it take to make the national team?

JP:       I had a lot of extra practices and I did extra conditioning.  I also had an eight hour practice each Sunday in addition to swimming in Marisa [Watt-Cozort]’s group on the Pres swim team.

The Voice:     What is your favorite water polo memory?  Why is this your favorite?
JP:       My favorite water polo memory was playing the Canadian Junior National team in the championship game at the Junior Pan American Games this summer in Florida.  The Junior Pan American Games are extremely thrilling, fun, and an amazing opportunity. I have been lucky enough to go to two of them and play for the gold medal (2008 in Brazil and 2010 in Florida). Playing with some of the best players all across the country and representing the United States in a tournament is so breathtaking. Also you get to meet people from all over the world and play against them as well. I cannot put into words how amazing the whole experience is of playing on a national team.

The Voice:     Have you travelled to any other countries to play water polo?
JP:       Yes, I went to Brazil two summers ago and I go to Canada every winter.  I might be going to Italy next summer for the Junior World Championships.  

The Voice:     Do you have a mentor? Who?

JP:      My sister is my mentor.  She played water polo at Pres and San Jose State and is now the Junior Varsity water polo coach at Pres.
The Voice:     Do you plan on playing water polo in college?
JP:       Yes, but I’m not sure where yet.

The Voice:     What are your goals for the future?

JP:       I want to play as long as I can and not get injured.  My major goal is to make the senior national team.

Voice: How long have you been playing field hockey?

SM: Freshman year I wanted to play a sport, so my friend Jen [Randazzo] and I decided to try out for field hockey.

Voice: How did you get involved and why?

SM: I played club volleyball in middle school and I wanted to try something new.

Voice: What made you want to play goalie? Have you always played goalie?

SM: Yes, the first day of tryouts coach asked if anyone wanted to try out for goalie, I thought I would give it a shot. A couple of my uncles had played goalie for ice hockey, so I thought it was worth a try.

Voice: Are you ever scared when the balls come flying at you?

SM: Freshman year it was very scary, but after 4 years you get used to it. I am pretty much immune now.

Voice: On average, how many stops do you make in one game?

SM: At least 10. On JV the goalie is lucky to get much action; they make maybe 2 stops per game. But varsity is very different; the other teams are all very good and can get the ball to my side of the field often.

Voice: Do you ever blame yourself when the other team scores a goal, even when it is not your fault?

SM: I used to beat myself up about it sometimes, but then I realized it was not the right attitude to take and I didn’t want to stress myself out. I try not to worry too much anymore; I just focus on stopping the next ball that comes my way.

Voice: What does it mean to you to be a team captain?

SM: Jen and I are both team captains this year, and we have been working hard to get our team focused this year. It is the problem we have been having but the team is coming together. We both try to lead the team by example and work get the team focused and ready before a game.

Voice: Do you plan on playing in college? Varsity or intramural?

SM: I do not plan on playing Varsity in college because it is such a time commitment, but club or intramural sure.

Voice: What is your favorite memory from field hockey?

SM: Last year in the CCS semi-finals we beat Mitty. We worked so hard as a team together and we got to the CCS finals. We lost in the finals, but the fact that we even got there was amazing and really showed how hard our team worked. We were so happy to have made it that far.

Voice: What has field hockey taught you that you can take with you in life?

SM: Field Hockey has taught me about hard work. I started out with no knowledge of the game and in four years I am a captain on the varsity team. It has taught me how to work as a team and perseverance through the good and bad times. Field hockey has taught me to always keep trying.