A long-time swimmer, Girls Water Polo Co-Captain Sophia You ’26 swam competitively at the club level since she was eight and eventually swam at the high school level. She first began playing the sport in ninth grade after encouragement from older teammates. Now a four-year member and Co-Captain of Girls Water Polo, You aims to lead with enthusiasm, support her teammates, and maintain strong team morale through consistent encouragement and guidance.
You reflected on how her journey through water polo has been hit with multiple setbacks, but her determination, grit, and love for the sport kept her coming back.
“I didn’t play water polo before high school… I started playing water polo because one of the Seniors on [Girls Swimming and Diving] told my friends and me it would be fun. I played as a field player during my [Junior and Lower years]. Then, in my [Lower] year, I dislocated my shoulder twice in games. So in eleventh grade, I decided to transition from field player to goalie. Now it’s my second year being a goalie,” said You.
As Co-Captain, You strives to lift team morale during games and to help support newer players as they transition. Teammate Mary Li ’29 described You’s influence on the team.
“Sophia has great team spirit. She cheers the whole team up, and she rallies them very well. She’s really fun and nice to every single one of our players, and there’s a lot of humor, too. She was one of the few people whom I got to know really well when I first joined the team. And she was kind of my introduction, partially to the other members of this team, and she’s the one who brings us all together,” said Li.
Audrey Baeten-Ruffo ’28 noted the tight bond that she has with You, her fellow goalie.
“Whenever I have a question, even if I’m across the pool, I’ll mouth it to her like ‘how do I do this?’ and even if she can’t hear me, she somehow explains it. She’s miraculous. Every day I show up at the pool, and she’s there. My day is better because of it. She’s a Senior, and I’m a Lower, and she gives me advice even outside of practice, like during Add/Drop period, and how to approach things. She’s always a wealth of information. She’s always there for you, and I love getting to train with her,” said Baeten-Ruffo.
For You, a key value that Girls Water Polo holds is having fun. Considering that many players joining the team have little to no experience in water polo, You said that having an uplifting environment is imperative to the team’s success.
“The first two years I was on the team, we had so much fun together, and we didn’t have the best winning record. But we were just having a lot of fun. Then last year we actually did better: we qualified for the tournament for the first time, which I definitely did not think we could do my Junior year, and we ended up placing second. So we got a lot better ranking-wise, but we still wanted to enjoy water polo as a sport and have fun as a team, especially because it’s a sport so many people start in high school and have no experience with,” said You.
You continued, “So being open to learning and having fun is something I value as captain. And for roles, as captains, we lead everyone through warmups each day. At meets, we have a pre-game talk from our coaches, then we all huddle up. My Co-Captain, Addison [Deng ’26], and I break it down, then we go play. We also try to relay messages from coaches to the team and make sure everyone is on the same page.”
You hopes to continue playing water polo at the club or intramural level at Northwestern University.
Editor’s Note: Audrey Baeten-Ruffo is a Photo Editor for The Phillipian.
