Dolores Hebert LeBoeuf
May 12, 2008May 14
May 14, 2008
The Tri-parish area has produced numerous athletes who play in almost every Division I college sport. But what about water polo?
Megan “Freddie” Olivier plans to be the region’s first collegiate athlete in the sport.
Although no Louisiana high school competes in water polo, the 15-year-old Vandebilt Catholic High School freshman has been playing for years on teams in Texas and the National Junior Olympic teams for USA Water Polo.
Like many area teens, Olivier has been in the water since she was a toddler. She began swimming at age three and joined the Bayou Barracudas Swim Team and started playing water polo at age eight.
SportsNet recently caught with Olivier at the Ellendale Country Club pool, where next month she will be a player and coach in a Summer League Water Polo program.
SportsNet: How did you get the nickname Freddie?
Megan Olivier: This was years ago at the old pool [on Imperial Drive]. One day my mom was picking me up from swim practice and she said, ‘Ready, Freddie?’ And coach Frank [Shepard, of the Bayou Barracudas Swim Team] was like, ‘Freddie? I thought your name was Megan.’ So he started calling me Freddie and my friends started doing it and it just stuck.
SN: How did you get introduced to water polo?
MO: One day at practice, coach Frank said he had a surprise for us, and he called us to the deep end of the old pool at Imperial Drive. He brought out this big bag of water polo balls, and we had no idea what they were. He just dumped them in the water, and I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ And he said, ‘We’re learning water polo.’ That’s pretty much how I got introduced.
SN: Do your parents or siblings play water polo?
MO: I have a brother, Len; he’s 19. He also played water polo. He was a goalie. He really helped me through it all. He taught me some tricks and stuff.
SN: There are not any high schools in the state that play water polo, are there?
MO: We tried to get it started [at Vandebilt], but nobody besides Jesuit really wanted to play. So it’s just pretty much us. We go to Texas all the time and play. I have two teams in Texas I play for, Dirty Bay in Baytown and the Houston Water Polo Club.
SN: What position do you play?
MO: I usually play driver or 2-meter defense. As a driver, my job is to help everybody move and make space. You don’t want to be crowded; you want to have some space. I drive into the goal, like I sprint to get really close, and whoever has the ball passes to me and I make a shot. As a 2-meter defender, my job is to stop the 2-meter offensive. The 2-meter offensive and I, we sit right in front, in the center of the goal on the 2-meter line. And pretty much that whole field, that whole area, is battle. You sit there and fight and fight each other trying to keep them every possible way from getting the ball.
SN: Do you hope to play water polo in college?
MO: I hope to play in college at Stanford University. They have the number one women’s program in the United States. Most of the women from the United States national team come from Stanford or UCLA. Stanford is pretty much my dream school for academics and water polo.
SN: I understand you played at national junior level as well.
MO: I played on the [USA Water Polo] Southwest Zone team. We traveled to California and played against all the other zone teams. I played at national level tournaments with my two Texas teams.
SN: What are some of the places you have been to play national tournaments?
MO: We went to St. Louis, Mo., for one. We went to California numerous times and some in Texas. We travel all over for camps. We go to Maryland at the Naval Academy pretty much every summer, California for Stanford camp and Texas for some camps. We went to New Mexico one time for some camps. It’s not just camps; we take time out to explore and have adventures and stuff. It’s really fun.
SN: How often do you travel for water polo in a year?
MO: Texas is numerous times. I can go three times in a month. California is like twice a year and Annapolis once a year.
SN: Do you play any other sports at Vandebilt?
MO: I throw the javelin on the track team and next year I might tryout for softball.
SN: Any other thoughts about water polo?
MO: Water polo is a rough sport, but it’s fun because you get to let out anger. I wish it would get introduced more locally to Houma so I wouldn’t have to travel all the time. Traveling is fun, but sometimes I wish I could get my friends into it. It’s not easy to get water polo recognized in Louisiana.
