Hill headed to water polo west coast

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Juliana Hill has constantly been on the move for the past few years, chasing her dream of becoming the best water polo player possible. So, a move to Victoria is nothing new for the former Strathmore High School student.
“We decided as a family that Victoria would be a pretty cool place to live,” said Hill. “It also helps that they have some water polo in the area.”
Moving to Vancouver Island feels like just another weekend for Hill, who has been shipped all over North America the past few months competing in as many water polo tournaments as possible.
After her U16 Edmonton Tsunami bowed out early in the National Championship League Western Finals, she turned her attention to the Junior Olympics in the United States. The Junior Olympics are the pinnacle for youth water polo, as teams from across the United States recruit players from all over the world to participate in the event.
“The Junior Olympics are a great opportunity for scouting and exposure, as you compete against the top teams from America,” said Hill. “Most of the teams were full, but I got in contact with a couple of teams that needed players, so I had my choice of who to play with.”
Hill had her pick from the Miami Riptides from Florida and the Chelsea Piers from Connecticut.
Ultimately, she landed with the Riptides and won the qualification tournament while playing for the U16 and U18 programs June 7 to 10 in the U.S. Southeast Zone, which featured teams from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
The trip with the Riptides interfered with her schedule with Team Alberta and she missed out on tournaments in New Zealand and California.
“I play in a lot of tournaments. Sometimes, there is scheduling conflicts where tournaments overlap one another or are booked for the same weekend,” said Hill. “If they do, I make sure to call both coaches and figure out which tournament would be the best fit for myself. I always want to play on the best teams and against the best players out there. It just sucks sometimes to have to turn down games with some teams.”
The Riptides appreciated her commitment and her skills as a whole set that they invited her to a tournament in November and the International Tournament next February, both in Miami.
Until then, Hill has mixed in some cross training into her workout regime, as she played some volleyball and worked out with the Calgary Rowing Club this past summer.
Now on the Island, Victoria was supposed to have its own NCL team, but the club out of Saanich couldn’t get enough commitment from other players, and will now be a high performance club that hosted at the end of June and will host another at the end of August.
To stay in shape for the Riptides, Hill will sacrifice her weekends to jump on the ferry to train with the Fraser Valley program of the NCL.
“It’ll be a big commitment, but I’m used to making long trips for water polo,” said Hill. “I often do my homework on a plane or in a hotel room, so this won’t be that big of a change.”
Hill is hoping all this elite water polo experience will get her noticed by a post-secondary program. Her dream in the past was to attend a college in California, the water polo hotbed of the U.S., but she is now thinking of attending a Canadian school out east, such as the University of Toronto, McMaster or Queens.
Those Canadian programs offer the chance to compete against American programs and offer her desired studies in the medical field, as she would like to study kinesiology or physiotherapy one day.
Wherever she ends up, Hill can rest easy knowing she’s put the effort in to try to make her dream work. And until her athletic and academic dreams come true, she won’t stop moving any time soon.