| Athina
Vazeos...knows what she wants!
Someday
Athina Vazeos will be an elementary school teacher, bringing
the same mix of determination and infectious enthusiasm to the
classroom that she brings to the pool.
The Grade 11
student at Port Moody Secondary is already one of the
country's top young water polo players, racking up a series of
team and individual awards including a spot on Canada's youth
national squad and a nod as first-team all star at the Youth
Cup tournament played in 2006 in Vancouver.
She was also
a member of the first British Columbia team to win Water Polo
Canada's national championship - an intense 6-5 victory over
number one seed DDO from Quebec.
"We were
tied and ended up scoring on a power play with a minute
left," Athina recalls. She loves "the intensity,
team environment and the feeling you get when you win."
Those
successes have left the four-year Pacific Storm player with a
taste for more- Athina wants to win a spot on Canada's Junior
National and then Senior National teams, and eventually play
in the Olympics.
She wants to
keep up her education as well - and hopes to win a university
scholarship for water polo when she graduates from high
school.
In addition
to practicing with her own Storm team, she serves as a
volunteer coach for the club's bantam program and also coached
bantams for the Coquitlam Lions last winter.
It was the
venerable Lions program that got her started in the sport,
following friends who'd previously taken up water polo during
summer swimming.
"It
looked like fun, and I already knew how to swim well."
When that game was over, she recognized that she "still
had a lot to learn about the sport, but I knew that it was
something I was really interested in."
She's a swim
coach as well - and you guessed it, she'll jump on any
opportunity to work with younger kids.
"I also
took 'Teaching Careers 12' which is a course in my school that
allowed me to go teach elementary school kids," she says.
Friends
describe her as humble, straightforward and fun - but here's a
couple of facts most people wouldn't guess. . . She spent
seven years living in Greece, her Dad's country of origin, and
speaks Greek.
She has
soaked up plenty of North American culture as well - she used
to dance hip hop.
Athina is
available for interviews.
Contact:
Cheryl Wilson-Stewart
BC Water Polo-PR
Telephone: 604.737.3148
Email: pr@bcwaterpolo.com
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