Not many people both play their sport and coach it. Abby Schulz ‘24 is this exception as she both plays water polo at an elite level and coaches the JV boy’s water polo team.
“I started coaching the boy’s JV team in the spring of my junior year. Before this I had also coached middle school practices,” Schulz said.
Schulz has been playing water polo since freshman year and has become very committed to the sport. In the last couple of years, Schulz has been able to train for polo outside of Michigan.
“Last year, I went to California in the spring for a water polo program,” Schulz said. “It’s called the 6-8 Academy. That’s where I do all my training. At this academy, I’m coached by Tony Azevedo, the best male water polo player, and Maggie Steffens, the best female water polo player.”
Schulz has also had other opportunities to travel around the world due to polo.
“I went to Croatia and Montenegro this past summer for training. That was probably the best experience of my life,” Schulz said.
In her training, Schulz focuses on the main position that she plays which is the center. This is also the position that she typically helps coach.
“A center is like the quarterback of the team, they call the plays,” Schulz said.
Given her familiarity with the position, Schulz can give the players specific advice.
“I mainly work with the guys on different shot variations,” Schulz said. “That’s a skill that I’ve had to work on to make sure that I’m not becoming super repetitive with the shots I’m taking.”
Besides coaching the players on their shots, Schulz tries to emphasize fundamental skills as well.
“I work with them on the fundamentals of our position. Center requires a lot of movement and getting out of the water, so having really strong legs is super important. Learning how to read different situations and helping outside players also goes into the center position,” Schulz said.
Although Schulz is coaching players who play the same position as her, she tries to approach coaching and give advice differently than how she would to a teammate.
“As I’m still in high school and I’m coaching other high schoolers, I always want to respect my peers, and I don’t want to discredit anyone. I have had a lot of experience with the sport, but I don’t want to force coaching onto anyone” Schulz said.
Additionally, Schulz is able to bring a different perspective to the game because of the differences in how girl’s and boy’s water polo is played.
“Water polo tends to be a different game for guys and girls so I have to change my mindset from playing to coaching. The girls’ games tend to be more organized and the guys are more physical,” Schulz said.
Schulz is able to use her own experiences with a different flow of a game and apply it to the boy’s games.
“Working on that organization with the boys’ team is really important by slowing the pace of the game down and setting plays up better,” Schulz said.
Looking ahead to the future, Schulz hopes to continue playing water polo into college and even beyond that.
“My main goals right now are to play for a top 10 college for water polo and I’d also want to be a part of an NCAA Championship. After that, I’d also like to play professionally for two to four years. I want to see the sport grow,” Schulz said.
