When talking about Citrus’ women Water Polo team, the name Hunter Olivier can’t not be mentioned. Olivier has been the rock and fire that has ignited the team every time they played.
Olivier started playing Water Polo at the age of eight and has loved it ever since. She also played in high school all four years on varsity, which is a very tough accomplishment to do especially your freshman and sophomore years in high school.
Olivier has been at Citrus for two years and looks to transfer for her Water Polo career at the University of Redlands in the fall.
Olivier will be graduating this spring semester with a degree in Kinesiology.
“I just got accepted to the University of Redlands but since it’s a D3 they can’t give me scholarship money for a sport, but I am applying for a scholarship for academics, but I would definitely play there,” Olivier said.
The University of Redlands is right next to her hometown of La Quinta. She has always wanted to play somewhere for Water Polo, but she never knew where. When she applied to the University of Redlands she automatically knew that it was the perfect place for her to transfer to. It was the perfect place for her to transfer to because it is so close to home and her parents could see her play.
When asked how she grew and developed during the two years she has been at Citrus Olivier said, “These past two years have really made me know who I am and what I want to do and who I want to be as a person and who I want to surround myself with.”
During her years at Citrus College she got appointed the captain position on the women’s Water Polo team in her freshman year at Citrus. This is a very hard feat to do especially as a freshman because typically you’re still getting the hang of things as a freshman.
“This is my second year as being captain. Last year there would be co-captains and then the head captain would be the main person to seek advice or to lead a drill. Last year I was a co-captain but this year I was the main captain and I thought that was really cool,” Olivier said.
Since being a captain on the team for two consecutive years Olivier grew with her young team from last year to this year. “Over the course of the season you want to get better as a team of course and I felt like we really did that this year. We went deeper in the playoffs then last year and made more history” Olivier said.
Co-captain and freshman Delaney Gappart looked up to Olivier as said in her quote. “She really pushed everybody to work harder and not slack off and made sure everyone was on task. I looked up to Hunter throughout the whole year so she definitely will be missed next year. ” Gappart said.
When an athlete gets as good at a sport as captain Hunter Olivoer is at water polo the only direction is up. Olivier has been practicing five to six times a week and even in the off season she is on the swim team so she can stay in shape all year long. Olivoer is even up for female athlete of the year! The woman’s water polo team went 17-10 and then 7-2 in conference play. Olivier lead her team this year in both assists and steals with 52 assists and 82 steals.
Everybody on her team believed in Hunter and the main thing is that she believed in herself.
Updated: June 4, 7:44 a.m.: A previous version of this story misspelled Hunter Olivier’s name. This error was corrected to the correct spelling.
