Tennyson Smith '22 Recruiting Profile

Dear Prospective Coaches:

My name is Tennyson Smith and I am currently attending Mission Viejo High School. I am a junior and beginning my third year and 5th semester as a varsity scholar athlete. I have been playing water polo and swimming competitively since the age of 7. I am very excited to become a four year varsity letterman in both water polo and swimming as a Mission Viejo Diablo. Scholastics are important to me, as is finding the right opportunity after high school to continue my matriculation. It is my goal to be a two sport athlete and to play water polo and swim for a team in college, without needing an athletic scholarship for either, with my grades and test scores gaining me entry to the institution. 

Currently, the sports seasons in California have been delayed and will not begin until Covid-19 allows. I spent the spring, summer and fall of 2020 working out on my own and unofficially with teammates at local beaches, lakes and personal pools to stay in shape and continue improving on my skills. We are now holding daily limited practices as a high school team but there is still no timetable for the season to begin. I hope to someday soon be able to begin recording game footage again for posting here. The plan all along was to accumulate massive footage my junior year, but that's been thrown out the window for now. I'm glad to have some footage from my first two seasons available here on NCSA.

In the 2018-2019 school year I was fortunate to earn a spot on the varsity water polo squad as a freshman. Although starting the season on the bench, as the season progressed I began to earn more playtime. I became the team's occasional sprinter and by the time we reached State I was in the starting lineup. Last season, my second, I was a full-time starter, sprinting each and every quarter. Also,  I lead the team in both steals and assists. While I love to score goals as much as just about anyone, I have worked very hard on the other aspects of my game. I am the best passer and defender on the team as a result of the focus I have put on those additional skill sets. I want to score, and do, when the opportunity presents itself, but I'm more focused on feeding the ball to the right person for the best chance at a goal scored in each possession and ending the opponents possession early with a forced turnover or steal.

In the 2019-2020 school year, my sophomore year, I began the season as a starter and the full-time sprinter. It was quite a season, and fortunately we were able to complete it in the fall before the Covid-19 outbreak and shutdown. I started every game and every sprint. I scored on 28 of 44 shots , had 47 assists (our team had the State Player of the Year along with his many goals and a lot of these assists went to him), had a team high 82 steals, drew 21 exclusions, was excluded 12 times and had a team high 21 field blocks plus 4 goal blocks (our goalie had a knack for being ejected). I earned 2nd Team All State State honors. It was a cinderella season that concluded with us winning both CIF and the State Championship!

Two  summers ago I traveled to Hungary to train and compete for 10 days in Eger against teams from Hungary, Germany and Russia. This experience was instrumental in improving my game and making me much more physical in the water. While there, I improved many  aspects of my game, including my shooting technique and becoming much faster in my drives and counter attacks. 

Reach out. I'd love to talk. After all, we're stuck in Covid-19!

"Tenny"