Derek Allen '19 Recruiting Profile

My name is Derek Allen and I am a junior that plays water polo at Agoura High School in California. I committed to playing water polo my freshman year after I tried it with a recreational team from Santa Clarita my 8th-grade year. I had always had a love for baseball and played it for a long time, but I was not getting any better, so my parents decided to put me into a water polo intro course. This new discovery showed me a new sport that combines swim, wrestling, basketball, football, and many more and I just knew that I had to play it more. I went to Bishop Alemany High School to pursue this dream because it was the only school near me that had a water polo team. I played J.V. my freshman year where I received a plaque for the most improved player. During the off-season, I played at S&S Bruins Water Polo Club 16u team at Pepperdine and UCLA pools and enjoyed it there. The next year I played on the Varsity team at Alemany where I received a letter from my coach as well as another most improved plaque. After this season I switched clubs to Los Angeles Water Polo Club where I played on the 16u elite team under Dustin Litvak. With this team, we earned second place in Junior Olympics in the gold division. For the start of my junior year, I had to move schools because my family could no longer afford to send me to a private school so I came to Agoura where I started playing on J.V. but would be brought up to play with the varsity for some games, on this team we came 4th in the CIF semifinals. Some of the things that I would like to get out of water polo in college is the ability to expand my knowledge of the sport and gain the experience needed to become a hard worker once college is over where I can hopefully bring my leadership and positive mental attitude along with great work ethic with me wherever I go. Outside of water polo academics are very important to me, despite school always being a challenge for me. From a young age, I was diagnosed with ADD and a small form of ADHD which made my life at school very difficult. During the 2018 school year, I received my first I.E.P. 504 program to help combat these problems and also to help me focus on tasks that teachers give me. Despite these problems, I have always tried my best in school to get the best grade possible on tests and homework.