Jacob Gresham '21 Recruiting Profile

Unlike many of my peers who began polo in middle school (or earlier), I came to polo late having not participated in any aquatics sports until high school but have worked hard in the pool and my efforts to continue to develop are bearing fruit.  I was pulled up to the varsity polo team my freshman season and earned a starting spot my sophomore year.  Additionally, my U16 club team (209 Water Polo) became the first team in club history to qualify for Championship level play at the Junior Olympics.

Despite having relatively early success, I continue to seek every opportunity for improvement, going to the Cal polo camp after my freshman season and will be attending the UOP camp this summer as well.  During the summer, in addition to my club practice, I try to find my way to any pool where experienced coaches are willing to invest in my development. I have had the good fortune to have extended summer training with my brother in law who recently finished playing all four years at the Air Force Academy and his experiences competing at the highest level (including training against top European competition) has been invaluable.

In addition to polo, I have had considerable success in swimming as well, as I finished the season as the highest ranked sprinter in our conference and qualified for sectional championship both my freshman and sophomore years in the 50M and 100M freestyle. Unlike many players who primarily focus on polo, I continue to work hard on the swimming side as I believe the effort I put in to swimming will ultimately increase my abilities in polo as well.

Finally, though I'm still very new in my development and nowhere near the player I know I will be collegiately, each of my coaches would say the same thing about me - that I'm extremely coachable, willing to learn, committed to being a good teammate and try every day to be the hardest worker in the pool.