The Mind of a Lakes High School Student-Athlete

Enter Krystal Henry, a 17-year-old girl from drizzly Lakewood, Wash.

I'm an avid Piers Anthony reader, choir geek, aspiring chemist and last, but certainly not least, the Lakes High School girls water polo team captain. There’s always more to the story and that’s, hopefully, what I’ll do for all the readers out there, to give you the official down low on a day in the life of a team captain.

I am a Running Start student. I attend Pierce Community College as a full-time student, earning both high school and college credits – something I have learned
will be very useful, seeing as I almost fainted looking at the price tag of a 4-year-university. My original plan was to attend Pacific Lutheran University, however, these plans have recently changed to the University of Washington on a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship that I was overjoyed to have received.

The whole process to get there? That is to be written another time.

For the past couple of years, it’s been difficult for me to decide what I wanted to major in, although I am now (pretty) sure that my plans include majoring in chemistry – one of the ways to get my creative juices flowing because of the logic and problem solving challenges it presents.

One thing that I definitely know about myself (other than my name) is that I love a
challenge. It’s one of the reasons that I became involved in sports in the first place. And though my team may hate me for it, I’m usually the first one to volunteer for morning Saturday practices.

They’ll thank me for it later.

Both water polo and swimming have been a big part of my life for as long as I can
remember. I blame my chlorinated water addiction on my dad who was an amazing swimmer in high school. But my love for the water goes even further than genetics.

I managed to squeeze in a job as a lifeguard as well as a water safety instructor during the past couple of summers. I'm proud to be able to put some of my leadership, swimming skills and pure passion for H2O into action, passing it on by challenging others.

I hope to inspire not only my amazing water polo teammates this year but also others I meet. That’s what being a leader is all about, feeling good about giving 110 percent knowing you made a difference.

Thanks for reading…Stay tuned for more adventures!