SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Despite the tired and recurring joke, no, the sport of water polo has nothing to do with horses.
Sure, the notion showed up on an episode of M*A*S*H in the 1970s ("I once tried water polo, but my horse drowned," quipped Alan Alda's Hawkeye character) and in a classic George Carlin bit in the 1980s ("I don't even want to mention water polo because it's extremely cruel to the horses."). It's quite likely such wordplay dates back through the era of vaudeville to the sport's 19th-century rebranding from its former name: water rugby.
While most water polo players have likely heard some version of that turn of phrase, few people have mastered the difference between the aquatic and the equine like St. Francis senior Laura "L.K." Holliday, who completed her prep career on the Troubadours water polo team, and is about to sign her National Letter of Intent to complete for the equestrian program at nearby UC Davis.
Multi-sport athletes may be less common today than they were generations ago, but they're still out there, especially in high school. We're not talking about the "obvious" doubles, like cross country runners who compete in track, or water polo players who join the swim team in the spring. Unusual pairings of sports do exist. Right here within Holliday's St. Francis water polo program, we find center Addison Hutchcraft, who also plays catcher and infielder for Troubie softball.
But equestrian and water polo? How does one person find her way to those two sports?
There are definitely more differences than similarities," Holliday says. "But something that says consistent is the preparation and practice. Obviously, getting ready for a horse show is different from getting ready for a water polo game. Putting your training first – that's how you get better."
The roads to the two otherwise disparate sports start with LK's mother, Amy. The elder Holliday was an avid rider as a teenager, and got her daughter on a horse as early as the age of two. Soon after, LK began showing in a form of equestrian known as leadline, an entry-level type of competition for the youngest riders. Her love of riding, particularly the Western style, grew from there. As for aquatics, again, give the nod to Amy, who first brought her young daughter to "Mommy and Me" swim classes. LK's comfort and ease in the water proved immediate, and she began swimming competitively at six years old.
On the other hand, water polo took a little extra prodding, as LK recalls. Credit an assist to Gianna Nocetti, a Rio Americano water polo standout now (coincidentally enough) playing for UC Davis. Nocetti and her sister, Holliday's swim coach, suggested giving water polo a look.
"For the longest time, I said there is no way. It's too aggressive, it's just not something I would like," LK said.
Despite her daughter's insistence, Amy Holliday reached out to two-time Olympic medalist and 2010 USA Water Polo Hall of Famer Heather Moody, who had assumed the reins at St. Francis and American River WPC. If she could see a practice, the hope was, LK might change her mind. An eighth grader at the time, Holliday impressed the AR water polo players with her swimming abilities. This was just enough encouragement to come back to the club in the winter, when the programming was geared toward more basic skills and fundamentals.
"It was a rough start at first," Holliday recalls. "I remember I couldn't catch a pass for the longest time." However, she stuck with it through the summer, arrived at St. Francis the following fall, and began her prep career on the Troubadours' junior varsity. Three years later, she and fellow American River clubmate Ava Stimson – along with Davis WPC veteran Gauri Mathrakott – finished their water polo journeys with a Sac-Joaquin Section playoff win over Atwater and a nail-biter against No. 4-seeded El Capitan last Thursday.
Holliday continued to swim competitively, with her prep career reaching new heights during last spring's historic SF swim season. The Troubies finished second at the Sac-Joaquin Section, then enjoyed a program-best eighth place at the state meet. For her part, Holliday anchored a 200-yard freestyle squad that set a school record, finished second at the Delta League and SJS meet, qualified for the state final, and earned NISCA All-America honors. "I got to go to Delta League, sections and state. That's something I never thought would have happened," LK said.
Holliday says she did entertain the notion of swimming or playing water polo in college, but in the end, equestrian remains her favorite sport. To compete in college, this narrowed her choices significantly. Right now, only 20 Division I schools offer intercollegiate equestrian under the auspices of the National Collegiate Equestrian Association, most of which are in the South, South Atlantic and Midwest parts of the U.S.
Holliday's short list included the likes of TCU, Oklahoma State and SMU, but she ultimately opted for UC Davis, in part because of its proximity to home. "My parents are important in my life, and they want to see me compete," she said. This is close by."
More importantly, Holliday went with UC Davis for academic reasons, and understandably so. Among public universities, the school ranks fifth by the Wall Street Journal, and tied for 10th by U.S. News & World Report. On the latter's National Universities list, only three institutions with NCEA equestrian programs rate higher: Ivy League members Dartmouth (No. 12), Brown (No. 13) and Cornell (No. 17).
"I chose UC Davis primarily because of the educational opportunities," said Holliday, who plans on studying molecular biology. "A lot of other schools that have equestrian teams don't have the major I'm looking for, or a good medical program. When I went on my visit, they made sure they emphasized the educational opportunities, the benefits of being on a team for getting tutors and [priority] registration for getting all of your classes."
UC Davis has had a equestrian center for years, thanks in part to its renowned School of Veterinary Medicine. The university fielded four different equestrian clubs, but in 2018, it added the sport as part of the intercollegiate athletics department. All NCEA competitions consist of the Western and jumping seat (formerly hunter seat) disciplines. Holliday competes in horsemanship, one of the two events on the Western half of the team.
"I started doing Western because that's what my mom did," said Holliday. "I moved to Florida when I was six, and they didn't have Western there. I started doing English, because that's all that they had. I did jumping. When we moved back here, I wanted to do Western. The only English I did was jumping, and I didn't have a good experience. I feel like in Western, you almost connect more with the horse. It's a different relationship."
Oddly, the UC Davis team has a student-athlete who competed in Holliday's same double of water polo and equestrian. Macey Newkirk, a 2019 graduate of Monache High School in Porterville, competed in reining (the other NCEA Western event besides horsemanship) and water polo as a prep. In early 2020, the Aggie women's water polo and equestrian teams held a combined practice in which members of each team took turns trying the other's sport. In the second half of the practice, when the equestrian team headed to Schaal Aquatics Center, Newkirk wowed members of both teams with her skills in the water.
Okay, so maybe it's not such an unusual double after all.
On Wednesday, Holliday will join nine of her fellow members of the St. Francis class of 2023 at the school's National Letter of Intent and College Commitment celebration. This will mark the second straight year that a Troubie commits to a college for equestrian, following Abigail Williamson, now a member of Emory & Henry's IHSA team. Holliday will become the first SF student to sign with an NCEA-governed program since sisters Niki ('18) and Makenzy ('19) Barnes went to TCU.
As is the tradition of the SF signing day ceremony, Holliday will be asked cite her favorite memory as a Troubie – as if there is but one takeaway.
"Something I often reflect on are the friends I've made here. There are people who I never would have met otherwise. They don't play the same sports as me, and they don't take the same classes, but we've become really good friends. I've met my best friends here. That's something I'll carry at Davis, after Davis, and for the rest of my life. The challenge and the rigor of St. Francis is a shared experience that brings people together."
