Allison Larko

1. What are you doing now?
I am a Junior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  I am playing water polo and studying Communications with a minor in Environmental Sustainability.

2. What position do you play?
I play center defender, and I have ever since I was a 14u

3. What is the most important thing you learned while doing water polo?
I have met some of my best friends in the world through water polo.  I have played on teams with amazing people and met many people on other teams as well.  Water polo has provided me a great sense of community and family.  It is very cool that no matter what college tournament I go to I know I will have at least one friend on another team there because I met them through Stanford or ODP.  One of the most important things water polo has taught me is time management.  In high school, I had to drive 30 minutes to and from practice, and that did not allow me much time for home work, so I became very efficient with my time.  Now that I am in college, that is very helpful because I usually have 20 hours of practice and lifting a week, 16 hours of class, and a ton of papers and readings to do.  Without the structure I learned from water polo I am not sure I would be able to get it all done.

4. What are some hobbies of yours?
Some hobbies of mine include being outside: I love hiking, boating, going to the beach, swimming in the ocean. One of the things I miss the most about California is the beach, but here there are a lot of rivers and lakes so me and my friends love going floating down the river on inner tubes.  I also like listening to music and going to concerts, and hanging out with my friends.  I also love to eat and try new foods!  I love mexican food and it’s one of the things I miss the most in Michigan. I really love animals and I miss my dog when I am at school.

5.  What is your favorite memory from water polo?
I have 2 favorite memories from water polo.  The first was when I was an 18u and we were playing LAWP at JO’s at Gunn High School’s pool.  The whole club came to watch our game, and everyone was cheering really loud.  We were down by 4 going into the 4th quarter, and we came back to tie the game.  Although we lost in a shootout, the energy and excitement from the crowd was awesome.  My other favorite water polo memory was this year in our home game, and senior game, against our biggest rival, Indiana University.  We scored with just a few minutes left to tie the game, and after two overtime periods we were still tied.  We then went into sudden death overtime, and we won the sprint and one of our seniors scored on the first play.  This game was so special because we played for so long and had so many fans cheering for us, and finally won in sudden death overtime against our biggest rival.