University City Junior Plays Three Varsity Sports; Dreams of Being a Coach

The parents of  Junior Ariel Neely, learned early on that they better harness their daughter's energy and curiosity otherwise she'd find her own creative outlet.

When Ariel was about six, her parents came home from work to find their daughter covered from head to toe in petroleum jelly. Apparently, she was attempting to put the stuff in her hair and ended up getting it all over her.

“She used to just get into a lot of stuff; It was hard to keep up with her,” said her father, happily giggling as he reminisced. “That is why we used to take (her and her brother) to the park to wear them out.”

Ariel's innate desire to avoid sitting still combined with the encouragement she received from her father, who played “every sport a guy could play” prompted Ariel's interest in sports at a young age. Today, she has developed these athletic talents and currently plays varsity softball, water polo, and swimming for University City High School. She also played soccer her freshman year.

Ariel said her dad had a big influence on her athletic development.

“I always liked to impress him, and I always liked to be outside and active,” Ariel said. “When I would play catch with (my father), he would get so excited when I was catching the ball.”

As a three year starter on the swimming team and a starting driver on the water polo team, Ariel found sports that make use of her favorite place to be; the water. Ariel's love of water began around the time she taught herself how to swim when she was very young. She wasn't allowed to go in the deep end so she would practice swimming techniques in the shallow end while slowly inching herself into the deeper end of the pool.

“When your feet can't touch the bottom, you have to find ways to keep yourself up, Ariel said. “So I kicked my legs really hard to keep my head above water.”

Seeing this, prompted her mom to enroll her in swimming classes, Ariel said. During the lessons, Ariel learned techniques for keeping afloat in the deep end of the pool such as: the breast stroke and egg beaters for treading. Now she boasts an ability to tread water for hours without stopping - a skill that is essential for a starting driver on the varsity water polo team.

Of the three sports Ariel plays, she said that water polo is her favorite because it combines the hand/eye coordination skills she hones on the mound as a starting pitcher and of course swimming skills.

Ariel's school day generally starts around 6 a.m. when she wakes up and gets her stuff ready for her classes and her sports. After school, she gets her homework all together and then heads straight to either the pool or the field for rigorous varsity level practices. After practice, she heads to the gym where she spends time weight training and doing cardio to build the endurance necessary for keeping up with the fast pace movement and treading skills necessary to compete in a water polo game. Her days usually don't end until about 7:30 p.m.

For some, this lifestyle may seem exhausting and in some cases draining, For Ariel, she loves the feeling because there was a time in her life when she didn't have anything to do after school.

“When I was in middle school I felt upset because I was letting my days go to waste because I wasn't doing anything with my life,” Ariel said. “Of course I was going to school and getting my education, but there was no sense of belonging to anything.”

For Ariel, playing sports makes her feel like she is “in the zone” and in a world where she knows what's going on and what she needs to do. Whether she is scoring goals, hitting home runs, getting strike outs or placing first, second or even third, playing sports gives Ariel an adrenaline rush and a feeling of both acceptance and pride, she said.

“Playing sports gives me this sense that the world is not on top of my shoulders; there's isn't as many worries,” Ariel said. “ If you miss a goal you can come back and try again. I feel pressure but it is good pressure. The pressure of the world, that is tough. There are factors in the world you can't control. In the world of sports, there is so much that you can control.”

When Ariel is not refining her athletic skills on the playing field, she loves to cook for her friends. She loves to make cookies, cakes, Teriyaki chicken, soups and stir fry, but her specialty is making a cheesecake from scratch, a skill she learned from her mother, who, according to Ariel, can bake anything. 

With her senior year looming in the background, Ariel said she is currently looking around to find the college best suited for her career goals. She plans on pursuing a major in health sciences which would prepare her for a future in either physical therapy or sports medicine. Both of these career paths would give her a chance to work with athletes and be involved in some capacity with the sports that she loves.

In the future, Ariel also said she would love to play college water polo and would love to coach any sports team. She feels like she would be most effective coaching younger athletes.

Ariel showed some coaching potential last summer when she taught kids ages 4-12 swimming lessons at the University City Natatorium. Ariel said it was fun and rewarding, because she loves to help people learn to swim. It makes her feel good, she said.

“When a kid walks into the pool and is afraid of the water and two weeks later they are swimming laps around the pool, that is very rewarding, Ariel said. “ It assures me that I do have a purpose.”

As of right now, she doesn't see herself as NCAA division one material, but with practice and determination, within a year,  she believes she could get there.

Her head coach, Tony Thomas said that Ariel is very coach-able and has a strong desire to learn as much as possible about the game. As the starting driver in every game so far this season, Thomas said Ariel's biggest asset to the team is her ability to implement her coaches teaching in terms of where she is supposed to go in the water and when.

Thomas said Ariel could be a real a really important part of the team next year, but she needs to get physically stronger and increase her endurance.

“When she gets her shooting arm dialed in, she can be a real threat from the outside. She's got a lot of potential and she can do really well especially if she can practice over the summer and get some weight training in."