The chant “Holy moly, that’s our goalie!” can be heard across Lamar’s natatorium, in celebration of senior and water polo player, Reide Breaker being Fox News’ Making the Grade recipient. It’s an award that honors high school seniors who receive high grades and play a sport. Breaker is overjoyed to not only receive the award but also achieve a goal.
“I was really excited,” Breaker said. “It makes me happy to receive it and also have the opportunity to be on the news because it was on my bucket list.”
On top of being the recipient, on Friday, Sept. 29, Breaker broke Lamar’s previous career record of 804
saves.
“It feels really good to have broken a record,” Breaker said. “I’ve been waiting four years to break it and it’s a huge achievement.”
Breaker was first introduced to water polo by her middle school coaches and has loved the sport since.
“I started water polo in middle school,” Breaker said. “It’s a fun and exhilarating sport that allows me to get all of my energy out. Although it might be aggressive, in the end it’s fun.”
Although Breaker is debating whether to play water polo after high school, she plans to pursue interior design.
“My college plans are to go to Houston Community College (HCC) to get my prerequisites and then move to University of Houston to pursue my architecture and InDesign degrees,” Breaker said. “Similar to Interior design, I joined Lamar Life as a designer because I like showing off my creativity and being able
to express that through designing.”
Breaker admires and looks up to U.S. water polo Olympian Ashleigh Johnson because of her water polo and academic career.
“Ashleigh Johnson is a water polo goalie from Houston and she has inspired me because I didn’t want to play at first but after watching a video of her I kept at it,” Breaker said. “She worked hard to get to where she is today and because she keeps working, I will as well.”
Despite Breaker’s recent successes, it wasn’t easy to reach as water polo is a tough and competitive sport. However, she hopes that whoever else is trying to break her record works hard and has faith in themselves.
“It’s mostly out of spite when people say I can’t do something; it makes me feel I should try harder to prove them wrong,” Breaker said. “To the next person trying to break my record, work your hardest, keep practicing and believe in yourself because then you can do anything.”
