People Editor
Just four years ago in the summer before her freshman year, Cherniss started playing water polo due to her older brother’s persistence and her connection to senior Kelsey Shyba through softball. Now, she spends a significant amount of her time in the pool all year round. Cherniss practices at least two hours a day during season. While winter polo season is less frequent, Cherniss practices between four to six hours during summer polo. She played on three club teams this summer, including the West Valley U18 team, the San Jose Splash U20 team, and the San Jose Splash Open Division. As the youngest girl on the San Jose Splash teams, this LGHS senior explained, “I was playing against the best women in the nation and learned a lot very quickly! I enjoy playing at such a high level as I have frequently found that I play at the level that I am playing against."
Her consistent dedication has landed Cherniss a top national rank as a goalie, in addition to two consecutive awards as Most Valuable Goalie in SCVAL: 2008 and 2009. She has learned to deal with the responsibility of scored goals being her fault and with the pressure of needing to keep her head in the game in order to keep the team in the game. That sounds stressful, but Cherniss stated, “I love being able to get in the pool and just focus on working to get better. I love having at least two hours a day where I can shut off my brain or process through things without feeling like I am wasting time.” Although her last water polo season at LGHS is now over, she will continue participating in athletics by swimming in the spring.
Outside of water polo, Cherniss enjoys volunteering at her church and leading an after school program to build relationships with inner-city elementary fourth and fifth graders. On top of all the time she puts in water polo, Cherniss takes various difficult Advanced Placement classes, but she loves to learn and sees the classes as mentally challenging. Senior Sammy Frazer described, “Emma has a huge personality and is fun to be around.” Also, teammate senior Kelly Davis called Cherniss the “nicest, most helpful person, and an awesome player. She is always on it and probably the best goalie in CCS.”
As Cherniss enjoys her success in water polo, she will be playing in the future. Her “top five” colleges are Stanford, Pomona, Occidental, Brown, and USC, with USC and Occidental being the most active to recruit her. She describes the recruiting process, stating it is a “very surreal process to be called by a coach and told that they want [her] and will do everything in their power to get [her] in.” So be sure to look out for this star goalie on television in the near future.