Senior Graduate Nico Assalian

Nico Assalian, a Tesoro senior, is heading to UC Irvine to play water polo.

Nico has been playing water polo since the summer before his Freshman year in high school. He had no previous background in swimming or water polo. Before, he played soccer and basketball, but stopped playing during COVID. His water polo journey started in hardship: “When I first joined water polo Freshman year, I was pretty bad, like really bad. However, I kept pushing myself to work harder everyday.”

He was eventually recruited by UC Irvine (UCI) in March of his junior year. He reflected on the amount of time he put into getting where he is: “I would go to two hour highschool practice then I would go to the gym then would go to another two hour club practice five days a week.” That adds up to 30 hours a week.

Looking forward, he is ambitious about his water polo career and thankful for his opportunity: “I am so grateful to be able to be recruited at UCI to play water polo, and my goal now is to keep pushing beyond the college level.”