Women’s water polo player brings national team experience to Bruins

It is rare to find someone in Canada playing water polo. The pools are located inside due to the cold, rain, and snow. There are swimming leagues in the summer, but the window to compete is small. So when redshirt Alexa Tielmann took up the sport, she was surprised how much she took to it.

Now, after spending a whole year training with the Canadian national team, Tielmann has competed at the highest level of water polo and she couldn’t see herself playing anything else.

The process of getting to that level, however, was not easy.

Before water polo, there were other sports. After trying soccer, basketball and dance Tielmann decided to follow the summertime tradition of participating in the swimming program.

“I did swimming right before I tried water polo and I enjoyed that, but I was never the fastest or the best,” Tielmann said.

Although Tielmann still enjoyed swimming in the summer with her hometown swimming club, it was water polo club coach Ian Mitchell, who was affiliated with the swiming club, who convinced Tielmann to come out for a practice.

“I was pretty tall so my coach was like, ‘You should just try it.’ So I tried it and I don’t know, I fell in love with it,” Tielmann said.

She was 11 then, and never really stopped. It was uncommon to be playing water polo in Tielmann’s hometown of Abbotsford, Canada, but with the extreme amount of time she spent in the pool, it became a passion.

“It’s kind of random that I came to play it,” Tielmann said. “It’s definitely growing a lot . . . especially where I live now so that’s really good and awesome to see. Definitely a lot more kids are starting to play than when I started to get into it intensely.”

When you think big Canadian sports, water polo is not very high on that list, and when you compare the popularity of the sport in Canada to Southern California, it’s not even close.

“Compared to SoCal, we’re not quite there,” said Canadian Senior Women’s National Team coach Justin Oliveira. “I wouldn’t say it’s as popular as it is in SoCal, but it’s definitely an amateur sport and depending on where you are at in Canada, it is a popular summer sport.”

The sport continued to grow in Canada as did Tielmann’s love and passion for it. During the 10th grade, she made her first national team roster and it wasn’t until then that she began to think that she may be able to play water polo at a higher level.

“I didn’t have the natural talent at first. So when I was younger, it wasn’t my aspiration to go off to school down in the states – I didn’t even know about that when I first started playing,” Tielmann said. “It just took a while for me to come into the player that I am now.”

Tielmann participated in the summer water polo camps that UCLA held every year during the summer after her sophomore and junior year in high school. The Canadian caught the eye of UCLA’s coaching staff, who began the process of getting her to play for the Bruins. For Tielmann, UCLA was her No. 1 choice and the only recruiting trip she needed to take.

“Alexa was always a very coachable athlete,” Oliveira said. “When you’re coaching, she would always look for feedback and ask how she could get better. Those are great qualities in an athlete and great qualities in an elite athlete who is always looking for that edge to get better.”

Heading into the 2015 season, Tielmann made the decision to take a year off from UCLA when asked to train with the Canadian national team. In doing so, she exposed herself to a new level of competition and added new aspects to her game.

“I just decided that’s what I want to do,” Tielmann said. “I want to try and be a part of the team for the next cycle for this Olympics coming up.”

In the midst of a competitive pool crowded with strangers, there was one familiar face. Tielmann and fellow British Columbia native Carmen Eggens knew each other before they both began training with the national team.

“It’s funny because we both are from BC so we kind of came up through water polo together; she played at a separate club, but I’ve known her since she started playing and I knew of her,” Eggens said.

After spending a year with the women’s senior national team, Tielmann made the decision to return to UCLA for the 2016 season. For Tielmann, she didn’t feel like it was her time to stay with the national team. Tielmann was receiving little playing time and in the long run, UCLA would allow Tielmann to continue her education and compete at a high level.

“She chose to go back to UCLA this year. Obviously it was a difficult decision for her to make, but I think for her it’s a good one,” Oliveira said. “She’s going to be getting a lot of playing experience there at UCLA and she’s under the leadership of a great coach.”

Although 2016 was not Tielmann’s year to compete at the Summer Olympics, she hasn’t ruled out 2020 just yet.

“After I am done at UCLA, there are so many options for me to continue on with water polo,” Tielmann said. “I just might go back with the next team for the next cycle in hopes of the 2020 Olympics.”

For now, she is just focused on this season for the Bruins.