Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week: Sonne showed how much she cared
Laguna Beach High senior Claire Sonne is the youngest of four children, and each of her older siblings inspires her in different ways.
Luke, who attends Westminster College in Utah, is the closest to Claire in age. Ben, now 28, played water polo at Edison High and USC and Claire calls him an influence in her water polo career.
“He’s still a huge part of my life, just a big mentor in water polo for me definitely,” she said. “He’s really supportive at all my games.”
But Claire perhaps gets a lot of her caring nature from her oldest sibling, Elizabeth, better known as “Z.” Elizabeth just turned 31, and Claire said she lives at home with an undiagnosed mental illness.
Two days before Claire and the Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team played for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title last week, Claire had the idea to have the Breakers serve food at a homeless shelter. Elizabeth was a big inspiration for that.
“She’s been a big role model for me,” Claire said. “She struggles in everyday life, and seeing her battle with that and persevere every day is a huge motivation in my life. She spends a lot of her time volunteering everyday, which I think is just so cool. She has so many hardships in her life, and decides to spend her days giving back. She’s just an amazing person in my life, and a big role model for me. All of my teammates love her too and are always so sweet to her. It’s cool to see them connecting with her as well.”
Claire was also known this season for her great personality with her teammates, in and out of the water. She’s big on smiling. She was one of three senior captains along with Olympian Aria Fischer and Bella Baldridge, and each of them claimed a different leadership role.
“They’re really good at leading us and helping us to stay united,” Laguna junior Alana Evans said. “I know for me, whenever I did something wrong or I was nervous, Claire was always there to help me out and calm me down.”
As a team, the Breakers didn’t do much wrong this season. They went 31-0 and captured their third Division 1 title in four years with a 6-2 win over Santa Barbara San Marcos in the championship game. The four-goal margin of victory was actually the closest game the Breakers played this season.
Claire Sonne, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, finished third on the team in both goals (61) and assists (44). She was versatile, and also a good defender. She’s headed to play water polo at Cal next year.
Like her older sister, Claire knows about persevering. After she played water polo at Villa Park as a freshman and sophomore, she moved to Laguna Beach in November of her junior year. The CIF Southern Section ruled her ineligible to play, saying that she had prior contact with Laguna Coach Ethan Damato, who also coached her in club at SET.
The Sonne family appealed the decision, but found out a week before the CIF playoffs that they had lost the appeal. Claire stayed on the sidelines as top-seeded Laguna lost to Foothill by a goal in the semifinals.
But what really impressed Damato was the way she stayed committed to the team, even when she couldn’t play in the games.
“She was preparing and training and watching film like she was going to be competing,” Damato said. “Even though she wasn’t eligible, she was making sure that she was going to use that period of her career to continue to develop. That was a huge time for her ... even though she wasn’t able to play, she was amazing in training and was a great player to have in practice. That carried into her swim season, carried into her club this summer with SET, and then obviously coming in as a senior captain this year.”
Sonne did have a nice swim season as a junior. She combined with teammates Harper Dix, Kayla Whitelock and Kasey Karkoska to set the school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals.
Coming into this water polo season, though, nothing was going to get in her way. She was a bit of a “secret weapon,” less so when she broke out for a very strong Holiday Cup tournament at the end of December. She earned all-tournament team honors at the Irvine Southern California Championships after helping Laguna win that tournament for the fourth straight year.
More than any statistics would show, though, Sonne was a natural leader.
“It was really cool,” she said. “I loved the captain dynamic. I focused a lot on being someone they could all relate to. I think I had really good relationships with all of the girls on our team. I loved helping people get through things, whether it’s a hard practice, a tough shooting game, or things outside of the pool too. We all care so much about each other.
“I think I also focused on being positive. There’s a lot of frustrations every day, trying to improve, trying to prepare for big games and it’s so intense every day. I think it’s really important to stay positive, and I tried to fill that role.”
Sonne, who has a 4.0 weighted grade-point average, knew what it took to win. She has even developed a special bond with Fischer that goes beyond water polo.
“Me and Aria, we’re really big feminists,” Sonne said. “We participate in local protests and things, women’s marches. We definitely would always bring that up with our team, show that side of us. I definitely care a lot about social issues, and that’s why it was so cool to organize the homeless shelter event. To have the whole team go and make a difference together, it was really special.”
That word, special, comes up a lot when describing the Breakers’ season. Damato knows that Sonne, finally eligible, was a big piece of the puzzle.
“She was so passionate, caring about the team as much as she did,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a player that cares as much as she does.”
Claire Sonne
Born: Aug. 10, 1999
Hometown: Laguna Beach
Height: 5-foot-9
Sport: Water polo
Year: Senior
Coach: Ethan Damato
Favorite food: Italian food
Favorite movie: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
Favorite athletic moment: Helping Laguna Beach win the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title this year.
Week in review: Sonne had three assists in a CIF semifinal win over Dos Pueblos, and one assist and one exclusion drawn in the Breakers’ 6-2 victory over San Marcos in the Division 1 title game.
Twitter: @mjszabo
