Tea Poljak leaves Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team, will enroll early at USC

Talented girls’ water polo senior Tea Poljak has withdrawn from Laguna Beach High and plans to enroll early at USC, she said Wednesday.

Poljak is currently enrolled at Coast High in Huntington Beach, a mostly online school, she said. She will graduate from Coast and plans to begin practicing with the USC women’s water polo team in late December. She will start classes at USC in January.

Poljak, who committed to USC as a sophomore, said that new head coach Marko Pintaric and associate head coach Casey Moon told her that they would like her to join the Trojans as soon as possible.

“I’ve played on so many teams in order to be ready for this,” Poljak said. “The fact that both ‘Pinta’ and Casey both think I’m ready for the next level was something that I couldn’t say no to.”

Poljak made a difference in her only season with Laguna Beach after transferring from Mater Dei. As a junior, she was a Daily Pilot Dream Team and All-CIF Southern Section Division 1 selection, scoring the game-winning goal in the Division 1 title match as the Breakers defeated Corona del Mar 9-8 in sudden-death overtime.

Poljak tied for the team lead with 48 goals, and had a team-best 38 assists and 35 steals.

“Laguna Beach was one of the hardest goodbyes, I would say, but they made it really easy on me,” Poljak said. “[Breakers head coach] Ethan [Damato] was very positive. I’ll still be around and I wish them the best of luck this season. With the heart and drive that team has, they are unstoppable.”

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