La Jolla Water Polo Goes D1

Roxy Hazouka signing for Brown University

Lucas Turacek, Staff Writer

Huge win for La Jolla Water Polo as three seniors sign to division 1 colleges. With LuLu Hirchfield headed to University of Michigan, Max LaGrange to UC Berkeley, and Roxy Hazouka to Brown University, all three athletes are going to dominate their academics and the pool. After growing up playing multiple sports all three found their way to waterpolo around middle school. 

LaGrange grew up playing baseball and started water polo as a guard in 6th grade. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, he played for San Diego Shores before taking his own route and moving over to La Jolla United as a goalie. At La Jolla United, LaGrange trained under La Jolla High Alumni and UCSB goalie, Levi Lentin. LaGrange committed to Cal the same day LuLu received her acceptance to Michigan, resulting in an awesome day for La Jolla Water Polo. Berkeley currently holds 15 titles and won the most recent NCAA championship, one of the main reasons he chose it. Overall LaGrange fell in love with the program and knew it was a perfect fit. He said, “ I was instantly drawn in by the top notch coaching staff, atmosphere, and school spirit. I couldn’t be happier to continue my career there.”

After moving to San Diego at the age of nine from Jacksonhole Wyoming, Hirschfeld quickly became a part of the surf scene and spent many of her afternoons surfing. Being born deaf and struggling with a type 1 diabetes diagnosis, Hirschfeld preserved and demonstrated cosmic grit, resulting in her being one of the top recruits in the class of 2022. With help from her parents, Hirschfield developed a system to play while wearing her cochlear implants and regulating her blood sugar. When asked about her waterpolo experience, LuLu said, “My parents were a huge factor in my success. It took many years for the three of us to figure out a system that worked for me. We did lots of research about diabetic athletes. Both of my parents used to come to every one of my practices to check my blood sugar halfway through, eventually leading us to figure out where my blood sugar would be after a certain amount of time practicing.” 

Longtime teammate to Hirshfield, Roxy Hazouka signed to continue her career at Brown University. Hazouka grew up in San Carlos and moved to San Diego in the 3rd grade. After struggling to find a sports team she truly clicked with, Hazouka found water polo. Subsequently finding water polo in the 7th grade, Hazouka has dedicated much of her time to it since, and continues to push herself in and out of the pool. Following former La Jolla High and current Brown goalie, Shauna Franke, Hazouka committed to Brown because of coaching staff and academics, “I fell in love with Brown because of the great coach and challenging academics.” 

As we are all excited to see how the three of them perform, no one is more excited than themselves. Speaking on behalf of all of them Hazouka stated “I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”