DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:Tars’ Chiapuzio shows no quit

Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo player Jillian Chiapuzio doesn’t normally drive toward the goal so aggressively.

Then again, the Sailors’ CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal game, against Santa Margarita on Feb. 20, wasn’t exactly a normal game.

It was headed to sudden-death overtime, where one play could be enough to win it. Coach Bill Barnett told his team to take risks.

“That was a risk,” said Chiapuzio of her aggressive play. “I do it a lot in practice, but I don’t really do that in games. We really wanted to win, so it was like we had to do whatever we can.”

The risk paid off as she scored the game-winning goal 36 seconds into sudden-death overtime, lifting Newport Harbor to a 5-4 win.

Chiapuzio, a senior in her first year on varsity, is Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week. Her quickness has helped the Sailors all year long, as she has accumulated 25 goals and 39 steals.

Her speed is probably most obvious in the quarter-starting sprints, where Chiapuzio won 68 of 73 recorded (93%) during the regular season. But that’s not her favorite part of water polo.

“In all, I don’t really think I enjoy sprinting,” she said. “It kind of reminds me of swim season, and it makes me more nervous.”

So what’s her favorite part of the game?

“The most rewarding [part] is scoring a goal,” Chiapuzio said. “I like stealing the ball and playing defense, but then again, you feel like a really great contributor when you score a goal or make an assist.”

Her contributions haven’t gone unnoticed. Chiapuzio was selected to the All-Sunset League first team this season, and she said she has made a verbal commitment to play water polo at Cal.

It was a long time coming. She got her first crack at the sport when her mother, Diane, signed Jillian up for 10-and-under water polo.

“I had no idea what the sport was,” Jillian Chiapuzio remembered with a smile. “I thought it was like volleyball in the water.”

She quit for a couple years, then decided to play it again in high school. But at first, she said she wasn’t quite ready for what playing water polo at Newport Harbor entailed.

She said it hit her in 2004 when, as a freshman, she watched the varsity team beat Foothill in the Division I championship game.

“Coming into this school, I didn’t know water polo was so big,” Chiapuzio said. “It was kind of like, ‘Wow.’ I didn’t know if I would ever reach that point.”

But she kept working. Last season, Chiapuzio was MVP of the Sailors’ JV squad, although she would only participate in varsity games in blowouts.

Quite a step up to the varsity team, then, especially on a Sailors squad that was looking to defend its 2006 Division I crown.

Not that her progress has surprised Barnett.

“She’s extremely fast and quick, and she’s a very, very hard worker,” Barnett said. “She’s a first-year varsity player, so she’s really done a great job for us.”

Chiapuzio will soon jump into swimming, where she’s a three-year varsity swimmer for the Sailors. In that sport, too, she’s come a long way.

“I remember my freshman coach telling me I wasn’t a great swimmer,” she said. “I didn’t have any endurance.”

As for her high school water polo career, it will end this weekend at the inaugural CIF Master’s tournament.

But, along with other starting seniors like Sarah Roberts, Marisa Cottam and Allyssa Peterson, she said she’s enjoyed the ride.

“I think we’ve really grown together this year,” Chiapuzio said. “There’s no drama, and we get along really well as a team. We don’t look down on the younger players. We don’t put ourselves above them.”

In a team sport like water polo, that’s one risk that Chiapuzio’s not willing to take.

JILLIAN CHIAPUZIO

Hometown: Newport Beach

Born: June 25, 1989

Height: 5-foot-4

Weight: 125 pounds

Sport: Water polo

Position: Driver

Coach: Bill Barnett

Favorite food: Rubinos pizza

Favorite movie: “Mean Girls”

Favorite athletic moment: Beating Foothill in the semifinals of the Holiday Cup in December

Week in review: Scored the game-winning goal in Newport Harbor’s 5-4 win over Santa Margarita in a CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal on Feb. 20. Also scored a goal against Foothill in the semifinals on Feb. 23.