International Player Spotlight 2026

Bailey Hollick

How were you first introduced to water polo and what’s your earliest memories of your club experience?  

I was first introduced to water polo by watching my older sister, who was in intermediate school, and I went along to all of her games.  We had always swum, so it was a natural progression to sign up when I was about 11 and started at Ponsonby Intermediate. We played every game in the west wave dive pool on a Friday night.  I then went on to Western Springs College and continued playing until Year 13, and have now been playing in the US for the last three years.

I joined Waitakere at 17, after being on loan for a few tournaments. I had played at another club but wanted to move because our whole school team was playing at Waitakere. My first tournament was playing up for U21 Nationals on loan with Davor as our coach. It was awesome because our whole school team was playing together at the club. 

What teams have you played with over the years?   

Western Springs College was an awesome growing experience for my water polo. It was tough at times as we never had more than 9 or 10 girls on our team. We had a really strong core group that started in Year 9. By Year 13, all of us were playing for Waitak, joining those who had been there already - Bella Raynes, Jo Lournes, Jackie Lournes and Lucy McKenzie. In Year 12 our WSC Girls Team was promoted to the College Sport Premier League, being the first WSC Girls team to ever do so.  As a team, we kept learning and growing with our Coach Scott James, who coached us from Y9 all the way through to Y13.  We kept moving up in placings in the college league, North Island, and Nationals, with our best placing being 6th at Div 1 National Champs. 

Over the years at Waitakere, I have played for U18's in 2022, U21's in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and Senior Women's in 2022, 2023, 2026. My most recent team was the Senior Women's playing in Round 3 of the national league in Christchurch this June this year. I have been so lucky to be able to come back and play with the club and with so many girls that I grew up playing with. Every team that I have played for at Waitak has been coached by Davor, and I feel so lucky to have gotten that opportunity. Davor is an incredible coach who has taught me so much about the game. 

Tell us about your USA College journey?    

My high school coach was the one who approached me with the idea of going to the States,so from there, I began researching. I had my name on a recruiting site, and through a NZ Water Polo player coaching in the US, I was able to reach out and have Zooms with different college coaches. I moved to the USA in August of 2023 and attended Sierra Junior College, which is just outside Sacramento in Northern California. In both years at Sierra, we won our Conference Championship, went to Northern California Champs, and on to California State Championships. In both years, I was named Big 8 Conference MVP, made the Norcal 1st team, and was named JC All-American. In my sophomore year, I was awarded Sierra College MVP, Northern California MVP, and Sierra College Women's Athlete of the Year.  I was recruited to Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, where I competed in the Golden Coast Conference. Based on stats, I was ranked the 5th top Goal Scorer in the conference. I am now in my senior year and have transferred to California Baptist University, where I will play alongside Bella Raynes. 

The training and playing schedule over the past three years has been incredible. It is definitely tough at times with early mornings and long hours in the pool, but it's so rewarding getting to see results and build strong connections with teammates.  I am a Kinesiology major and am loving the school aspect of college. There are so many resources around you at these universities that allow you to create a balanced schedule, factoring in classes, practice, and other responsibilities.

My highlight over time in the US has been all of the awesome experiences. I have been able to travel up and down California, play in different tournaments, and even travel out of state, and I have also built many lifelong connections with coaches, teammates, and friends. 

What advice would you give to others playing water polo?  

One piece of advice I would give to anyone is to enjoy the little bits along the way. It is awesome to have a big goal and strive for something, but it is also important to sit back and realise the growth you have already made and be proud of yourself. When striving for something like going to the US, it's important to realise how much confidence can get you somewhere.

This opportunity is incredible, but it requires you to be confident in yourself and put yourself out there. A lot of the work to get recruited into these college systems can be done by yourself, so it's important to take time to research and put yourself out there. 

Bella Raynes

How were you first introduced to water polo and what’s your earliest memories of your club experience? 

I first discovered water polo through Flippa Ball at Pt Chevalier Primary School before moving into water polo at Pasadena Intermediate, where our competition was held at West Wave. I was about 10 years old when I joined Waitakere Water Polo Club and started in the U12s, playing in my older brother's team because they needed more girls! I've loved the sport ever since.

Some of my favourite memories are the tournaments, road trips and friendships I made growing up. Waitakere has always felt like a second family. I've been coached by Davor for most of my water polo journey, and he's had a huge impact on my development both in and out of the pool. One of the coolest parts has been growing up with the same group of girls and eventually playing alongside many of them again in the Senior Women's team. When I was younger, I watched older Waitakere girls go on to play in Europe and the USA, and I even got to train alongside some of them. Seeing that pathway made me realise that playing overseas was something I could work towards too.

What teams have you played with over the years?  

I've played for Waitakere for over 11 years, starting in the U12s before working my way through every age group and into the Senior Women's team. I never felt like I needed to leave the club because of the people, coaches and opportunities it gave me. It's pretty special to now be playing seniors with some of the same girls I first started with all those years ago.

I went to Western Springs College, a public school without its own pool. We had a small squad of about 10 girls, very limited training time, and many of us also played together for Waitakere. We stayed together throughout high school and are still really close friends today. Even without the facilities or training opportunities that some of the bigger/private schools had, we worked hard and achieved some great results at the North Island and National Secondary School Championships. Those experiences gave me the confidence to chase opportunities overseas and showed me that you don't need to come from a big-name school to achieve your goals.

Tell us about your USA College journey?   

By my final years of high school, I knew I wasn't ready to stop playing water polo. I wanted to keep competing while earning my degree, so I started looking into opportunities in the USA. I used the recruiting agency Platform Sports and also spoke with coaches and people I knew who were already playing in America to learn more about the process and system.

I chose to start at West Valley College in San Jose, California. Beginning at a community college was a great pathway for me because it helped me develop as a player, adjust to living overseas, and ultimately earn a scholarship to transfer to an NCAA Division I university. During my freshman year I was named Newcomer of the Year, earned First Team All-Coast Conference, helped win the Coast Conference Championship, and finished third at the California State Championships.

After two years, I transferred on scholarship to California Baptist University, where I'm now playing NCAA Division I water polo while studying Kinesiology – Sport Performance. I'm heading into my senior year, so I have one more year left before I graduate.

College water polo is very different from New Zealand. You're constantly competing for your position, and the hours spent training in the pool, lifting in the gym, travelling and studying make it feel like a full-time job. It definitely takes commitment, but it's also been one of the best experiences of my life. I've made lifelong friends from all over the world and travelled to places I never would have visited without water polo. I'm still undecided about what I'll do after graduation, whether I'll continue playing or start my career, but I'm excited to see where the next chapter takes me.

What advice would you give to others playing water polo? 

Enjoy every part of the journey, the big moments and the little ones, because they go by quicker than you think. Be confident, trust your gut, and don't be afraid to put yourself out there. If playing in the USA is your goal, know that it's possible, no matter what school you come from.

You have to genuinely love the sport because college water polo requires a huge amount of time and commitment. There will be tough days, but if you love the game, it's all worth it. I'd also say to appreciate the people who support you. My parents have always backed me every step of the way, and I wouldn't have had these opportunities without them. Work hard, stay coachable, be humble, enjoy the friendships you make and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.

Fin Perry

How were you first introduced to water polo and what’s your earliest memories of your club experience? 

I was first introduced to water polo through flippa ball at Oratia Primary School when I was about 11. This led to playing at Glen Eden Intermediate under Nick Stankovich, a brilliant coach who was playing for both the New Zealand Men's and Waitakere Senior Men's teams at the time. That is where it really hit me that I loved the sport and in my last year of intermediate in 2018, I started playing U14s at Waitakere Water Polo. 

Some of my first memories of club water polo are u14 Div 2, when I had first started and went to Tauranga with the u14 team. I was coached by Adam Milne  and Luke Watkinson - brilliant coaches who were quite tough on us but really taught me a huge amount - and I started to take it more seriously. I started at Waitakere because it was close to home and over the years I have played for u14s, right through to the men’s team. I have stuck with Waitakere the whole way through my club career.

What teams have you played with over the years? 

For school I played water polo at Avondale College certainly. It wasn’t competitive or high level, but it was good fun, and I started straight into the senior team in year 9, so playing with the older players was definitely challenging. As the years ticked over, we went to a number of NZ Secondary Schools Nationals and North Island tournaments as a mixed team. In my final years a few other good Waitak players, including Lucas Wilson and Zach and Conal Martin came and we started really competing. 

From there I started getting some interest from New Zealand squads, starting with just training with premier league teams, then onto men’s teams and the U20 squad. I fell just short of going to the U20 world champs in 2025, being named as a non-travelling reserve, but I have been fortunate to have played one leg of the NSW Premier League with the NZ Men's squad in 2024 and won the Australia Cup in Canberra in 2025 with the NZ U20 team. 

Tell us about your USA College journey?  

My college journey started in mid 2023 when I finished high school water polo and u18 club water polo.  I was looking at what more there was to do because I wanted to keep playing and pushing myself. I went through  a recruiting company called Platform Sports, who put my stats and video on a recruiting website that led to a number of US College coaches reaching out to me. Eventually I decided on a junior college in Orange County, Southern California called Saddleback College. The switch to playing in America has been great - waterpolo is a different world in the States, training 4 hours everyday, tournaments every weekend and midweek games.  Like all their sports, they have massive playbooks to learn, it is really structured in the pool and the coaches are really passionate about the sport.  

Editors Note – Fin is far too modest to say it, but he in fact scored a total of 87 goals and drew 66 exclusions across 34 games in the season.  These stats placed him in the top 5% out of about 600 players in the league – a great effort.

The highlight of playing in the States has just been all the mates I’ve met, parts of the country I’ve travelled to play, and going out to eat with the boys after hard trainings or games. The lifestyle change has also been great, meeting new people and experiencing new places and opportunities. The balance of water polo and schoolwork is tough, with hours in the library and doing homework whenever possible, but it’s not too bad if you knuckle down and show up to class. 

What advice would you give to others playing water polo?

The biggest piece of advice I would give is show up. Show up and work hard. Lots of people believe that their environments aren’t suited, or that there’s all these external factors that make it hard to achieve. The reality is, show up to every training, work hard, listen to your coaches and one, you will get better, and two, you’ll be able to enjoy the game a whole lot more. Hard work has gotten me to where I am so far, and it’s hopefully nowhere near over. Go to swim training, put in the work, and listen when Davor is coaching you!