Water Polo
Favorite athlete: Tony Azevedo
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating North Penn in double overtime at their pool and scoring the winning goal. And then a few weeks later them coming to our pool and us beating them again at our home pool on Senior Night
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When my buddy lost his rec specks (the glasses for sports) in the middle of our game, and he was the goalie. So coach Hay was running up and down the pool trying to get the ref to stop the game.
Music on iPod: Timeflies
Future plans: Go to Wagner and get my degree in accounting/financial planning and eventually move on to law school. After working in the mainstream for a few years, I want to open my own financial services company to aid people and prevent them from making financial errors that may make them go bankrupt.
Words to live by: “You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”
One thing people don’t know about me: My 83-year-old grandpop taught me something I will forever live by. He taught me the three pillars of life freshman year, and that is the reason I wear the #3 cap. The three pillars are spiritual, mental, physical. Each pillar must be balanced in order for you to live the life you want. It is also a ranking system. In order to be successful, you must put faith above academics and athletics, and academics above athletics. A strong work ethic and this system will help you get to wherever you want to go.
By Craig Ostroff
Offseason practice for the Souderton boys’ water polo team began on Tuesday evening.
When coach Joe Hay arrived at the pool, he was greeted by Daniel Trout. That didn’t surprise Hay at all … even though Trout will be graduating in a few months.
“I didn’t ask Danny to be here, I didn’t tell him I expected him to be here … I didn’t have to,” Hay said. “I just came in and he was here before I was, waiting for me. That’s typical of Danny.
“This was something that was important to him. I heard today he was texting various underclassmen that offseason practice starts tonight and he expected them to be there. I never asked him to do any of that. He took it upon himself and when I got here, ‘Here I am.’ That’s who he is.”
Though Trout’s high school water polo career may be over, his attachment to the team is anything but. The two-year captain said he plans on attending the twice-weekly spring practices and thrice-weekly summer sessions to do what he can to help the team continue its winning ways.
“I guess you could say this is my chance to give back to the program that gave me so much,” Trout said. “I want to be there for these kids and I want to give back to the system. I want to help them find a new leader to take over what I’d been doing, and I want to be able to pass on the knowledge I can lend to the new kids so they’re ready for next year.”
Helping to make the Souderton water polo team better is nothing new for Trout. From the moment he cracked the varsity lineup as a freshman, Trout has been making his teammates and his team better, both with his skills and his leadership.
Trout has been rewarded for his hard work with All-State honors for the past three seasons, but more importantly, he has been rewarded with the team’s regular season as well as postseason successes.
“Danny makes everyone else around him better,” Hay said. “He leads us in assists, leads us in steals, and is one of our top scorers. But our top scorers wouldn’t be our top scorers without him. He’s the man who directs the traffic in the pool, he gets the ball where it needs to be, he has the authority to call plays when he sees them, he’s the guy who makes it happen. He’s our point guard, our quarterback. He’s our Peyton Manning.”
That’s a hefty comparison. But it’s one that Trout not only welcomes, he enjoys being able to fill that role.
“Coach always used to call me the quarterback,” Trout said. “I like that. I am 100 percent a reader of the game. I love to read the defense and try to figure out how to beat it. I’m always figuring things out three plays ahead, anticipating what’s going to happen next.”
“The term I hear people use to describe Danny is ‘crafty,’” Hay said. “He has a knack for manipulating the situation in his team’s favor. He has such a good feel for knowing when to shoot, when to pass, when to give a player a nod to make the drive and set them up for a score. He’s a very selfless player. A lot of players want to be the high scorer; you don’t see that in him, he just wants to win.”
He’s been that way since he first started playing water polo in sixth grade. Having had an older brother and sister who both played water polo for Souderton, Trout was introduced to the game from an early age. He knew the clubs to join and the clinics and camps to attend. But most of all, he saw a chance to continue a family tradition.
“I used to watch all their games,” Trout said. “I wanted to follow that legacy, but also to create my own.”
And as Trout got older, he decided to leave sports such as soccer and lacrosse behind for water sports. Having begun swimming at age five, Trout competed his freshman and sophomore years on the Souderton swim team as well before deciding that water polo was the sport that he enjoyed the most.
“Swimming just wasn’t my passion anymore,” Trout said. “I was passionate about water polo, I played in the offseason, played with my select team; I played a lot of water polo and did a lot of crossfit.”
The mental and physical endurance it takes to participate in crossfit also serves Trout well to deal with the stamina needed as well as the rough, physical play in the pool.
His dedication to staying in shape was likely the main reason he was able to overcome what could have been a career-ending surgery when he had rotator cuff surgery on his left shoulder about six months before his junior season.
Years of competitive swimming and the strain from throwing the ball took their toll on Trout’s shoulder.
“The doctor said it would take six months to a year, and he said there was a very good possibility that I might never be able to play again,” Trout said. “I’d go to relentless rehabbing, more than the doctor prescribed. I wanted to be there so bad for the beginning of the season, so I put in that extra time, not just for myself but for my teammates. I felt that if I looked weak, the team was going to look weak.
“The doctor said it looked like a tiger ripped apart my rotator cuff. That’s how bad it was. But he gave me an extra day of physical therapy, gave me more faith and leeway, and I took it and I ran with it.”
As any recipients of his crisp passes, or goalkeepers who have seen his shots zip into the net can tell you, Trout’s shoulder and his throws are as strong and accurate as they’ve ever been.
In the classroom, Trout brings the same drive and determination he shows in the pool. A top-notch student, Trout’s weighted GPA sits well above a 4.0. He is a member of the school’s Future Business Leaders of America and the National Honors Society.
Being involved with FBLA and NHS provides Trout with opportunities to pursue another passion—helping others and making his school and community better. He has participated in FBLA pancake breakfasts and NHS food drives, as well as numerous charitable events held by the water polo team.
He has also served as a peer tutor in school and he coaches the youth water polo club where he first started playing.
“My parents always stressed to me to give back to the people who give you so much,” he said. “Those are the values your parents give to you. They give you he tools, you decide how use them.
“I don’t feel like I’m obligated to do it, I like to do it. I like being able to better the team and community. If I can help one person with one thing, that’s a successful day.”
Ask him if there’s any particular event that stands out as being the most special, and Trout is quick to point to his participation in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walkathon. It’s an event that holds a special meaning for Trout.
“I did the Komen walk the last two years with my girlfriend and her family,” he said. “Her aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and her aunt’s mother died of breast cancer, so it’s a big deal for her family and to me. To see her go through that, you can imagine how rough it can be. Her being ready to walk in the walk - she walked in the walk with us, it was just insane to have that moment.”
Though he keeps strong ties to his community and his school, Trout can’t help but look toward the future. Come August, he will head to Wagner College on an academic scholarship. Accepted into the college’s Honors Program, he plans to pursue accounting and financial planning with a concentration in pre-law.
“I chose Wagner solely on academics,” said Trout. “It’s right outside New York City on Staten Island. I can travel into the city, get internships. Business internships in New York are incomparable, that’s the best you can get.
“Getting into the Honors Program was a big deal for me. I want that something extra for my resume. And the program is a good fit for me. I want to take some higher level classes and challenge myself.”
And while Trout selected his college for its academics and its ability to prepare him for his future, he also found a place where he can take his water polo game to the next level.
Though it was a real possibility, Trout was not ready to walk away from the pool just yet.
“I don’t think I was ready to give up water polo,” he said. “When I had the shoulder surgery, I didn’t know if I would play again. I was given a second chance, so I don’t want to give that up just yet. Academics drew me to Wagner, but water polo was a bonus. It’s everything I wanted.”
Trout will join the Seahawks’ program at its inception, as his freshman year will be the inaugural season for the school’s water polo program. And inaugural seasons often mean struggles and growing pains. Odds are that it will be a lot different from the successful seasons he has experienced at Souderton.
Odds are that Trout is looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s really cool to be able to come in with a totally clean slate and have fun and see what we can do,” he said. “We have a chance to do something special and I think the kids coming in know that. I’ve talked to some of the guys who will be on the team and they’re just as excited as I am. We’re going to have a chance to do things that no one’s ever done there. I’m ready to go for it.”
