By Summer Stamates
Athletic Communications Student Assistant

Growing up in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Eric Martel surrounded himself in a variety of sports including swimming, rugby, water polo, and of course, hockey. It occurred to him that many guys would grow up to play hockey competitively and that was the typical norm to follow. Realizing the quantity and intense competition, Martel decided to pave his own path and follow his passion of playing water polo.

"Hockey and water polo were the last two sports I played and the older I got the more I realized I had to make a decision of which sport I wanted to pursue," Martel said. "Weighing my options, I knew I could go a lot farther in water polo and it would help me advance in life more as a person."

Martel started playing water polo at a young age and admitted to hating the sport. After leaving it behind and coming back to it two years later when he was nine, he realized he had a new appreciation for the game. "It changed my perspective for the sport; I was playing under different coaches and being older I started to enjoy the game". Martel went on to play developmentally until sophomore year of high school when he started to play competitive ball.

Q: Starting to play a competitive sport your sophomore year of high school is "late in the game" in today's sport culture, how did you feel about this?
A: Yes, it was late in the game, but I was pretty good as a young player and my hard work ethic helped me to make that transition between developmental to competitive.

Q: Sophomore year you started playing competitively and went to the Pan American Games the summer going into Senior year, that's a pretty quick turn around, can you explain that experience?
A: I developed a lot as a player and could tell after one summer I kept getting better and better. After I quit hockey I had a lot more time to focus on water polo. I went from playing water polo 2 hours a week to practicing 7-10 hours a week. All the extra time I put into it really helped me advance in the sport.

Q: At what point did you realize you were good enough to play water polo in college and was it ever a childhood dream?
A: It was a bit of a dream of mine after I played the first year with my junior national team. I didn't know if I could even make it, I tried out on a whim and after making it and having that experience it was very eye-opening and made me realize I could do something with this.

Q: What ultimately made you choose UC Davis as a university compared to other schools?
A: It was really how close the team was and how close [head coach] Dan [Leyson] was to the team. On my other recruiting trips, I was only introduced to the younger guys but when I came here the entire team reached out to me and was really welcoming and I liked that aspect of it.

Q: Is being a student-athlete here at UC Davis what you expected it would be?
A: It is, I knew it would be tough, but it's definitely tougher than I thought, especially trying to balance everything. Water polo really helps me keep on schedule with that. The hardest part is being mentally tough and telling yourself you have to go to everything and put your all into it. You have to tell yourself that this is all a good thing and worth it in the long run; it's going to pay off it, it's going to help with a lot of things in the future

Being one of the few Canadians playing NCAA water polo, Martel feels somewhat of a leader to his community back home. After signing with UC Davis and having an outpouring of support from his community, Martel says the most important aspect of following his dream was to not only put in the hard work within his sport, but as well as in the classroom. He acknowledges his dream wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for his grades.

Not only does he hope to have a future playing water polo in Europe, but he hopes to live out his dream of managing a vineyard in France. As a chemical engineering major, he has always enjoyed chemistry. "I had a teacher in high school who really made me passionate about the subject; I want to make wine. I think it would be cool to go into viticulture; I met a few guys on the team on my recruiting trip who were in the viticulture program and I learned a little more about it. I love chemistry so I think I would like to switch majors after this quarter and try to do viticulture."

In just a short amount of time, Martel is quickly making a name for himself in the water polo community. With 24 goals and 21 drawn exclusions so far in his first season here at UC Davis, we hope to see big things ahead of him in the future. UC Davis is currently 19-4 overall and ranked eighth nationally; its highest position in almost a decade. With his passion for the game and hard work, Martel will help contribute to one of the best Aggie teams in program history.