Goalkeeper Emma Marsh grew as a person during her 4 years at Marina High

Emma Marsh was a goalkeeper, not a driver, for four years on the Marina High School girls’ water polo team.

At home, however, Emma often drives around her older brother, Colby, or cooks for him.

Colby, who graduated from Ocean View High two years ago, was born with epilepsy. He has cognitive delays, Emma said.

“I drive him a lot of places,” she said. “Then, it’s just watching out for him, making sure he doesn’t leave the stove on or the fridge open. At this point, it’s not abnormal for me, because that’s been my whole life since I was born.”

Emma Marsh has been playing water polo for years, too. Her leadership at home translated well to the pool for the Vikings. As she gets ready to graduate on Thursday, her list of accomplishments is impressive.

Marsh made a CIF Southern Section single-season record 452 saves for the Vikings as a senior, helping them win the CIF Southern Section Division 6 title. It was Marina’s first CIF crown since 1998, three years before she was born.

Emma Marsh earned Wave League Female Athlete of the Year honors as a senior.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Marsh finished her four-year varsity career with 1,273 saves, which ranks second in the CIF record book. She spent two years as a team captain for coach Tamara Towgood and was voted this year’s Wave League Female Athlete of the Year.

“Leading by example is a huge thing for me,” Towgood said. “If you are doing exactly what you’re supposed to without complaining, that’s Emma to a T. When she would speak, she would use her words very wisely.”

Marsh was not vocal in the pool, but her leadership shined through, even in extracurricular activities. She volunteered with the Epilepsy Support Network of Orange County and for three years has been a date for Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine, a prom night for people with special needs ages 14 and older.

One of just three seniors on the team along with co-captain Makenna Reynolds and Rianne Gear, Marsh worked to build the girls’ water polo program. The Vikings went just 4-22 in Marsh’s sophomore year of 2017-18, Towgood’s first year as head coach.

“It doesn’t come naturally, that leadership stuff,” said Marsh’s mother, Temre, of Emma’s personality. “She’s naturally pretty introverted, so having her in that role as a freshman, it was hard for her at first. I think she just stayed true to who she was. She has a work ethic like no one else. She didn’t get it from me, that’s for sure. When something is expected of her, she just rises to the occasion. She’ll do what she needs to do to get there.”

Emma said she was just fortunate that her senior season was played to completion, with the Vikings advancing to the semifinals of the CIF Southern California Regional Division III tournament before losing 3-2 to Imperial Beach Mar Vista in sudden death.

Her favorite moment was winning the Division 6 title, 6-4 over La Cañada Flintridge Prep on Feb. 22 at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center. That was a Saturday morning that Marsh won’t soon forget.

“I’m so grateful that I got to end on such a good note,” she said. “It’s still not real. I don’t think any of us have actually accepted that we won CIF. That’s so far out of our mindset.”

With Marsh, it became a reality.

She said she plans to take some time off from water polo. She will be attending Orange Coast College next year to study nursing.

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