DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:Newport’s Roberts has no fear

Newport Harbor High senior Sarah Roberts has seen it come full circle.

She said she remembers when she was a timid freshman girls’ water polo player for the Sailors. In practice, she would have to guard standouts like Carolyn Conway, Anne Belden and Melissa Wheeler, now at USC, UCLA and Cal, respectively.

“I was scared to death,” she said.

But the encounters also provided inspiration for Roberts, as did older sister Katie, who also played for Newport Harbor before graduating in 2005.

“I wanted to be like them,” Sarah Roberts said. “They’ve been so successful. I wanted to follow in their footsteps.”

As a team captain for the Sailors, it’s Roberts who now provides that kind of leadership. She did it again on Dec. 21, when she scored three goals in Newport Harbor’s 6-5, come-from-behind win against rival Corona del Mar.

It appears that she’s been a two-meter player all her life. But, as recently as last season, Roberts was a two-meter defender for the CIF Southern Section Division I champions.

Coach Bill Barnett said he wasn’t surprised that she could easily make the transition.

“She has one of the most important positions on the team, and she’s working extremely hard to continue improving at that position,” Barnett said. “She’s never satisfied. She’s always wanting to improve.”

The same was true on those days in her freshman year. Roberts continues to keep those experiences in mind, even as she will eventually prepare to play for the University of Michigan, which she committed to in November.

“Every senior on the team has to be a leader,” she said. “We’ve gone through it longer than the younger girls. We all have to be role models and show our dedication to the sport. We have to be really big motivators to the younger girls. Even if they’ve had a bad day, they know they can get a boost from an older senior.”

In a sport that relies plenty on teamwork, it’s important that Roberts and her teammates have confidence in each other. A two-year starter on a team that starts more juniors than seniors, she said class doesn’t really matter for the Sailors.

“I play set, so I do see everything that’s happening,” she said. “Maybe I’m a leader in helping [teammates] out on offense. But everyone on the team has my back. If I screw up, one of the girls will help me out, and vice versa.

“I’m the most vocal in the water, but I don’t know if that’s helpful or not,” she added with a laugh.

Roberts said she has been swimming “since I could walk,” but she didn’t start playing water polo until seventh grade in the Newport junior program.

Over the years, it has become increasingly harder to drag her out of the pool.

“When you become a water polo player, it becomes addictive,” Roberts said. “You have two families, the family at home and the family at the pool deck.”

There’s another phrase for that: hard work.

“Even if she scores 10 goals in a game, she wants to improve,” Barnett said. “She has a great attitude.”

Roberts will be taking her skills to Michigan next year, where she will be reunited with Leah Robertson, the 2006 CIF Southern Section Division I Player of the Year.

“Oh my God, I love Leah,” Roberts said. “She’s been a really big influence on me. Last year she helped me out a lot, especially with guarding set and playing set.”

The first day Sarah Roberts sets foot in Ann Arbor, the cycle will begin again. First, she has her senior year of high school to worry about.

But defending the Sailors’ Division I title isn’t really on her mind yet.

“That’s a long way away,” said Roberts, who will play today with the Sailors in the semifinals of the Holiday Cup at 10:40 a.m. against Foothill at Newport Harbor. “Right now, we have the Holiday Cup. You just have to take it one game at a time … We play a lot better when we’re more relaxed and not so tense.”

A certain senior leader is always there to make sure of that.