Morrigan Bushroe

Moving to Evanston the summer before her freshman year, Morrigan Bushroe knew that she was in for a slew of life changes throughout her time in high school. As a lifelong swimmer, one thing she especially didn’t anticipate doing at ETHS was taking on another sport. However, when Bushroe embarks on her journey at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., this fall, she will do so as a member of their women’s water polo team.

“I started playing water polo when I was freshman,” remarks Bushroe. “Mimi Herrick on the ETHS girls swim team was telling me about [water] polo, and I was iffy about it, but I tried my freshman year and really just loved the team.”

So if it weren’t for Herrick, a former varsity swimmer, varsity water polo player, Evanstonian editor and rising junior at the University of Colorado Boulder, it is possible that Bushroe never would have even started playing water polo at all. But once she did, it was the team aspect of the sport that really fostered her attachment to it.

“I’d always [done] swimming, but it’s really just like swimming for yourself,” Bushroe explains. “Just being in a team environment, I think, was a really nice change for me. And then I played Eastside over the summer after my freshman year, and I loved it too…I just heard [about] it through the grapevine, decided to try it out, and it stuck.

Through Eastside, Evanston’s local club water polo team, Bushroe has had opportunities to play all over the country; she’s been to Florida, North Carolina, Texas—you name it. In fact, it was on one of these trips where she met Ryan Castle, the Carthage women’s water polo head coach, and formed a bond that she credits with helping her make her college decision. 

“We had team dinners each night [of the trip] and him, and I would sit down and have dinner and talk about different adventures we’d go on. He’s such a genuine person,” says Bushroe of Castle. “[After] him helping us throughout that whole trip, I [realized] I really just liked his coaching style and how he bonds with the girls on the team, and so he was definitely a very big influence.”

Aside from playing water polo, Bushroe will also pursue a degree in Sports Medicine on route to becoming a physical therapist when she is at Carthage.