Miller-Morgan wins U16 Eastern Nationals

Skawennahawi Miller-Morgan, 14, and the Capital Wave water polo club took home the U16 Eastern National Championships in Toronto, defeating the Shadow Water Polo Club 12-8 to do so.

Miller-Morgan had a hat-trick for the Wave, something her mother, Olympic water polo player Waneek Horn-Miller, said is a huge accomplishment when you are a high-calibre player as the defense will be focused on stopping you.

“If you are getting double-teamed, you’re doing your job. That opens up someone else. The fact that she got a hat trick, even though they knew she’s one of the top players and top shooters on that team, that made me really proud of her,” said Horn-Miller.

Both of Miller-Morgan’s parents – Horn-Miller and Olympic judoka Keith Morgan – were in Toronto to watch their daughter win with the Wave, filling both of them with pride in how far she had come as an athlete.

“I said to her before she started the tournament, ‘I just want you to walk away from this tournament making yourself proud. Whatever happens out there, me and your dad will be proud of you. I want you to leave it all out there,’” said Horn-Miller.

Even without the hat trick, Miller-Morgan did just that, providing veteran leadership for the team at just 14 years of age.

“She played the most out of all her teammates, like almost every second of every game, in the big games. In the easier games, she got a bit of more of a break, but she played, and that said to me that the coaches had a lot of faith in her to be  a backbone, play defense, just be that solid player that you need in the water,” said Horn-Miller.

In the eyes of her mother, Miller-Morgan has grown a lot as a player recently, getting the most out of her experience and knowledge of the game, combined with her physicality and her ability to outmaneuver – and outwrestle – opponents.

She added that her daughter has also played like a top player on her team, meaning “the buck stops with her.”

“She’s figured out that water polo is an imperfect game, meaning there’s no such thing as a perfect situation, a perfect game,” said Horn-Miller. “She would tend to kind of sit back and wait for the perfect situation or defer to someone else. She has recognized that she is the one with the hardest shot, she is the one with one the best shots for her age group in the country.”

Even with Miller-Morgan playing like a top-level talent, the Wave did not just win because of her; it was a total team effort.

“The goals didn’t just come from our top three players. They came from everybody, which says to me that they really were a team in every sense of the word. That’s a beautiful thing to watch,” said Horn-Miller.

As her children continue to grow in the sport of water polo and gain new experiences - her 12-year-old son Shonakarakehte has also embraced the sport at a high-level - Horn-Miller has found herself relating more and more to her own mother’s experience watching her play when she was in her children’s shoes.

“One of the hardest things I’ve discovered is being a parent of an athlete. When you’re an athlete and you’re in it, you have some sense of control. When you’re a parent, you have no control. It is so hard to sit there by the sidelines,” said Horn-Miller.

“I have so much more respect for my mother and all those parents out there that literally have to remain calm and seem very stoic for their kids, but meanwhile, inside, there is a storm brewing of fears and excitement.”

Miller-Morgan will compete for Team Ontario in July at Jean Drapeau Park, before doing something a little less stressful than more provincial team trials: playing a tournament in Hawaii.

“There’s a lot of pressure for her as a kid. So, I said, let’s just go do something fun. She was invited to play with a team in Hawaii, so that’s what she is going to do, get playing experience, get coached by somebody else, and have a good time,” said Horn-Miller.

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