Childs after Boys’ Water Polo practice.
Since picking up water polo at age seven, Boys’ Varsity Water Polo Captain Chris Childs ’24 has been on a roll.
This past summer, Childs made the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association’s (NISCA) High School All-American Water Polo Honorable Mention list. He also gained All-NEPSAC recognition at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 fall season and contributed to a fourth-place finish at New England Championships for Boys’ Water Polo.
Childs started playing water polo at a young age with the influence of his mother, Boys’ and Girls’ Water Polo Head Coach Katie Childs ’95 P ’24 ’26. Coach Childs began her water polo journey when she was a student at Choate, eventually becoming a member of the Junior and Senior National Teams.
Childs’s commitment to water polo is year-round. In the summer, he trains rigorously with his club team, CT Premier, four times a week. During the winter term, Childs maintains his fitness as the captain of the boys’ swimming team. He has also was a manager for Girls’ Varsity Water Polo in the spring.
Though Childs typically plays hole set at Choate, a position in the center of the goal typically given to the team’s strongest player, he plays different positions with his club team. This has shaped him into a versatile player who is an asset to his team anywhere in the pool.
Inspired by American water polo legend Tony Azevedo, who was number eight in the pool, Childs also dons a number-eight cap.
Before each game, he practices a well-crafted ritual to set himself up for success. Childs starts by focusing on stretching and body activation to prepare for the physical toll of the game. To get in the right frame of mind, he listens to music before departing the bus on away games.
Not everything has gone swimmingly in Childs’s journey. When he was 15, Childs experienced a significant ramp-up in the physicality of the sport. “The level of intensity really changed. It went from a little bit of contact to a lot of contact with kicking, grabbing and pulling,” he said. “I’ve gotten my fair share of bruises and scrapes since then, but definitely the biggest challenge was adjusting to the level of physicality.”
Childs aspires to play water polo at the collegiate level. “It’s been such a big part of my life for so long,” he said. “I’ve really just grown to love it, and the challenges, hard games, and practices make you better. The rush you get after finishing a hard practice is really worth it.”
