Brittany Tait: Captain and MVP of Hartwick Water Polo

By Brittany Rohrssen~~ Oneonta, NY

Brittany Tait

Born in Kariong, Australia, Brittany Tait has led Hartwick's division 1 water polo team since coming to America for her freshman year at the university. She's not only captain of the team but she was also voted Team Most Valuable Player, ACWPC Honorable Mention All-American, and CWPA Honorable Mention in 2015. She got her start in 2005 when she played on the Woy Woy Wombats club team and then in 2010 joined the Hunter Hurricanes club team. She attended Henry Kendall High School where she was then accepted onto the New South Whales State team where she played for five years straight before coming to the states to play for Hartwick. 

Head Coach, Alan Huckins

The team consists of 15 girls from different countries all around the world. The girls all look to Brittany for guidance and leadership as the team captain. Teammate Michaela Davies commented, "She's a great captain actually, the girls really look up to her and she's not only a great player but she's a great leader." But it's not just her teammates that are bragging about her; her coach, Alan Huckins told me, "Brittany brings a lot of energy, she's the one on the team that's always moving and creating things, she's pretty much the quarterback in the water."

But how does this division 1 athlete manage all the responsibilities as captain while keeping up with schoolwork? Brittany is a business and sociology major at Hartwick. She's about to wrap up her senior year and has made it look nearly effortless to balance all her work and water polo responsibilities. Brittany told me, "the hardest thing about being here is the traveling; juggling schoolwork while traveling each weekend, it gets quite difficult." She also told me about how tough it was to leave her family for four years but she says she thinks she's grown as a person from this experience and that she wouldn't change it for the world. 

Hartwick Water Polo, 2015