Auriel Bill definitely had some experiences to remember this summer.
The 17-year-old water polo star from Estevan spent the last few months with the Canadian youth team, travelling and playing internationally.
In between training stints in Montreal, the team competed in the Netherlands and also played in the Youth Pan American Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Aug. 23 to Sept. 1, where Bill and her teammates earned silver.
"It was awesome winning silver. It was like a whole different experience, training so hard all summer just to get to where we were," Bill said.
Canada lost 10-6 to the United States in the final on Aug. 31. Canada led 3-2 after the first period, but fell behind 5-4 at halftime. The U.S. added another goal in the third period, and while Canada scored two more in the fourth, the Americans countered with four of their own.
"After the first, we kinda let them take advantage of us so they started getting up on their scoring," Bill said. "We started playing, not poor defence, but not as good as it was. They're a big team with big girls, so we got pretty intimidated too."
Bill and her teammates went 4-1 in the round-robin, which put them in second place heading into the semifinal against Brazil, which they won.
"It was an awesome experience getting down there. It was different. We played lots of teams with different levels of ability."
Bill made Canada's starting lineup and was also relied on for leadership throughout the tournament.
"I was trying to keep girls engaged and make sure they have a positive attitude throughout the game, trying to keep everyone's spirits up," she said.
While in the Netherlands, most of the time was spent focused on water polo, which didn't leave much time for sightseeing.
"Our training facility was basically in the middle of a forest, but we got one day to go tour Amsterdam."
Bill's brother Brendon went through the same experience in 2012, going to the Netherlands with the national team before playing in the Pan-American tournament in Montreal. Auriel said she was thrilled to follow in his footsteps.
"My brother's basically my role model," she said. "I loved doing it. I love surprising people and going off for a whole summer and actually doing something other than sitting on the couch all summer.
"I'm only 17, so being able to do that right now is such a good experience. I get to travel all over the world playing the sport I love."
