As a school record breaker, student-athlete and state stat leader there’s no doubt she’s a threat in the pool. She’s only a freshman on the women’s water polo team here at Cerritos College and her name is Jewels Longoria-Morasky.

It all started when she was just six months old and her mom decided to put her in the Hawaiian baby pageant where she ended up getting second place.

“Eventually she got me into the water and then ever since then I just loved the water,” said Longoria-Morasky.

She first started swimming at the age of six, took a break for a few years and then got back into it around the age of 10.

Her interest in water polo began when she turned 11 and she started playing in the city of Commerce at the Brenda Villa Aquatic Center until she was about 13 years old.

A few years later COVID-19 hit and a lot of athletes found themselves having to stop playing their sports because of the need to stop close contact but Longoria-Morasky didn’t let this stop her.

Her high school coach at the time, Devon Hunter, reached out to her and asked her to come play for his club team named CHAWP. She took him up on his offer and found herself loving the team and the sport itself.

Although she loved water polo at the time, she did a few other sports which included cheer, swimming and jiu-jitsu which she had to choose between these four.

She said, “It was like everything at once so my parents were like ‘Hey you know I think it’s time to really choose what sport you wanna do,’ so I chose polo so that was really my passion.”

Longoria-Morasky thinks choosing water polo turned out to be the best decision as she has accomplished so much while playing the sport.

In her first year here at Cerritos, she has become the only women’s water polo player with over 100 exclusions drawn. Her new set school record of 107 is also the most in the state.

She scored 109 goals which is the second most in school history and she ranks fourth in the state in this stat.

Her season high in goals scored in a single game is 12 which is just one off from the school record and she earned first-team All-South Coast Conference recognition.

She is very honored to have done so much in one year but is very humble and doesn’t forget to thank her mentors. She gives a huge thank you to the entire coaching staff here at Cerritos, especially Head Coach Sergio Macias.

“He’s always been the biggest mentor to me even though this is my first year but he was the main one that really got me to this point”, said Longoria-Morasky. “It’s a big honor because I mean it’s a huge accomplishment.”

Longoria-Morasky was very confident in herself to be able to come into college and perform this well by ranking top five in the state in four different statistics.

She said, “Yes, that was my biggest goal because even like throughout club, high school season I’ve had you know goals where I’m like ‘Hey like I wanna at least get top 20 in the nation for club.’”

Having these goals helps her keep that go-getter mentality, even though some achievements are collectively earned as a team she tells herself that she can do this and having a driven mindset fuels her.

“With those goals that helped me you know be self-motivated,” said Longoria-Morasky.

Her grand achievements this year at Cerritos aren’t the only ones she’s earned in her life as she has quite a few from her high school days.

She went to Diamond Bar High School from freshman to junior year and created a name for herself at the school.

She earned the All-League MVP award as well as made the third-team All-CIF recognition as a freshman. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to compete her sophomore year due to COVID-19, but she made sure to come back her junior year and do what she does, break another record.

She set the school record of 13 goals in a single game, earned first-team All-League recognition and was part of the team league championship.

“My junior year was the first year that I scored 13 goals [in a single game],” said Longoria-Morasky.

She then transferred schools and spent her senior year at La Serna High School where she continued to collect these recognitions. She earned first-team All-League and second-team All-CIF recognitions as well as helped her team to a league championship.

The change from the high school level to the college level can be scary and intimidating but Longoria-Morasky had a smooth transition.

She adapted greatly to the Cerritos team and created good chemistry with the coaches and the rest of the team.

She is a woman of many accolades and does it all while maintaining a GPA of over 3.5.

This along with staying in shape throughout the years and playing in the Junior Olympics, which is the biggest tournament you could play in for water polo has been some of her best achievements as well.

Longoria-Morasky plans to continue her education and play water polo for Cerritos for her second year of college but she has plans to move on to a four-year college soon, hopefully a division one school.

She said, “Either Cal Baptist, Azusa Pacific University, or Biola because they’re Christian schools.”

Either of these schools would be ones she’s interested in because they’re Christian since faith is a huge part of who she is.

She is majoring in nursing so she is unsure about playing at a higher level due to the workload that will be put on her.

“I’m still deciding because nursing is really hard and a lot of schools will not recommend a sport and doing nursing at the same time because of how competitive it is,” said Longoria-Morasky.

By having faith in God she says he helps her in prayer throughout difficulties whether it’s water polo or school.

“The power of prayer is really strong and just having that and praying every single game,” she said, “That helps me and builds my confidence.”

The amount of work put on her this semester has been one of her biggest challenges this year.

She said, “Even throughout school and struggles in classes, trying to find the balance of homework, coming home late from practice and still doing stuff at home was a big challenge too.”

She had to give herself little pep talks to get through these moments, as well as rely on her parents for their constant support.

“My parents obviously can’t forget them, without them, I wouldn’t be who I am today and being the person that always has a smile on her face,” said Longoria-Morasky after giggling.