These Days, Jackson Not Water Resistant

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Bathing was not among Jeanine Jackson’s favorite childhood tasks.

Fortunately, there was an alternative.

“My mom told me if I joined my sister’s swim team, I wouldn’t have to take as many showers a week,” said Jackson, a junior at Harvard-Westlake High.

“Being about 5 years old, that sounded great.”

Today, Jackson gracefully accepts showers of praise as one of the top high school female water polo players in the nation.

“She has great mobility and great end-to-end speed,” said Coach Rich Corso of Harvard-Westlake. “And she has a real gift for shooting right now.”

Jackson, 16, who last month was chosen to the U.S. Junior National team, quickly developed into an excellent swimmer while competing for a youth club team in Studio City.

She was also very active in team sports at school.

“In elementary school, I was always the girl playing with the guys . . . and [I was] always one of the top three people picked,” she said. “Never the last one chosen. And when I was, I always showed them up.”

While she enjoyed swimming, it didn’t compare to the fun she experienced playing basketball and football with her school buddies.

When Jackson enrolled at Harvard-Westlake in the eighth grade, she realized what she was missing in swimming: a ball, both literally and figuratively.

“She was destined to play a sport with a ball,” Corso said. “She’s got wheels on land and I think she would have had some success in soccer or basketball. She has a knack for seeing things as they develop.”

Water polo was a perfect fit for Jackson, a 5-foot-3, 135-pound driver and the Wolverines’ top scorer. The sport provided her with the teamwork and personal challenge she yearned for.

“Ever since I was little, I dreamed of swimming in the Olympics,” Jackson said. “But now that I see it is actually possible to play in the Olympics, it’s something I am really striving for.”