'I'm loving it right now': Cincinnati Mavericks big-cat captain makes splash at zoo school

Weekdays for Rachell Hemmila are simple: school, sleep, water polo, sleep and repeat. Only for this highly competitive, goofy high school junior, school isn’t just any high school.

Through Cincinnati Public Schools’ Hughes STEM High School, Hemmila is completing her junior year at the Zoo Academy located on the Cincinnati Zoo grounds.

Co-captain of the Cincinnati Mavericks water polo team and reigning Cincinnati Enquirer girls water polo player of the year, Hemmila wants to become a veterinarian, a dream that started even before she began playing water polo.

“When I was younger, apparently I followed the dog around on my knees. And I had holes in all of my pants from crawling around after the dog. So (my parents) were like, ‘Okay, I think we know what she wants to be.’”

After figuring out she wasn’t a dog, Hemmila found water polo at age 7 when she and her family were living in California. While there, Hemmila joined the Olympic Development Program with U.S.A. Water Polo in Irvine, California. Almost 10 years later, her father’s new job required the family to relocate.

“He got a job in the Midwest. So we're like, okay, Ohio is the farthest south we can get to get good water polo,” Hemmila said of her family’s journey to Cincinnati.

Ohio has good water polo and it also has the Zoo Academy.

Founded in 1975 and in partnership with Hughes since 2009, the Zoo Academy has 43 junior and senior students currently attending the program, pathway instructor Chris Edelen said. Each day, they participate in a mix of typical high school classes, hands-on learning opportunities in the zoo and specialized courses like horticulture science.

The Zoo Academy is one of the four tracks Hughes offers for its upperclassmen along with programs focusing on health, technology and engineering. The students who attend the academy graduate with a career tech diploma and have the chance to earn professional workplace credentials in several areas.

“Zoos are so few and far between. It's hard to get a consensus on what the skills should be,” said Edelen, whom the students call Mr. E, about discussions surrounding what kids in this program should master.

“So we use the construction skills because, you know, whether they're fixing an exhibit or working to build a crate or anything like that, those are skills that you use here at this zoo… They can get (up to) 12 workplace credentials and then we offer 12 credentials with our vet tech course. So they can get out of here with 24 credentials they can proudly display.”

In addition to English, math and workplace skills, each student at the academy is assigned a lab for the quarter that places them right in the middle of the action at the zoo. As a junior, Hemmila is in her first of two years at the zoo. For her first lab class, she was assigned to the ‘Night Hunters’ team.

“I work with the big cats, like the exotic cats. I get to feed them. I get to brush them. It's just an amazing experience,” she said.

Hemmila lights up when describing the cool and unusual things she gets to do at the zoo, a light that stays bright even as she talks about cleaning out the cougar enclosure and the mess that includes. That sense of wonder at their hands-on learning is present in a lot of the kids at the academy.

“It’s something I like a lot about coming here. Everyone’s excited and happy to be here. I like how it's not just so serious, you know. Sometimes we have fun and sometimes you have to be serious,” Hemmila said as she walked her normal route from the educational building to the big cat area last week.

Being excited and having fun are important things to Hemmila. In California she excelled in the hyper-competitive water polo scene, even earning an invitation to the national team selection camp as a goalie, but she didn’t always like her teammates’ priorities.

Having serious fun with the Mavericks

“All the team in California wanted to do was win, win and win, the coaches yelling at you all the time. So I'm so happy I have Elyse because she's the best. She doesn't yell at me or anything. Or, she yells at me, but she tells me what to do and what I'm doing wrong so it's nice.”

Elyse Spraul is equally grateful for Hemmila. She's a founding member and current head coach of the Cincinnati Mavericks, a water polo team comprised of girls from multiple Queen City high schools.

“Rachell came on basically when I kind of came on as a head coach. It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience for me because while I did have a swimming coach background, being a head coach for a water polo team was very new to me,” Spraul said when discussing Hemmila.

“Our comfort level with each other has just grown and grown. We have the ability to lean on each other. Like I trust her, she trusts me and mentally we know how to read each other… We've grown together the last three years.”

Spraul appreciates all the talent and hard work Hemmila brings to the Mavericks but always makes a point to mention that Hemmila likes to balance the fun with the work.

“She's a goofball. Like nobody wants that one player who just, it's just go, go, go, go all the time. But she's a goof in the water.”

Whether it’s drawing on mustaches with eye black for outdoor games or making her friends burst out laughing in the middle of class, Hemmila brings her goofy side to everything she does. Goofy antics aside, Hemmila never loses sight of how lucky she is to have found the Zoo Academy program.

“So my freshman and sophomore years I was at school, I hated it. I hated it so much, you know? But I'm like I gotta keep holding on. Then I went to the zoo (this year). I'm loving it right now. So loving it.”

Of course, even when you spend part of the day with big cats, some high school things never change.

The main hallway of the academy is lined with lockers and bulletinboards and squeaky tile floors. It feels like a regular school with kids rushing around to different rooms and grabbing stuff from their lockers.

There are little things, though, that show the uniqueness of the school.

“My locker. It's my backpack, books and stuff. Yeah. But I keep an extra shirt in here just in case. You never know what can happen, I came back from lab and my shirt had a lot of blood on it because I was feeding the vampire bats.”

Spending her days with vampire bats and big cats can be tiring but Hemmila just needs a quick cat nap before she’s ready to head to Mavericks practice. Hemmila has left her hyper-competitive days behind her but she still wants to do well. The Mavericks have finished second the last two seasons and are currently ranked No. 4 in Ohio with two weeks before the postseason.

The odds are stacked against the team this year as they are playing with the minimum roster size and no bench players to sub in. However, the Mavs have proved they can win big once already this season, taking out top-ranked Upper Arlington in September at the Ohio Cup.

The Mavericks play their last regular season game Wednesday, Oct. 4, at the West Carrollton Y.M.C.A. against Oakwood.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio water polo: Mavericks captain loving Cincinnati Zoo Academy