Ransom Everglades’ Sabrina Shipley is the Miami-Dade Girls’ Scholar Athlete of the Year
While water polo has been a big part of Sabrina Shipley’s life, it’s only the beginning.
For Shipley, it’s always been important to balance academics and her love for the sport in which she’s excelled for the past eight years.
It’s a lesson she learned from a water polo icon and fellow Ransom alum - Olympian Ashleigh Johnson.
“I was never interested in going to one of the diehard schools for water polo because I wanted it to be part of my life, but along with my academics,” Shipley said. “That’s something I learned from (Johnson). She went to Princeton after she was done with high school because she wanted to get a good education and not just have a great career as a water polo player.”
Shipley has followed a similar career path throughout high school as next year she will also attend an Ivy League school when she begins to take classes at Brown University.
On the way, Shipley helped Ransom win a state title in 2019 and get back to the state tournament this season while finishing with 84 goals, 39 assists and 44 steals.
But even more impressive was the way Shipley did that while maintaining a 4.1 GPA and scoring a 1570 on her SAT and acing the ACT with a score of 36.
It’s why Shipley is the Miami Herald’s Girls’ Scholar Athlete of the Year for Miami-Dade County.
Johnson, the starting goalie on Team USA, came from that tradition and led the Raiders to multiple state titles. She has since often returned to her alma mater and helped out several aspiring players including Shipley.
“It’s been great to have her as a mentor or even a familiar face,” Shipley said. “She’s an incredible role model.”
Shipley, who said she wants to pursue a degree in applied mathematics, often watches Johnson and other players at the international level to pick up tips on how to improve her game.
“You pick up more than you might think,” Shipley said. “Seeing that they can make mistakes and still improve even at that level is the biggest thing because you know if you mess up you can learn and can improve.
Shipley began her playing career on Key Biscayne with the club Team Key Aquatics. Before long, she enrolled at Ransom and became part of one of the most successful programs in state history in the sport.
Shipley went on to earn Miami Herald first team water polo honors each of the past two seasons and second team honors in swimming. Shipley has also been selected to Team USA water polo’s Olympic Development Program and attended its national team selection camp. She has done all this while maintaining a 4.0 or higher unweighted GPA throughout all four years of high school.
“I’ve put so much energy and effort and thought into this sport over the past eight years so it’s incredible to be honored for that,” said Shipley, who is also the Herald’s Girls’ Water Polo Player of the Year. “It’s going to be a great opportunity both athletically and academically. Especially after COVID, how we all learned to cherish any chance we get to play the sport, to know I have four more years is awesome.”
