Alys Wiliams' path to the National Team began at Newport Beach Water Polo Club where her father coached her. Alys comes from a water polo background as her dad played in college at Long Beach and was in the National Team pipeline. When Alys first started playing, she didn't enjoy water polo, but eventually she came around to love it: "It was freezing cold, and I wasn't very many pounds at 8 years old. Also, my sister kept on hitting me on the head with the ball, so I only wanted to do the warmup and then get out once the balls came out. I don't know why I ended up sticking with it, but I ended up loving it."
 
Alys played at the Newport Beach club with her older sister who was two years her senior. Her younger sister—by three years—also played and ended up competing at Sonoma State while Alys' older sister stopped playing in high school. Alys switched to the Huntington Beach Water Polo Club when she started high school because she attended Edison High School. Reflecting on her club experience she says, "I have really fond memories of that team because that's kind of where I fell in love with the sport and decided to stick with it, and then at Huntington Beach  I grew the most in my water polo career obviously. I was coached by my dad at Newport, which is great, and at Huntington I was coached by Natalie Benson who had been on the National Team, so I think having her as my mentor and idol helped me get into college. That's where I kind of decided, 'Oh, I can really finish through at Huntington and go to college for water polo maybe—and even play for the National Team!' So that's where I really started believing in myself and my abilities in the pool."
 
On her career at Edison High School: "Going into high school, that's when I kind of chose water polo. I quit all my other sports. I was playing basketball and soccer as well and decided to focus on water polo." From the beginning she was on the varsity team and noted that it was "really intimidating. I was the only freshman on varsity, and I was playing with all these girls who were looking to play collegiately and were really good. It was me and three other girls who were brand new. One was a transferred senior and one was a transferred sophomore, so I was like the only baby on varsity, but I quickly bonded with a bunch of those girls, and I really enjoyed playing with them." 
 
Her top moment in high school? "My sophomore year was one of my favorite years. I had some really cool connections with a bunch of the girls, and it felt like a really nice flow, and we all got along really well, so that was a great year." Although her team wasn't at the top, it did make the CIF playoffs, and Alys also had a great time with her teammates: "I had a lot of fun. We had some seniors like Danielle Warde who went to University of California, Irvine and played on the National Team for a little bit, and then we had some freshmen who came in who were really fun to play with."
 
While she was in high school Alys became interested in playing collegiate water polo—especially for UCLA. "It's a funny story, actually. I grew up in Huntington but spent most of my childhood in Newport Beach. I did junior guards in Newport Beach and played water polo in Newport Beach, so I was always around that area, and there was a girl who was a lifeguard at Newport, and I don't know if she was a junior at the time, but my dad was chief lifeguard in Newport Beach, so I was always around those people. Her name was Jenna Murphy, and she played water polo at UCLA, and she used to babysit my sisters and me. I idolized her! She was like my favorite person all the time, and when I went to high school, I joined Huntington Beach, and Natalie was the coach there, and she also went to UCLA, so I had all these really strong female athletes I looked up to who played water polo at UCLA. I didn't know if I was good enough to make it there, but my freshman year of high school my English teacher had us write down long-term goals, and my goal was to go to UCLA. I was like, 'I don't care if I'm there playing water polo or because of my grades, but I want to be at UCLA.' I think it was probably my sophomore year when I started getting letters, and my junior year I started going to Junior Days. I was like, 'Wow, I can really do this.' And that's kind of when they started showing interest in me." 
 
While at UCLA Williams made several NCAA championship appearances, but that wasn't her top moment: "The rivalry between UCLA and USC was probably one of my most favorite games to play in every year, both at USC and UCLA. I think it's a really cool display of athleticism, and I really respected the girls at USC, and think those games were always really fun and got the whole school involved and not just the water polo athletes—so those games were probably my favorites."
 
Williams' first National Team experience was trying out for zones now called ODP. The first year she didn't make it: "I played for the SOPAC zone team, and it was pretty intimidating. A lot of girls I played against and with were really talented, and this was also early on, so I didn't know if I was going to pursue water polo in college or after. So, it's hard to stay motivated, especially if I wasn't making teams. But when the Zone tournament and the National Team selection camp came along, I didn't make it that the first time. I thought, 'This is dumb. I don't want to do this anymore.'" 
 
But Alys' dad and mom convinced her to give it one more shot, telling her "if you do it again, and you don't like it, great. Don't do it. But you won't know if you don't try." As a result she returned the next year and made the team: "Making the team wasn't the only thing that kept me going, but it obviously was really encouraging to make that National Team selection camp, and that led to my first-ever youth team trip, which was in Hungary with Kyle Kopp as the coach."
 
Williams was first called up to the Senior National team in the fall of 2013 as she recounts, "There were these training practices at Mira Costa High School, and Adam [Krikorian] needed more bodies, so I was like, 'This is my chance.' I'm not sure if that was the full training team, but this was my first opportunity to practice with those girls and obviously practice in front of Adam. Then December 2013 was my first Holiday Cup that I played; there were like 15 or 16 girls who rotated through rosters, so that was pretty exciting as my first-ever experience with the National Team in 2013."
 
Williams' first major FINA competition was the 2014 FINA World League Super Final followed by the 2014 FINA World Cup. "The summer of 2014 was my first real year with the National Team, with the World League Super Final and World Cup. It was fun obviously and intimidating. I was one of the youngest and newest members of the team. There was kind of a group of new people on the team, because a lot of girls retired after 2013, so there was a bunch of new people, but it was really scary and really exciting at the same time."
 
What did she learn from her experience? "It was really cool learning from the older girls obviously; I was so young, and I just wanted to emulate everything the older girls were doing. I roomed with Annika Dries at the World League Super Final in 2014, and she was so calm and collected and mature, and she was really nice and outgoing at the same time, so I remember looking up to her and wanting to carry myself like she did. Playing on a big stage was really exciting, but more than that, just being around these girls who've already been to the Olympics and knew how to carry themselves and knew who they were and knew the values they live by, and I just wanted to be like them. So that rubbing off on me was probably the biggest thing I gained from those tournaments."
 
Growing up William enjoyed watching the National Team and looked up to the players on the Women's Team. "I watched the 2012 Olympics. That was right after my senior year of high school and before going to college, and I remember looking up to those girls. I didn't know too much about them individually, but one person who stood out was Kami Craig. I thought she was just the coolest most badass player I'd ever seen play, and she was probably my favorite player to watch in the pool. She stands out to me a lot in that tournament, so I remember watching, and it was really exciting, and I was excited for the USA in general since I'd played on youth teams before. I felt connected to them, and Kami especially stood out to me. I thought, 'Wow! I want to be like her! She's really cool."
 
During college Williams didn't have any plans to play abroad after graduation, but during her senior year a travel trip to Spain changed her mind: "The summer before my senior year we got to go to Spain as a team to practice and play a little, but it was more for the experience of traveling with the team and bonding after a bunch of us took a year off. I remember walking around that city and thinking if I were ever to play abroad, it would be here. It's the coolest place I've ever been. I really liked it there. We got to play some of the club teams where water polo is really good. I made up my mind years prior that I wasn't going to go abroad, but once I was there my senior year, I was like, 'Maybe I can see myself doing this, and if I did, it would be here.' So I kind of talked it out with my family and my boyfriend at the time, who is now my fiancé. We'd been dating for a really long time, and I was like, 'I'm going to go abroad. I'm going to do this thing. I've got to go for it.' My family was encouraging as well, so I was like, 'Okay, I can't pass this up.' And I reached out to a bunch of teams, and actually only one team in Spain responded right away, so I was like, 'Let's go.' It was kind of a last-minute decision my senior year, but I was really inspired by that trip we took, so I wanted to do it."
 
Williams only played one season with CN Sant Andreu and had a great experience there: "We were a pretty young team. There were a bunch of girls who played for the Spanish Junior Team, and a couple of them were training with the Senior Team but were pretty young, and then I had a teammate who was on the Dutch National Team—and still is—and another American who played at Stanford. We had a pretty well-rounded team, but I had a lot of fun. I wasn't expecting to, but I was just immersing myself into a different style of water polo. I came in wanting to learn. I obviously had years and years of experience, but they played completely differently. I had a new coach and was surrounded by different teammates, so I didn't want to come in assuming the way that I'd played was the right way, so I came in just wanting to learn, and I learned a lot about their different style of play." 
 
While with the club Williams learned a lot and experienced great success. "We actually got second in the Spanish league, so that was really exciting. There was Sabadell which was filled with the entire Spanish National Team, and Kiley Neushul also was there. They were really good. We lost to them in the finals, but my experience was really positive, and I feel like I learned a lot and got along really well with all the girls."
 
The Women's National Team began 2020 with a three-game exhibition series against Australia and followed that with another quick trip to the Netherlands. Recalling the trip, Alys says, "It was good. I think we were working through a bunch of kinks. Australia was a big moment for us. They're one of the best teams in the world, and we came out firing, and I think that we struggled a little bit, but I think it was the best wake-up call we could have had, and we learned a lot that trip. Obviously we've been successful the past few years, but we lost that one game in Australia, and that opened our eyes to a lot of mistakes we were making and things we needed to improve, and obviously losing sucks, but I think we learned a lot from that loss, and going into Holland we wanted to be better and use that loss and not forget it. We wanted to learn from it and be better because of it, so all and all I felt we did that. It wasn't a perfect game, but we were starting to improve from that Australia loss and learned our lessons and got a little bit better. As a result, the Holland trip felt a little more cohesive and a little bit stronger than the Australia trip, but I felt like we were making some pretty big strides right before everything got shut down."
 
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the Women's National Team paused training, so the individual athletes had to work out at home. But recently they resumed training. And what has she been doing to stay in shape? "There'sa community pool where I live, and it's not very big, and it's not good for swimming. It takes me like four and a half to five strokes to get across the pool! But it does have a deep end where I'm able to egg beater and pass and do some drills with the balls, and that's nice. I just kind of have to time it right where nobody else is using it, which is the hard part because it's been so hot out lately that a lot of my neighbors use it. But mostly I've been doing lots of strength training and dry land, lots of running, and I've been getting into yoga and stuff like that on land, just to stay fit, to be ready for the next time we have a pool available to once training starts up again." 
 
On what she'd like to focus on when training resumes, Alys says, "I think that it's going to be really important to reconnect with each other. Obviously, it's been a long time. We've had some calls and Skype sessions, but it's not the same as being together and in the water together, and I think getting back and reconnecting is important. We need to get our fitness back to where it was, which might take a while. We have to give ourselves a grace period during that process, but I'm really excited to get back in the pool with my friends and just pass the ball and reconnect in person rather than on video chat."
 
With the Olympics postponed until 2021, Williams isn't setting too many expectations: "For this coming year I think it's important to not have that many expectations. We're going to have to be really available and just be open to change and movement and adapt to whatever comes our way because this is a very unprecedented time. Nobody really knows how to handle what's going on. We just have to go with the flow. Obviously, it's a bummer the Olympics got postponed, but we're trying to figure out what's best for the team, what's best for ourselves, and what we need in this process. I want to go into this year like I did last year: focused, ready to go, and willing to do whatever it takes to make the team."
 
Lastly Williams offers advice to those hoping to make the National Team someday:
"I think it's important to be willing to do whatever it takes. I think there's a need for that on the National Team or on any team to be honest. We need people who are willing to put themselves out there and try new things and be open to new experiences. It's a grind, but it's worth the grind, and it's worth all that hard work you put in. So just be open to new experiences and don't be afraid to get down and dirty and do things you're not comfortable with—and work really hard because in the end that's how the whole experience becomes worth it."