On Nov. 10, senior varsity water polo left-handed attacker, Kyle Thomas, announced that he was committing to Pepperdine University.  

He chose Pepperdine because he loved the familiar feeling of the campus and how the team felt like a second family. 

Thomas, who, after working hard and devoting his time to water polo and his academics, was fortunate to be able to narrow his options to four universities including USC, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Pepperdine.

After asking why he chose Pepperdine, Thomas replied, “I wanted to go to Pepperdine because, well, first off my brother went there, graduated from there, and I have a great connection with a bunch of guys who I know and I thought that it would be the best fit for me.”

On top of the family connection, Thomas likes Pepperdine’s strong academics, including its business program as well as their up and coming computer science program, which he may want to pursue outside of his water polo career.

Coming from Loyola High School, which focuses on strong community, Thomas was looking for a college equally stressed a strong student body connection. 

Thomas expressed the importance of choosing a school with a tight community by saying, “I like how much they embrace the family role and being a part of a team, and I really like being a part of something bigger, like a family.”  

Water polo runs in the family gene pool for Thomas. His dad played at the start of his freshman year and his older brother played in high school and continued in college. Thomas started at the young age of just seven years old and continued to play throughout his high school career. As a result of being a lefty, which is sought after in water polo, this earned him the position of left handed attacker. 

A proud LHS community congratulates Thomas on his success.