With practices running late into the evenings and having to adjust to three different pools, the boys’ water polo team has had endured it all.
Since it was started in 2012, the team has been plagued with setbacks. The sport has never had more than 25 people turn out and have even had their swimsuits banned. Despite these challenges, many people do not know how physically demanding the sport really is.
In the last three years, members of the team have advertised at lunch and put up posters around school in order to promote themselves. They take the extra effort to advertise themselves because the teams feels that they lack the recognition they deserve.
One of the team’s founding members, junior TJ Marchello, is a firm advocate for promoting the team and often finds that the largest obstacle to helping the team grow is lack of recognition.
“We don’t have the win-loss record like the swim team. we aren’t as popular as football, so no one talks about us the morning after a game,” Marchello said.
In spite of these problems the team has managed to find positives in their small numbers. As the team is smaller than most, with 15 players, the members are able to form stronger bonds with each other. Marchello says that he knows every member by name, which is a feat that he cannot perform while he is on the swim team, which has 35 swimmers.
Regardless of the team’s small numbers this year, it has not stopped them from greatly improving. Junior captain Charles Surdyk says they are taking many more shots on goal and scoring a lot more than they have in their last two seasons. These gradual improvements are the product of the team’s serious attitude, hard work and dedication during practice. When practicing, Surdyk’s most important goal for himself and the team as a whole is to stay positive and keep the team motivated.
“Even if we’re down 10-1,” Surdyk said, “we’ll celebrate and focus on that one goal and we’ll talk about what we did right during practice the next day.”
