Swimming through the water, past the 5-meter, you take a glance back behind you. The bright yellow ball plops directly in front of you and you continue on your way to get closer to the goal. As you keep swimming, people catch on and you have to pull them off. Once close enough, you pop and shoot a perfect
corner shot. This excellent moment has happened many times for the SLV Boys Water Polo teams.
This season, both Varsity and Junior Varsity proved their ability to be the best they could be. For Varsity, virtually all new players who went the higher league adapted well to the tougher gameplay. Additionally, the new players on Junior Varsity learned to play well.
The Varsity team is still going and has many more games and responsibilities than the younger team. They had some good wins against Alvarez, but lost to Hollister, one of the best teams in the league.
A Varsity starter, Austin Pina, has loved the experience of the season: “The intensity of play has been hard, but well worth it.” Austin is particularly skilled at defence and stealing.
The last playoff game was in heavy rain, and was highly contested. The game went into overtime and the final score was 10-8 against Monterey. SLV lost, but it was a battle till the end, and the team put up a good fight.
Junior Varsity team captain, Sophomore Jacob Lion, comments on how they did throughout the year: “The next generation of players really did well this year, and
learned exceptionally quick.” Everybody is still excited for next year because the Freshman look like a fierce team.
Both levels of the Boys Water Polo program experienced a fun and fulfilling year with all looking forward to next season.
By Joshua Forst
The Claw 