Boys’ Water Polo Anticipates New Season

NATHANIEL GARCIA
Staff Writer

As students adjust to the new school year, many fall sports athletes, including water polo, are beginning their daily practices. The water polo team played their first preseason game against Gahr on Sept. 4, ending the game with a loss of 2-22.

For the past few weeks, the team has been preparing for the upcoming season and is now focusing on the problems that they need to fix, such as communication.

“We need to communicate more with each other […] I believe [that] we have been so apart throughout the summer that we have lost connection [shown in our] first game,” sophomore wing Brandon Wong said.

The team’s daily practices are held after school every day at 3:15. The bus transports them from AHS to the Alhambra Park Pool, where they are currently holding their practices. Once the coach arrives, the team gathers together and begins practice.

“[We] start off with swimming, and then go into treading, warming up our legs, following into [passing] and then a shooting drill. If we are lucky and if we have enough time, we do a little scrimmage at the end,” Head Coach Sarah Duran said.

As the team is physically preparing for the upcoming season, they have also been working on communication and becoming more unified as a team.

“The team’s main goal is just to get better, encourage each other, build a strong friendship and a strong team,” junior driver Daniel Lindley said.

Although their first preseason game didn’t necessarily go their way, the team had an optimistic mood for their first league meet.

Despite losing against Montebello on Oct 2 with a score of 1-22, the team is determined to progress for league.

“I feel that a lot of preparations and improvement will need to be made on our team before we are able to do [well] in games. Hopefully we will have surpassed our coaches’ expectations,” junior flat Wesley Han said.