A test of mental strength, friendships and physical endurance, the water polo season has officially ended with two wins for the girls and none for the boys, but through loss comes experience and adaptability.

In the beginning, the team faced recruiting difficulties and continued to struggle in participation. Due to their size, they had few amounts of subs causing the same players to play the entire game.

“Even though we didn’t win a single game, we all knew we were gonna have a really hard season due to our district, but we knew that even if we didn’t win, we could win in a small way, like if we bonded together, if we had good plays,” William Westbo said. “We consider that as a win.”

This was Westbos, a junior, first year in water polo. He has had experience in sports teaching him the proper mindset when facing a loss or difficulty.

“I expected it to be hard, but I also was coming into the sport thinking I was gonna be really good at it at first, like not even having to practice.” Westbo said. “But I was humbled quickly, just by the absolute physicality of water polo. You have to have super endurance and be super humble to yourself. You have to be able to just be able to take consequences and make mistakes and still be fine with it.”

Practice started at 6:45 am and consisted of 300 freestyle swims with their head out of the water, egg beating, treading water and going forward and then backward, and then left to right, and that makes up 100 meters. The biggest help for Westbo was Salvador Krueger, a senior. He has immense experience of the game, and could completely change their plays to fit what the other team is blocking.

“He’s been a personal mentor to me,” Westbo said. “He’s almost been a father figure in the sport. Even whenever I’m not understanding anything, he’s perfectly explaining how to do it, which really helps me succeed this season.”

Krueger played water polo for four years, it encouraged him to be strong, put in more work in and out of the water, and provide more value to his team and coaches.

“Biggest improvement I saw on the team, first of all, the conditioning definitely, saw a big jump in endurance, and goal scoring ability,” Krueger said. “You know, I was very surprised, how quickly they learned how to egg beat and get their body out of the water. I was very impressed.”

He plans to continue playing in the future whether it’s for work or for a hobby. Besides himself, Krueger acknowledges Coleton Rodriguez to be an essential part of the team, both of the seniors assumed a leadership position for the team.

“He may not have the most perfect and amazing advice but not even I could, he brought integrity to the team and laid the ground rules, to help be disciplined, to show up to practice everyday, he helped the team have integrity,” Krueger said. “So I would say he was definitely a key factor in keeping the team together and not completely a mess. and i’m so grateful he stayed with us the whole season. He provided a lot of value to not just the players but set our coach up for success.”

On the girls’ side, they faced similar issues with team size and discouragement. Two year swimmer junior Faith Cole has a similar tactic when facing a loss as Westbo.

“I wouldn’t take it to heart,” Cole said. “I would understand that we’re in a really strange circumstance where we have such a small team, and I wouldn’t get frustrated or focus on it.”

While some took the loss worse than the others, they continued to work together and learned how to depend on each other. Now that the season is over, water polo is switching over to the swim team; which is more of an independent sport than team one.

“I really like swimming, and it’s almost like a meditation to me,” Cole said.”Just because you’re alone in the water, your head’s down, can’t hear anything, and you’re just focusing on the bottom of the bottom of the pool, your timings and just exactly what you’re doing.”