Following a strong start to the season, the varsity boys water polo team had a league record of 5-5 as of the press deadline. Captain senior Jim Hollingworth leads the team in its fight to be among the top four teams within its tough league.

“[Jim] is our leading scorer right now and has been doing a great job leading this team,” head coach Seth Tasman said.

While Jim leads the team in scoring with 42 total goals, the team has seen players of all grades step up and work together.

“A lot of the teams in our league have one or two guys who just shoot the ball the entire time, but we try to play with everyone on the same level,” Tasman said.

The team’s cohesion and depth provides them with an offensive advantage.

“It is harder for other teams to try to shut down all of our players when we just have to shut down one or two of their players,” junior Nick Rodriguez said.

While the team has excellent chemistry, its biggest areas for improvement are its defense and communication. The team makes sure to prioritize defense during practice so that it is ready to take on any type of opponent.

“We do all different types of defense in practice, whether it’s a zone or man-to-man,” Tasman said. “We work on all types of scenarios so when we play each team in our league, we’re prepared.”

Besides defensive, the boys are working to improve their communication by taking time to scrimmage during practice.

“[Through scrimmaging,] we learn to communicate more in the pool and not be so dependent on the coach to tell us to run a play, drop off a player or defend a player,” Nick said. “We [learn to] do it ourselves.”

According to sophomore Eric Warmoth, the team has seen improvement in how it plays the game mentally. Because it is a younger team with a lot of depth, Tasman emphasizes that working together is crucial.

“Our coach encourages us by saying that if we work together as a team we will be much more successful than if we play individually,” Eric said.
This group-based mindset seems to have benefited the boys the most.

“Our biggest accomplishment this season has been finding a way to compensate for the fact that we’re a younger, smaller team,” Jim said. “We do that through smart, fast offense and cohesive team defense.”

According to Tasman, preparation is key for the team.

“We do a little scouting report [of our opponent] before every game so the kids always know who their shooters are and who their defenders are,” Tasman said. “A scouting report allows us to have every advantage we can get going into the game.”

Because their league is so strong in water polo, the top four teams automatically qualify for CCS.

“We’re just trying to get better every day and place in the top four so we get into CCS and then see what we can do from there,” Tasman said.