The reigning 2012 water polo state champions have started their regular practice routine on February 19th, weeks before actual tryouts.
There are five seniors on the team: Chandler Klemm, Nick Klemm, Grant Keesling, Eli Harris and Josh Emde. The captains are currently undetermined but Chandler Klemm has been one for the past three years.
“This year, we want to focus more on protecting the ball. It was evident in the previous seasons that we also needed to spend more time working on our defense. We are determined to maintain our past records and earn another state title,” Chandler Klemm said.
The teams’ rivals include SLUH and MICDS. In 2012, West defeated SLUH in the state championship game to take home the gold. However, the following year, West fell to MICDS to receive third in state.
“We are hoping that we can defeat our rivals. This is my last year along with the other seniors and we want to make it memorable,” Harris said.
The team practices six times a week. Everyday after school there is practice from 2:50 to 4:45 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is morning practices from 5:45 to 6:45 a.m. In addition, there is lifting three times a week as well as Saturday morning practices from 9 to 11 a.m.
“Our biggest goal is to obviously win state. We know we can do it we just need to put in the hard work,” Keesling said.
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