Haley Tiepelman

JV water polo huddles around coach Brian Welch discussing plays on April 26.

The water polo teams have risen from being just a name on the walls to a name heard in the halls. Varsity is undefeated in league play and JV has five wins, three losses and one tie.

“I think having a winning record in any sport, especially when some of the other sports are not competing in the same way we are, draws attention to the sport. There are a lot of state banners for water polo and the games are really fun to go to for fans,” JV coach Brian Welch said.

The team’s goal is to go be top four in the area and go to state. JV is striving to make it in the top eight at districts to be allowed in the top pool.

“We have a lot of good communication going on in our team and we all really understand the game and what’s going on when we are in the water and that has really helped,” sophomore Caroline Casey said. “We have morning practices Tuesdays and Thursdays and we swim a lot. I think that it puts us above everybody else.”

Most JV players began the season without ever playing water polo. The progress they have made throughout the season has impressed Welch.

“The thing with water polo is many people haven’t ever touched a water polo ball before their freshmen year of high school. This year we had three or four kids who have actually played, whether it was at a summer camp or an actual program, so I was able to progress a bit faster than we usually do,” Welch said. “For the first couple of weeks we are usually just learning the basics and then by our first game we are still struggling to get along the concepts. This year they’ve actually gone a lot faster and it was nice.”

On April 12 varsity lost their first game of the season at the Desmet Invite tournament in Chicago, Illinois, finishing third.

“There were 25 teams at the Desmet Invite.  We played a team named Fenwick, from Illinois, who was the best. We lost by three points, and then they played SLU. SLU lost by six points, so that was nice because SLU is our rivals,” Bozue said.

The team’s next game is against Ladue on Friday, April 18 at Ladue Horton Watkins High School. JV plays at 4:30 p.m. and varsity plays at 5:30 p.m.

“It’s like a very compact soccer game; there is a lot of scoring. It is nice to have people cheering you on when you are playing rather than just parents, and a lot of other people are coming to watch now which brings energy to the game,” Welch said.