by Aydn Morris

Although they don’t have the experience of many other teams, Bosco water polo is working hard to reach the top of their division.

The young and inexperienced Bosco water polo team has had a hot start to their new season – their first full season since the start of the pandemic. The Braves have been excited for this season, given their last season was continuously delayed. 

“Last year water polo was getting dragged on forever for the initial start of their season, from being told they would start in October to December all the way back to March. And their ended up being not much hype to the season,” said Head Coach Jeff Powers.

The push back of the season made it tough for the Braves to be consistently prepared as well as motivated for their season. This push back also remarkably shortened the season with water polo only being able to play 6 games in the two-to-three week schedule.

They went 2-4 overall in those six games that they played, but so far this year the Braves are 7-8 after winning their last game against Sage Hill by a score of 13-5. 

With the 7-8 record start for the Braves, they are still in contention for CIF playoffs hopes. As of now they are in Division Five, and if they are able to make it to the playoffs, they will work on a deep playoff run that would hopefully lead to a championship.

“There is a lot of potential in the team making the playoffs. We have beaten and also lost to many of the teams who are in the division, but we know that we can compete with them and have learned a lot from those competitive games,” Coach Powers said. 

Although inexperienced, the Braves feel that they are ready to make a playoff run. The team has a few experienced players on their team that are ready, but water polo is played with seven in the pool. As a result, the Braves have been trying to get their younger, more inexperienced players up to speed, so that they can be at their full potential during their playoff push. 

As more games are being played the improvement has shown. 

“The players get better by their gameday experiences and the practices. Practices usually include preparation for any upcoming games, but also improvement on previous in-game issues to work on,” Coach Powers said.

While the Braves are looking toward the rest of the season, they know that they have very high potential in upcoming years with their youthful roster. The attention may be focused on the varsity water polo team, but they also have a deep pool of 18 players on junior varsity, with 17 of them being underclassmen who are inexperienced at water polo. There is room for the development of the team into a championship contender. 

This season and the future of the Bosco water polo team continues to become brighter. As they continue to look forward, their focus is on keeping up their strong performances throughout the course of the season. They are working extremely hard in order to prepare for their upcoming match against the Team in Red next Thursday, the team’s first Trinity League match-up.