Boys' Water Polo Starts Seniorless Season
The boys' water polo team continues to build their team up for future successful seasons.
By Katie Scripoch
The boys' water polo team continues to build their team up for future successful seasons.
By Katie Scripoch
With a young team and no senior leadership, the Pioneer boys’ water polo team is exceeding expectations and on track to have a successful season.
The team has started the season with a record of 9-4 and nine more games to go in the regular season. As captain of the team, Logan Wiseth, 11, is looking forward to working with the new team and improving as a whole.
“We show a lot of promise and skill as a team and all play together really well so I’m excited to see where that takes us,” said Wiseth. “I hope to lead my team in the same way I was led as a freshman. I want my players to have confidence in me and the rest of their teammates, be able to trust each other and all connect as a team. Hopefully I can give them a challenge at practice and bring some of my knowledge of the game as well.”
One challenge the team is facing this year has been that they are eight underclassmen, with only three juniors and no seniors. Head coach Abbie McGarvey has no doubts that the team will succeed despite them having younger players. With a smaller team, the only concern she has is of possible injuries that could impact their roster.
“We have a very strong junior leader, in the form of Logan Wiseth,” said McGarvey. “We also do not have any ego issues that typically stem from seniors so essentially, we are looking at having a young team as a positive this season.”
Like any other sport, water polo brings friendships and fun competition for many athletes. Other than the excitement and joy of the sport, Jackson Ryan, 11, is looking forward to playing against his friends on other teams.
“I also look forward to the team dinners because the whole team gets together to have fun outside of water polo,” said Ryan.
Dylan Spence, 9, enjoys playing water polo because of how fun the sport is and the community that he’s involved with, even with concerns that can come up during the season.
“My biggest concern for this season is how young our team is with the majority of players being sophomores,” said Spence.
Wiseth and many of his teammates expect their upcoming games against Willow Glen High School, Leigh High School and Leland High School to be challenging teams to face because of their strong players and water polo programs.
“I think that our biggest competition will be Willow Glen. They have really strong players such as Hudson Lyles and Parker Evans, and of course their best player Luke Llabres really gives us some strong competition,” said Wiseth. “It’s a close second between Leigh and Leland, as Leigh has one of the best seniors, Owen Nietzel. Leland has strong players, such as Jack Gibson and Michael Sher, and some underclassmen such as Luke Raimondi and Max Buran.”
As a coach, McGarvey finds it rewarding to watch her athletes become confident in their abilities and trust their teammates in the water. She’s also excited to develop their skills as individual athletes and as a team.
“The team has set goals for growth and they are working hard to hold one another accountable at practice every day so that come game time, everything that we have been working towards falls into place,” said McGarvey.
The team has started the season with a record of 9-4 and nine more games to go in the regular season. As captain of the team, Logan Wiseth, 11, is looking forward to working with the new team and improving as a whole.
“We show a lot of promise and skill as a team and all play together really well so I’m excited to see where that takes us,” said Wiseth. “I hope to lead my team in the same way I was led as a freshman. I want my players to have confidence in me and the rest of their teammates, be able to trust each other and all connect as a team. Hopefully I can give them a challenge at practice and bring some of my knowledge of the game as well.”
One challenge the team is facing this year has been that they are eight underclassmen, with only three juniors and no seniors. Head coach Abbie McGarvey has no doubts that the team will succeed despite them having younger players. With a smaller team, the only concern she has is of possible injuries that could impact their roster.
“We have a very strong junior leader, in the form of Logan Wiseth,” said McGarvey. “We also do not have any ego issues that typically stem from seniors so essentially, we are looking at having a young team as a positive this season.”
Like any other sport, water polo brings friendships and fun competition for many athletes. Other than the excitement and joy of the sport, Jackson Ryan, 11, is looking forward to playing against his friends on other teams.
“I also look forward to the team dinners because the whole team gets together to have fun outside of water polo,” said Ryan.
Dylan Spence, 9, enjoys playing water polo because of how fun the sport is and the community that he’s involved with, even with concerns that can come up during the season.
“My biggest concern for this season is how young our team is with the majority of players being sophomores,” said Spence.
Wiseth and many of his teammates expect their upcoming games against Willow Glen High School, Leigh High School and Leland High School to be challenging teams to face because of their strong players and water polo programs.
“I think that our biggest competition will be Willow Glen. They have really strong players such as Hudson Lyles and Parker Evans, and of course their best player Luke Llabres really gives us some strong competition,” said Wiseth. “It’s a close second between Leigh and Leland, as Leigh has one of the best seniors, Owen Nietzel. Leland has strong players, such as Jack Gibson and Michael Sher, and some underclassmen such as Luke Raimondi and Max Buran.”
As a coach, McGarvey finds it rewarding to watch her athletes become confident in their abilities and trust their teammates in the water. She’s also excited to develop their skills as individual athletes and as a team.
“The team has set goals for growth and they are working hard to hold one another accountable at practice every day so that come game time, everything that we have been working towards falls into place,” said McGarvey.