With a new year comes a lot of changes for the girls’ water polo team. The team has new head coach Wyatt Jansen, also new junior varsity coach Alyssa Walters. On top of the change of a new coaching staff, the team went from ten seniors in the previous to four this year and only having two returning varsity players.

Other teams are doubting Metea team because of the loss of all the seniors. “I think that we are going to surprise a lot of people this year, especially people who we are not supposed to necessarily beat on paper” said head coach Wyatt Jansen. The team plans to go into each game with the intention to prove people wrong.

Because of the loss of several seniors, most of the current varsity players are previous junior varsity players. “We all have played together for a long time with most of the team starting on the team as freshman” said point Leah Hummel. The time that the girls have spent together in the pool creates a good chemistry throughout the team.

Coach Jansen only has a couple weeks to get the girls ready for the season. “Coaching up the other girls who were on junior varsity up to the varsity position has been our main focus so far” said Coach Jansen.

The girls and new coaches were put to the test in their first game against St. Charles East. Ending with a 11-5 win, the Mustangs were able to pull away with their first hard fought victory of the season.

Outstanding is the only way Coach Jansen can put the team’s first performance. This game was the first time that the team got to see how they performed with absence of all the seniors from the previous season. “I think our ability to work as a team really helped us and the way we used the techniques the coach was showing us,” said Hummel. The relationship between the new varsity players and the new coaches is showing success in the pool.

By Joe Riordan

Picture courtesy of Giphy.com