Dashing and driving with strength and endurance, once an emerging idea, finally comes into fruition, Bowie High School is now home to a water polo team.
Early August marked the start of the water polo season, the team is currently led by two coaches. Head coach Jessica Langbehn has been a teacher for eight years, three at Bowie and her assistant, head swimming coach Chloe Carr, who also teaches history.
“Since I have been here the school has really been pushing me to establish a water polo club,” Carr said. “I initially kept saying no, just because I wasn’t really familiar with the sport, but when Langbehn pushed for a team, I decided that it would be something I would want to be a part of.”
Water Polo teams typically consist of six players as well as a goalie. Each player with a position and role assigned to them. Similarly to most other sports, teams vary greatly in terms of formation, the most popular formation being three players in the front and three players in the back.
“As a coach, I really consider this a learning year,” Carr said. “None of us really understood and knew how to play the sport. I think a lot of what I do as a coach is just helping the team have fun and make sure they understand that we are all learning it together. In the future, I think we will expect more structure, but as of right now it’s still all new to us.”
One of the roadblocks that was affected the club’s establishment was getting enough players to join the team. With a sport that requires lots of subbing and transitions, a team of just seven or eight players would never be viable. In order to compete the team first had to get enough players who were willing to show up and participate.
“I think Coach Carr and I were expecting a team filled with primarily swimmers,” Langbehn said. “That’s kind of how it was shaking up initially, it was a small team. I think as soon as the word spread it became much more popular to people outside of swimming. I think that is something that surprised me a lot, just the variety of swimmers and non-swimmers.”
There are two separate teams for water polo, a girls and a boys team. August 28 marked the beginning of both teams’ competition schedule.
“All the seniors have really stepped up,” Langbehn said. “Having some senior swimmers who have experience in other sports has really helped their leadership qualities get around to the other team members.”
Senior Goalie Benjamin Marzani began playing water polo for fun this year. Just like many others, Marzani joined the club in order to spend time with friends and gain some new experience.
“I have really enjoyed my time so far,” Marzani said. “Being able to kind of just mess around with my friends and learn a new hobby has been a really good experience and I’m glad I decided to join. Also getting field tripped on tournament days is a big bonus because it kind of gave me a break from school and allowed me to do something fun instead.
The team practices every Monday and Thursday at the Westlake Athletic Community Center. Each practice consists of different activities and drills in order to help all players learn and compete.
“The biggest surprise for me so far has been the facilities we practice at,” Marzani said. “I really did not expect for the pools to be that nice but they actually are. It’s in a nice area and it’s really a great facility which is something I never really would have expected considering it’s our first year as a program.”
The girls team is six games into their competition schedule and are currently sitting at 1-5. The boys team is five games in and is currently winless. Junior right wing Mia Urbazo has been playing water polo for one week.
“I have every confidence that we can turn it around,” Urbazo said. “We are still getting used to the whole process. I think coach Langbehn and coach Carr have done a great job on making the club a lot of fun while also making us better. I think once we all get used to the rules our team will have more confidence which will lead to more success in the water.”
