Water polo at Grand Ledge has been around for many years but not many students have known about it. The water polo team at Grand Ledge is combined with two other schools, Mason and Okemos. Grand Ledge has six players that contribute to the team, and with the schools being combined it allows for challenges to arise.
“We only have two practices a week and only one is as a whole team, so it makes learning plays and strategies really difficult. I wish we were able to practice more so we could grow as a team,” junior Sophie Cook expressed.
Even though they have one full team practice per week, some of the girls can’t make this practice. Practices each week are at different locations which causes many players from the different schools to not be able to get to practice. The whole team is only fully together at games they play during the week and weekend tournaments.
Even though players can’t always practice together, they are still able to work together and build good chemistry at games.
“We all mesh together pretty well with our personalities, but there is definitely a learning gap between some of our newer players and returning players. The newer girls are catching up quickly though, and the future games are looking good for us,” Cook said.
Kiera Walsh, a freshman on the water polo team also had her opinions on the team’s chemistry, “I feel like our chemistry is really good, but our communication in the water really could use some work. We can work well together, but we really need to spend more time together as a team, that’s why a combined team is so
difficult.”
Many of the players on the team are also on the Grand Ledge swim team, which consists entirely of Grand Ledge students. With many players on the polo team having the experience of swimming under their belt, it allows for many of the learning curves to quickly be dissolved.
“Knowing how to swim [competitively] definitely helps when playing water polo. If you are a swimmer, you have more endurance than people who don’t know how to swim which gives you a huge advantage during games. The games are long and hard, so being able to tread water for long periods, having good endurance, and being able to get to the ball quickly are crucial,” Walsh said.
