This year the John W. North Boys water polo team led by coach Abbygail Tardie and assistant coach Ryan Lopez’s season had just recently started. Needless to say, they’ve been having a rough time.
With a small roster full of young boys, the team is trying their hardest to keep up with last year’s legacy, where they had a very senior-heavy team. Having a team with only three boys who have played for three years is tough for a team with so few players. But one of the benefits of having a young team is that they have a number of returning players for next season. That way they can start out bigger and better than this year.
“We have a really inexperienced team, we have a lot of new guys. We aren’t really losing that many guys for next year. We aren’t that good now, it’s kind of like a transition year to be better next year,” expressed junior captain Matthew Tarascio.
So far, the boys have played eight games, four of which are in a tournament. They have, unfortunately, only won two. In previous games, the boys have started out in the first quarter keeping the game close or at the very least a score that they could come back from. But like clockwork, the morale of the players will drop and they’ll quickly lose sight of the game and lose their possibility of a win. Despite this the boys will continuously play well during their games and give their all, they keep having a continuous downward streak that they’re all hoping will quickly turn around.
The boys have a home game on Monday the 18th of September against San D and are competing in the San Gorgonio tournament where they have high hopes of bringing home a trophy. Junior captain Matthew Tarascio expressed, “I think it’s going to go great, we’ve all been improving these past few weeks, and the tournament isn’t like super hard. So we have like a top-three shot.” While the season has been rough so far, the boys are optimistic that they can make a comeback and when the time comes have a good ending to their season.
