After 14 years of determination, boys’ water polo, 5-7 overall, has made it to semi-finals and are going against the Granada Hills Charter Highlanders, 3-6, at 4:30 P.M.
Despite never playing a match against Granada Hills Charter, the team is hopeful for a victory against them, said senior Luke Coulter, a captain alongside senior Jesus Santiago.
“It’s hard to scale their skill if we never actually interacted with them,” said Coulter. However, the Gondoliers have played the same teams as the Highlanders.
Despite the Highlanders being the Number One seed and the Gondoliers being the Number Four seed, the team is ready to compete.
The Gondoliers new profound success has come with their new victories that they have achieved
“It’s been 14 years since the team has made it all the way to the semi-finals,” said Coulter.
With two wins under their belt in the playoffs and this achievement, the team has been using this as a form of motivation to keep pushing forward through semi-finals, said Coulter.
“After having a completely horrible freshman, sophomore and junior year, things finally
changed,” said senior Eric Hwang.
After winning their first two matches against Roosevelt Rough Riders, 19-8, on November 4th and University Wildcats, 13-9, on November 6th the team feels, “really motivated by this newfound success that we’ve had.”
Regardless of the rocky season the Gondoliers have faced this year, Hwang said, “it’s been an amazing year, best we’ve had so far.”
Following their win against University, Coulter said, “They wanted to win as much as we did so we had to give them the utmost respect and give it our absolute all and we came out,”
At the end of the regular season, the Gondoliers faced some challenging moments. Their roster was shortened by a major injury to a senior, the team has been working extremely hard to fill in gaps, said Coulter.
However, things started to look up for the team with the pool reopening on October 12th of this year, Coulter said, “We’ve gotten some decent pool time. It’s been really kind of changing how good our team has been,”
Apart from practicing, the team has been mainly focused on, “taking it one game at a time,” said Coulter
Coulter continues to push forward for the team in hopes to, “start future growth for the program as well.
“I want them to take away that they can do that themselves,” he said.
The boys’ water polo team continues to show persistence to combat, “what has prior been a laughing stock of a program just bring back to success we’ve had years ago,” said Coulter.
This is the last semi-finals for Coulter, Hwang, Santiago, and the rest of the senior class. To advance more in the tournament, “Would mean everything to us, really,” said Coulter.
