Girls Water Polo Continues to Swim Towards Success
Senior Kylie Harman winds up for the shot in SJHHS’s game against Capo Valley on January 19. While the game resulted in a hard loss, the team has so much more to anticipate in the rest of regular league play.
January 23, 2017
Water polo is arguably one of the toughest sports that SJHHS participates in, and the girls water polo team have certainly shown their grit while navigating through a difficult season this year.
After the massive successes from the boys water polo team in Coach Ivan Buich’s debut season, there was a cautious optimism that the girls water polo team could experience similar results with the former Santa Margarita coach. Although results have been less favorable than the boys team, the shift in culture throughout the program remains just as noticeable.
“Coach Ivan has been the best coach I’ve had. He really knows the sport because of how long he’s played and coach. The whole team loves having him as he is very kind and dedicated to us succeeding,” said Lucy Collins.
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The girls water polo team has found success in the Santa Ana Valley Tournament, winning games against Pacifica 11-9 and La Quinta 9-4. This was after an early stumble against Saddleback that resulted in a 14-9 loss.
“Our season has been going really well so far. I feel like even in such a short time we have definitely improved from the beginning of the season and we’ve all grown a lot closer as a team which has translated to a better team dynamic in the pool as well,” said goalie Hannah Hughitt.
With a season in the competitive Sea View League upcoming, the team is hoping for improvement all around in both reputation and talent.
“[The] team’s goals for this season are to get a better grasp of the game and to hopefully win a league game,” said Hughitt.
“We are really trying to develop a name for ourselves this year and the years to come. We want the name San Juan Hills Girls Water Polo to hold a better connotation that it does currently. We want to accomplish this by continuing to work hard and refusing to become discouraged,” said Collins.
