After a weekend of fierce water polo matches, the FMHS girls’ water polo team is heading off to state for the fifth year in a row. They competed admirably at the TISCA North Region Championships in Southlake on April 19th and 20th. Both the girls’ and boys’ teams placed.
The match that decided the winner was a close one. Flower Mound barely made the cut with only a single point standing between victory and failure. With Denton Guyer as their opponent, spectators could confidently say it was the most exciting match of the day.
“I played the whole game, and I was convinced that we were going to have to go into overtime. I was just so happy we scored before the last quarter,” varsity player Megan Seeman said.
Neither team would budge; each wanted to win as badly as the other. The victory was a hard-fought battle that the team is very proud of.
“The game was super exciting; I mean, we’ve never beaten them before, so it was a big deal. For the first two quarters of the game it was tied up, but sometime during the third, I made a pass to my friend and she shot it in,” Captain Brianna Forth said.
The team trains hard for their competitions, as water polo can be a very physically taxing sport. During the matches, the players are constantly treading water while they attempt to shoot the ball into the opposing team’s goal. If the athletes aren’t in top physical condition, it’s easy for them to fall behind.
“We train hard,” Varsity player Kendall Walters said, “We swim 800s, run laps, do weight training, and eggbeaters. Sometimes, to help our endurance, we’ll just tread water while holding chairs above our heads.”
Water polo is such a fast-paced sport that referees have trouble keeping an eye on the players. With each team vying for a spot at state, penalties do little to protect the rules. The competition at region was nothing less than hostile.
“I got a bloody nose at the competition. I was underwater with this one girl and she got really frustrated with me so she just punched me in the face.” Forth said, “It’s intense.”
Players need to keep a tough mental game in order to stay focused.
“Sometimes I’ll get out of the water covered in bruises and scratches,” Walters said, “and I’ll have no idea how they got there.”
Despite the trials this difficult sport offers, the ladies of FMHS’s water polo team are excited and proud to represent the school in the state championships in May.
