My Water Polo Family

When I was growing up, I was always considered one of the more athletic girls.  I would usually be picked first for the kickball teams at recess or the flag football teams in Health class in high school.  From all this approval of my athleticism, I began playing multiple sports in middle school.  It started with soccer, like everyone else and flag-football.  I was a decent soccer player with a love of the game, but sadly I was never as good as the other girls.  I played for many different teams over a 10 year period, but just for fun.  As for flag-football, I was surprisingly a good player, and made the team in 7th grade.

As I continued onto high school I was introduced to swimming by one of my neighbors.  She dragged me to one of the practices, nI had no idea what to expect.  As soon as I completed my first warm up with the team, I knew I was going to stick with it for the rest of the season.  Swimming was such a good work-out and the team was very welcoming to this new sport.  They would always talk about water polo and how much more fun it was than swimming.  The would tell me I had to play in the spring semester.  The only thing was, it was the same season as flag-football. I would always tell them I would knowing I wouldn't.  

But as the spring semester grew closer, the more and more I didn't enjoy flag-football.  The coach was mean and treated us like boys, and the girls were "snotty" or butch.  At the last minute, I decided to play water polo.  I already knew the team and the coach and loved playing with them.  Making that decision was one of the best I could've done.  I now have been playing water polo for four years, and love being part of that team.  The group of girls I played with were smart, and athletic, which could never lead me down the wrong path.  To this day, I keep in touch with the girls I played with.  Within each season, we all fed off each other.  We would help each other whenever someone needed it.  As lame as it is to say, we became a family.  I didn't mind spending an extra three hours with those girls, because I knew I'd enjoy them.  

Not only did I enjoy all their company, we actually won games.  This obviously made the game more fun.  My senior year, we were runner up district champions.  Although we didn't get the champions title, we knew that as a team we put up a good fight.  Win or Lose, Western High School's water polo team will always be part of my family.