Ivy Schneider

Staff Writer 

The phrases ‘your team is a joke’ and ‘you do not actually play the real game’ are generally thrown around to hide the fact that girl’s water polo is an aggressive sport. It consists of treading water for long periods of time, not touching the bottom of the swimming pool, and overall trying not to drown. Girl’s water polo is serious.

Over the past year, the sport has gotten more popularity and recognition at Milken. This season, the team contains 25 girls with about ten new members. Tryouts took place the week of November 5th. After much thought and consideration, head coach Timothy Hugar and assistant coach Jason Walters decided to make few cuts to the team because of the abundance of girls. They wanted to focus on building strength among the members before playing them in any games. The coaches pursued this by training the team in 3:30 to 5:30 practices four days a week, with additional 6 A.M. practices on Fridays.

Many girls were attracted to the sport because it provides great exercise and activity and builds a sense of power, helping the ladies of the team become strong and independent. The idea of ‘girl power’ is one of the team’s proudest motos.

“I’ve never done any sports in the water before so I was a little nervous to start playing,” said Adi Hadad ‘15, a new member of water polo. “But now I love the sport and being aggressive.”

The team has won three of the five games they have played this season, and will continue to focus on becoming strong, determined, and especially intimidating.