The first McNeil water polo event, a UIL tournament hosted by McNeil, made school history at the Round Rock ISD Aquatic Center as the team competed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on August 23-24. 

The team’s three weeks of daily two-hour practices in preparation for the upcoming season paid off. The boys and girls played four games over the two-day tournament, both getting their first win against Lehman High School.

“For the team, I think it went really well regardless of the fact that we lost most of our matches,” junior Gabrielle Allen said. “The matches that we did win, everyone rallied around each other and it was really cool to be around.” 

Players feel that the team’s practices, led by swim and water polo coach, Coach Foss, helped them learn the tactics needed to be able to perform at the tournament. 

“At a practice, we usually tread water, do some passes, shooting drills, and then play water polo for the last 30 minutes,” Allen said. “I think that we have gotten better already. We are already scoring a lot more goals and learning on the fly.”

With the experience of the tournament, players gained a lot of knowledge about the sport that will be beneficial throughout the season.  

“I definitely learned a lot of new things, like how the sport is played, how rough it is, and how well you have to be aware of your surroundings,” senior Reese Tolfa said. “For a relatively new team, we did pretty decently. We all worked really well together.”

After spending 12 hours together for two days in a row, players agree that there has been a significant increase in team unity. 

“I got to meet a lot of cool people [since] everyone was forced to be miserable and find a way around it together,” Allen said. “It was a good bonding experience for all of us since we got to learn patience with our teammates.”

Looking forward to future water polo events, the team feels that this experience has helped prepare them for all that’s to come.

 “I joined [the team] to learn how water polo works, and since then I’ve been practicing super hard,” senior Nash Lofland said. “I’m really excited to see how the hard work pays off [this season].” 

For more information regarding the water polo team’s upcoming events, visit the official McNeil water polo website or email Foss at [email protected].