Novice Water Polo

Sunday night was the first match for Oxford’s club water polo team. About half of the 13 girls who suited up for the game are novices and although I am an eight-year veteran of the sport, it was a series of firsts for me as well. Normally the pre-game talk is for reviewing the scouting report and reminders about special plays. I have never reviewed the rules in the moments before a game. But there we were, discussing what a shot clock is, where to go on a penalty and how offsides works. The game was four 7-minute quarters of running time with 30-second shot clocks (that is a new one on me). The coach called for an offense with six drivers and no center/2M player, which is a set-up that I have never heard of. But no one seemed to be going to any particular position anyway, so I suppose it didn’t really matter. Some of the novices kept trying to catch the ball with two hands and earned everyone a trip back to the defense for their troubles. We were transitioning down the pool without looking for the ball, getting caught behind on defense, turning the ball over every other possession and committing all sorts of classic mistakes that would have driven Coach Burgess or Coach Klatt to cardiac arrest.

And yet, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the pluck and tenacity of the new girls. This may have been the most jumbled game I have ever seen, but it was also the first time I have ever witnessed a team with as many novices as veterans prepare to compete in under six weeks. Most of these girls have no aquatic experience and learned to eggbeater, swim head’s up free style, throw a ball, guard a drive and set up a man-up offense in less time than it takes for a course to proctor midterms. We still have a long way to go before we can even come close to the level of junior varsity high school teams in California but I am eager to see the team improve.

And in the meantime, it is a relief to see that we are at least on par with one other team in England, in fact we are better, as the match was a 7-1 rout. Our performance may have been a comedy of errors, but our opponents were more baffled than we were. They couldn’t seem to execute on their drives, got turned around constantly on defense and by the fourth quarter they were completely gassed. I played the first half in goal and each of the four shots on goal was a relatively easy pull-down block. The coach put me in field during the second half, with the warning “Try not to kill anyone” (I can’t imagine why she thought she needed to say that). Ok, well I did turn the ball over once when the ref called me for pushing off but seeing as I stole the ball in the first place and stole it back again a few minutes later, I think it all worked out in the wash. Quite frankly, if the level of play persists, it may be a lot more entertaining to play field but I guess it all depends on where the team needs me. We have another five matches in the two and a half weeks before term ends so it will be interesting to see how it works out.