Zach Godsey ’25 readies to pass the ball to a teammate.
9-14 – Andover: 7, Hopkins: 17
9/14 – Andover: 10, Loomis: 12
9/18 – Andover: 5, Exeter: 18
On Saturday, Boys Water Polo (0-3) played two back-to-back games against Hopkins and Loomis Chaffee (Loomis). The team played another match on Wednesday, falling short to Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter).
Jeffery Lim ’27 highlighted the team’s ability to coordinate with each other in its game against Loomis, allowing it to gain an early lead. Lim praised his Co-Captains, Jason Kokones ’25 and Zach Godsey ’25, for their encouragement, which helped their teammates continue to fight throughout the entire game.
“We connected really well, that connection gave us a lead against Loomis at the start of the game and everybody did their part. I want to give credit to both of our Captains for hyping us up and getting us fired up and helping us fight until the end,” said Lim.
Godsey highlighted Daniel Seong ’25’s ability to quickly bounce back from an injury and play center, one of Water Polo’s most physically demanding positions. Furthermore, Godsey noted Austin Stern ’27’s confidence and skill during the match, evident in his aggressive goal-shooting.
“Daniel Seong was really impressive. He was gone from practice for the prior two or three days due to injury, but he stepped up in the game and played center position, which is one of the more physical and hard positions. He did a really good job. Also, Austin Stern had some great shots too, he’s got a lot of confidence and he can really rip it,” said Godsey.
Lim acknowledged that during the matches the team faced a size disadvantage. Lim observed that many of the newer players on the team were smaller in comparison to the size of the Seniors on the opposing teams, making it hard to play defense.
“Some weaknesses on Saturday were that some of the players who are newer to the game were undersized compared to the Seniors we were going against. That made it kind of troubling for us to find the right matchup,” said Lim.
In Wednesday’s game against Exeter, the Co-Captains continued to demonstrate their leadership in pushing the support and helping newer players. Andrew Cai ’27 shared the impact of their strong morale throughout the game, as they consistently checked in and provided motivational pep talks.
“As a team, we all performed very well and I appreciate the Captains because they kept us in check and guided us to do our best. They upped our morale, they helped us up when we made a little mistake. They also gave us pep talks during halftime,” said Cai.
Despite the team’s loss, Godsey was proud of his team’s ability to adapt and improve as the game progressed. Specifically, as the team focused on intentionally supporting each other, it was able to raise its level of play.
“Throughout the game, we got better about coming back, helping defense, and our spatial awareness. We did well being aware of what we were doing in the pool and being able to help when our teammates got beat and that improved throughout the game, which was good,” said Godsey.
Looking forward, Godsey shared that the team strives to work on offensive movement and developing a dynamic offense. This will give the team stronger scoring opportunities as it implements these changes into play.
“Offensive movement is a big thing we need to work on and being able to have a dynamic offense and having multiple scoring options rather than having a one-dimensional playstyle. We’re definitely working on that, and I would like to work on that more,” said Godsey.
The team will face Westminster and Deerfield this Saturday.
