When Ezgi Eyigor arrived at BU in the last 12 months, she once searched for a membership swim group. She was swimming because she turned eight and desired to hold. When she went to BU’s annual student sports, truthful Splash, she noticed a group of guys carrying Speedos and asked whether or not they had been at the swim group. “They were like, ‘No, we play water polo,’” sophomore Eyigor (CAS) recollects.
Her interest became piqued, so I directed her to a nearby desk, where women’s club water polo members spoke to curious students. Editor, who had never seen a water polo match, became hooked. The membership crew is open to players of many talent tiers. “A lot of contributors haven’t played water polo before,” fourth-12 months head instruct Joanna Chan (SHA’12) says. “They both best have a swimming background, or a few girls didn’t even swim before coming here. They just jumped in trying to attempt something new.” That changed into the case for four-year team veteran senior Maddie Thomas (SHA), this year’s president. Despite being a swimmer growing up, the Beverley, Mass., local had barely heard of the sport before coming to BU.
Freshman 12 months, she and senior Sabrina Reilly (CAS) “had been the most effective those who hadn’t played water polo at the group,” Thomas says, acknowledging that it took a while to get experience for the game. “It’s clear when you’re slowing down the exercise, and it changed into simply a lot of strain, being the only one losing the ball and now not understanding wherein to head.”
The recreation is physically stressful: gamers should be strong swimmers, capable of treading water, passing the ball, and shooting at the goal. It calls for loads of teamwork as correctly. Matches include four quarters, and the two competing groups try to score by throwing the ball into the opposing team’s purpose.
Although the crew competes in the most straightforward three tournaments throughout the spring semester, the time dedication is worrying: players meet four instances a week for 2-hour practices. Those practices may be rigorous, particularly for gamers new to the game. Editor remembers a particular attempting day last 12 months when she didn’t feel correct about gambling. “But after practice, a teammate reached out and said that water polo shouldn’t be a stress-inducing factor in my lifestyle,” she says. “It has to be a strain remedy. And that modified my mindset going ahead.”
Players say that the group fosters a robust community experience. They consume collectively, study together, and tour together—most recently, to a California training session that ended up focusing extra on organization bonding due to weeklong rain. (Most education swimming pools in Southern California are exterior.)
“If something’s going wrong, you tell every other on Snapchat, and those come for your room with chocolate,” Eyigor says.“It’s more than a community. It’s a circle of relatives, for certain.” “I met my quality pal through BU water polo,” Thomas says. “I met numerous people right here that I’ll remain pals with for the relaxation of my life.”
That started the game, which needed various physical play and competitiveness. “Anything the ref can’t see is criminal, so there are quite a few underhanded plays that attempt to enhance the ball,” says junior Madie Janik (CAS). “That’s very innate to the sport.”
Injuries are not uncommon, which isn’t unexpected because the sport is played with a “ball that’s the length of a volleyball, however with the density of a basketball being hurled,” she says.
One of the few contributors to have played water polo earlier than college, Janik has suffered three concussions at some point in her playing career: two from barred photographs—which means that within the intention try, the ball hit the top of the sidebar of the purpose earlier than hitting her head—and one from a punch at the same time as she changed into getting chased out of the aim. After the most recent freshman 12 months, she was forced to surrender her role as a goalkeeper.
