Athletes of the Week: Meet the Waterpolo Captains

With their arms up high in the air, the girls water polo players block the lane for a pass. The ball tips off of Big Red’s player and every player swims down to the opposing side setting up for a fast break. Tic, tac, toe. The ball whizzes past the opposing team’s goalie. The Exeter girl’s water polo team is on a 10 game winning streak and enjoying an undefeated season. This young team is led by three Senior captains who are all four year players: Diane Lee, Hope Logan, Corinne Noonan.

Lee, Logan, and Noonan originally came to Exeter with the intention of swimming, each of them having swam for over eight years. When it came time to decide a spring sport, they noticed a lot of the other girls on Exeter’s swim team played Water Polo during the Spring. Having played ball sports before, the three girls decided to try Water Polo out.  

Although first learning Water Polo can be tough, the girls had an excellent captain their prep year who helped teach them the proper water polo skills and technique they needed to utilise in order to dominate in the pool. 

“I remember we had a captain our prep year who was really into it and encouraged us to be on the team,” Logan explained. “She taught all three of us the first year and was kind of the reason I joined the team.”

As a prep, Lee found water polo a tough sport to adjust to because of its combination of multiple sports into one unique sport.

“Water Polo is so different,” she said. “It is a mixture of fast ball, and soccer, and volleyball and a lot of different ball sports. So getting tossed into a new ball sport definitely made improvement difficult.”

But with the help and encouragement of each other, Lee, Logan, and Noonan were able to improve their water polo skills, especially their awareness of their surroundings when in the pool. They have also learned their specific water polo skills and how to utilise these skills to help the team flourish. 

When Lee first joined the water polo team, her coaches expected her to be a goalie. But the role of goalie did not end up fitting Lee very well and she ended up adopting the role of a hole defender and is now one of the top hole defenders in the league.

“She always knows what is going on,” explained Logan in regards to why Diane fits the role of a hole defender well. “When we run a play and people don’t know it Diane will be the one to explain it. She remember’s plays from like two years ago and she always know where the ball is and always knows what to do. She is probably the best hole defender in the league.”

Like Lee, Logan and Corinne have also discovered their water polo talents. According to Lee, they are both always intellectually aware of the game around them now when playing Water Polo.

“They just go for the ball and go for the goal. That really has speeded up our offense because in the past we always had a great defense, but a pretty weak offense. We never really knew what to do and were always very unsure about shooting. But people like Hope and Corinne who have great instincts have really made our offense a lot better and cohesive this year.”

The three captains improvement over their time at Exeter and discovery of each other's talents is evident in this year’s season and their current undefeated record. Corinne attributed this year’s success to the team’s chemistry. 

“Our chemistry as a team is a big part of why we've been successful so far. I've played for four years and I've never been on a team that meshed so well. I think that we all have pretty equal experience and that helps with our cohesion.” Noonan said.

She went on to provide some specific examples where the team chemistry has affected their play

“Sometimes, I'll make a mistake, and then all of a sudden a teammate is there to fix it. It feels like they're reading my mind, but it's pretty cool because I think that we trust each other a lot.”

The three captains are also great role models for the new members of the team as they try to help the younger players understand the complex game.

“Their relationships with the other players are excellent,” explained one of the coaches, Melissa Pacific. “They know when to be helpful and when to be stern.  I know our younger players have learned a lot from them both in the water and out; the captains have been excellent role models.”   

However, the captains attribute much of their success to the great coaching by coach McTammany and coach Pacific. Logan said they are one of the driving forces of the team. “I would attribute the great season partially to our coaches. We have really great coaches, McTammany and Coach Pacific. They are both really good at motivating us and helping us learn from our mistakes and making us really want to do well, not just for ourselves but for each other and for them.”

Lee believes that coach McTammany’s knowledge of the game helps when working with more experienced players. “McTammany has more background in water polo so in terms of the sport it seems he knows a lot about it having played in college and stuff. So that really helps in practices because sometimes McTammany will work with the starters and potential starters while Coach Pacific with the newer girls”

 Nevertheless, she also noted Coach Pacific’s effective method of drilling new players with the basics. “And that works out because she can really drill in the basics in to them while McTammany can work on building what we already know.”

All captains believe that having two coaches has really helped the team grow as players and make practices more useful for everyone.

“That is something that we didn’t have before, especially when we had only one coach. We used to start from scratch every year and so it was really hard to improve as a team because we would just be learning the same things over and over again and at a certain point you have to switch things up.” said Lee.

As the girls practice for games against Andover, Suffield, Choate, and eventually the Liquid 4 tournament, they are having a season to remember.

“I think between the coaching staff and players, we are all having the time of our lives.  We hope to keep the wins coming.” said Pacific.