Bear Polo Gains Experience in Greenwich Tourney

This weekend, boys’ water polo traveled to Greenwich, CT to play in the Greenwich Tournament against Greenwich High School, Chelsea Piers Aquatics and YPro Brooklyn Aquatics. These teams proved to be very skilled, as Exeter lost all three of their games and came back to campus on Saturday instead of staying until Sunday, which they would have done had they made it to the finals.

The water polo players drove to Greenwich on Friday after a final practice at the Love Gym and stayed at upper David Shepley’s house in Connecticut for the night. The team was very grateful of how hospitable the Shepleys were and had a great team bonding weekend, upper Ernesto Brown said.

Bear Polo played their first match on Saturday morning against YPro Brooklyn Aquatics.

Exeter had heard that YPro was supposed to be a talented and tough team, but they went into the game with high energy. Senior co-captain Conrad Diao said that Exeter played the first quarter of the game well, and if they had continued like that, they would have had a better chance at winning.

The final score was a 5-10 loss to YPro.

Their next game was against Chelsea Piers Aquatics, which they lost 10-8. Bear Polo was also well aware that Chelsea Piers had performed consistently well, so they were proud of the team’s performance against their strong opponents.

Brown said that Exeter played well considering the circumstances and that he is “very proud of how the first two games turned out.”

Shepley was a little less excited about the results. He believed that Exeter had the potential to win those first two games but that everyone was “too complacent going into the games.” He continued to say that if they “directed greater focus and intensity to win, [they] could have seen a better outcome.”

Diao also said that they were hoping to beat Chelsea Piers and Ypro, but that the players just didn’t have enough confidence in themselves to do it.

Big Red’s last game of the day was against Greenwich High School. GHS is one of the best, “largest and fastest growing water polo program in the East,” according to the the team’s website. Also, five of their current players were named water polo All-Americans.

Shepley said that Exeter knew that their “third game was going to be tough no matter what because Greenwich is supposed to be one of the best teams in the East.”

Although Exeter is a good team and have won most of their games this season, their record at 10-2 before the tournament, the players felt as if they played easier teams during their regular season. Greenwich High School is in a different and better league.

They lost to Greenwich 4-14 and confirmed that GHS was as outstanding as predicted. Brown said that they were proud to have scored four points against them.

Diao thought that Exeter could have done better against all the teams they played. “I think everyone went into the games thinking we were going to lose, which made it impossible to win. It was kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said.

“I think everyone went into the games thinking we were going to lose, which made it impossible to win. It was kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The team still looks at their experience at the tournament as beneficial, as they believe that they learned a lot from playing teams of such high skill levels. Although it didn’t turn out well for their record, they gained a lot of experience and playing time.

“Despite our losses, it was definitely a good experience in that we saw where we needed the most improvement and also gained experience from playing skilled teams,” Shepley said.