Megan Sanderson
For The New Era
For the water polo team, 2011 will be a rebuilding year.
Gone are six of the seven starters from last year’s squad. Senior Jake Johnson, the only returning starter, is joined by six other returnees – Sten Weld, Katie Turner, Emily Claborn, Zach Pratt, Elric Benson, Michael Moser and a new player, Breanna Davis.
Despite the departures, mostly due to graduation, the Huskies still have a veteran presence in Johnson, Weld and Turner.
“They have a lot of experience in the starting line,” said Coach Craig Martin.
The team is looking for more members, 12-13 being ideal. Prospective players do not need background in water polo, but do need to know how to swim.
“A bit of the challenge is getting kids out there,” Martin said.
Knowing the needs of the team, the players have been working hard.
“We have significant holes to fill,” Martin said.
Daily doubles have and future practices will focus a lot on conditioning, improving players’ ability and stamina, he said. With only eight players, the team will only have one sub at a time.
“We’ll be playing a lot of schools with more subs,” Martin said.
The good news is that with the team not having a deep bench, every player gets game time, meaning that each is going to have to step up his or her game. The team will be working on being able to play all four quarters of the game, Martin said.
This season the league will include Sweet Home, West Albany and Corvallis. Due to budget cuts, many schools have had to cut their water polo team or lost access to a facility, including South Albany, a member of the league last year.
West Albany is always among the top squads at state and should be considered the team to beat this year, Martin said.
In addition to matches against league teams, the Huskies will also play Cottage Grove and Marist.
The team’s goal is to make it to the playoffs again. Last year, the team made it to the playoffs, but lost to Park Rose, which ended up taking third at State. In order to make state, the team must win in its district playoffs.
In the playoffs, Sweet Home faces many 5A schools, because the only other 4A school in the district is Cottage Grove.
Martin said the team’s goals are to recruit more players, get the current squad ready to play four quarters of water polo without any subs, and making it to the first round of playoffs.
“We have the potential to make it to the first round,” he said.