Water Polo Essay

When my brother introduced me to water polo the summer before high school, I knew right away this sport would become part of me. With my previous athletic endeavours, practice was always dreaded, games were just kind of fun, and I never really got too competitive. Water polo was different. I lived for practices and games. On weekends when there were no tournaments, I’d have to wait from Thursday till Monday to play again, and I’d often sit at home just thinking about in-game situations. This sport became an essential part of me, and likewise I became very good at it.

I’m not the usual “popular kid” in school for sure, and not known for much. However, I think nearly the whole school knows about me with water polo. My freshman year I joined the high school swim and water polo team, and my brother was the only other passionate member. He got kicked off the team a week before the regional tournament, blowing all chances we had at doing well. After that, I was determined to get good enough to carry the team without my brother, and so the following summer I did every water polo

Fellow students would see me in the hall and yell “go water polo,” despite me not even knowing who they were. It was nice to be known for something, especially something that I loved. Another great result of becoming better known was fan turnout at games vastly increased. In previous years, the crowd was just a few parents, but now word had spread and many students would come to watch home games. People were coming to watch me and my team do the thing I was best at, and I was euphoric. We ended up getting to the state tournament again last year, and did surprisingly well, losing in semifinals to a buzzer beater against the team that ended up getting first place. Hundreds in the audience were rooting for me, for my team, for my water polo, and at that moment I knew water polo defined