By Mr Bent & Zara D, U15 Waterpolo Captain

We were thrilled to have both our U15 and U18 Waterpolo teams make the ESSA National Finals which took place on March 23rd at Northampton Boys’ School.

Leading up to the National Finals, the majority of the team have trained outside of school either with Penguins Waterpolo club or Ealing Waterpolo club, where they are coached by Rumen Kurtev, who is a very experienced and knowledgeable coach. We were lucky enough to be able to continue this coaching throughout all of our matches. He was able to give tactics and substitutions accordingly to help us maximise our team’s potential. 

Our U15 team was taking part in the Intermediate Girls (Years 7-10) National Championship, having qualified previously by coming top of our group in the qualifying round by beating Old Palace 13-0, Colfes 8-0 and finally Alleyns 10-2. 

At the final, the U15 team was first drawn into Pool Group A with King’s High School and Bolton School for Girls, with matches consisting of two 5 minute halves with stops for goals and penalties. We got off to a flying start with a 7-2 win against King’s High School before playing a very tight match against Bolton School for Girls with the final score being a draw (2-2). This meant we qualified as pool group winners for the semi finals where we were up against St Bede’s.

We took the win 7-0 which meant we qualified for the final – a re-match against Bolton! It was another close run game with NHEHS edging it 5-4 to be crowned U15 National Waterpolo champions!

Congratulations to our U15 team of Zara D, Zoe D, Amelia D, Evie S, Jaspreet G, Jasmine D R-R, Nicola H, Rosie H, Emma T, Alice W, Alex D, Zoe D and Abi S. 

There was no rest for some of our team though as Zara, Zoe, Rosie, Nicola, Amelia, Jaspreet and Evie, all went straight into playing for the U18 team in their competition!

Unfortunately, Ellie Ritchie broke her toe just before the start of the U18 championship (celebrating the U15 team success) so had to go to hospital instead of playing. Our U18 team finished sixth, in a very tight competition, but were delighted to have made National Finals again. We will miss the inspirational leadership of the Year 13s at the pool, although we have a very bright future ahead!

Big thanks to our coaches, Mr Bent and Rumen Kurtev (Ealing Swimming Club and Penguins Club) for their fantastic training and encouragement, showing the value of the strong links between NHEHS and local swimming clubs.