U15 Waterpolo Team Take Silver in National Finals!
By Manpreet G, Year 9
On Thursday 21st, the U15’s ESSA waterpolo team came runners-up in the Waterpolo National Finals. The team consisted of Year 8’s and 9’s who have all been training and playing together since September 2023. The talent in our team is amazing and as a team we have improved immensely and I have really enjoyed every step of it. Our journey started after we comfortably won all of our matches at the U15 qualifier round. I was very proud of everyone’s effort and finished top of our pool meaning we were through to the finals.
On the day of the finals, everyone’s spirits were high, everyone had a positive mindset and ready for a tough day filled with fun. During the day, everyone was very supportive of each other whether they were in the pool or on the sidelines. We played a variety of teams who were all on different levels. In our first match, we played very well and secured a win with more than a 10 goal difference against Eltham College. We were all very happy that we won but we knew we had to focus on the next match, who were a stronger team. We knew Manchester High School would be a tough opposition however after a long team talk and playing to the best of our abilities, we managed to secure a win of 5-1. This meant that we were through to the semi-finals. Later that day, we played against Alleyn’s, probably our toughest match so far. This was clearly a very strong team who knew what they were doing. At half time, they were winning by 1 goal, however after amazing defending as well as some brilliant goals from a variety of people, we won our match 7-5. We were all thrilled because this meant we were through to the finals. I was mostly impressed with how everyone dealt with the pressure and how no one dropped their heads until the game was finished. We were all very excited but also very nervous because we all really wanted to win the next match.
As expected, Bolton were a very strong and talented team, but after a strong battle, we unfortunately missed out on gold by 2 goals (2-4 to Bolton) making us U15 National Waterpolo runner-ups. I am delighted with how we played and although we didn’t come first, we were all one or two years younger than the tournament’s age category so we will all be back for gold next year!
