The 29/1
Official Podcast of the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program. 29 Sports, One Team. The show that brings you into the lives of student athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther Sports Community. Bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join Rodney Vellinga and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as they dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
The 29/1
Beneath the Surface : Varsity Water Polo with Liam Tuinstra, Grady Armstrong, Noah Williams & Coach Alex Wuerfel
Water Polo is often overlooked in the high school sports landscape. Yet for the athletes of West Ottawa High School's Water Polo team, it's a daily passion requiring exceptional physical and mental fortitude. We sit down with team members Liam Tuinstra, Grady Armstrong, Noah Williams, and Coach Alex Wuerfel to explore the demanding world of this unique aquatic sport.
What makes water polo so distinctive is the combination of multiple athletic disciplines. As the players described it, the sport blends elements of swimming, rugby, baseball, soccer, and even basketball. The physicality rivals wrestling and football, with much of the contact happening beneath the surface. "If you can see it, you can call it," explained Coach Wuerfel, highlighting the underwater gamesmanship that defines matches. Players frequently emerge from the pool with scratches and marks – a testament to the sport's intensity that necessitates pre-game fingernail checks to prevent serious injuries.
The endurance requirements for water polo are staggering. Players are constantly treading water using a technique called "egg beating," which involves tracing a D-shape with alternating legs. This specialized movement becomes second nature over time but requires significant practice to master. Coach Wuerfel praised his team's exceptional stamina: "For our guys, that's their biggest strength." The players combine their water polo training with swimming seasons, creating year-round athletes with remarkable cardiovascular capacity. Training extends beyond the pool, with team members incorporating specialized strength training to develop the power needed for shooting and the core strength essential for maintaining position.
Senior Liam Tuinstra shares his journey with a heart condition called SVT that caused irregular heartbeats reaching 250 beats per minute. After undergoing two procedures, including one on Christmas Eve during his junior year, he returned to achieve his goal of making state cuts for swimming.
The team chemistry between these athletes is immediately apparent and they've developed an intuitive understanding of each other's movements and capabilities. "I'll be at point, I'll see him, he'll give me that nod, and I know I just pass it right in," explained Williams about their offensive coordination. This connection extends beyond the pool – the seniors expressed a genuine desire to prepare younger players for success after their graduation, showing their commitment to building a lasting program legacy.
As the West Ottawa water polo team pursues their goal of reaching the state tournament this season, they represent the dedication and perseverance that define high school athletics. Their sport may not always receive the spotlight, but their commitment to excellence in this demanding discipline deserves recognition and respect.
Ready to experience water polo firsthand? Come support these dedicated athletes at their first home game against East Kentwood on September 22nd at South High School's pool. You'll never look at the sport the same way again.
This episode was recorded on September 9, 2025.
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Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program and you're listening to the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, one team, the show that brings you into the lives of student-athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther sports community, bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join myself and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as we dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the 29.1 podcast. I'm your host, Rodney Vilenka. I'm here with Panthers Athletic Director Bill Kennedy. It's our third episode of season two. It's been nice getting back into the swing of things and it's great to have you along. Today we sit down with a sport that most people only pay attention to about every four years when they see it on the Olympics, whether it's on their TV or their phone. But for today's group, water polo is their passion, a daily commitment requiring incredible endurance, toughness, teamwork and agility. They are coming off a two-game sweep at Portage this past Monday, with an 8-5 win for JV and an 11-7 win for Varsity over the Muskies, and this season they're hoping to make a run to the state tournament after reaching the regional final just one year ago. And, as I can tell you firsthand, it's a great sport to watch in person. And it's our pleasure to ask who is it? Liam Toonstra.
Speaker 4:Grady Armstrong, noah Williams.
Speaker 5:Alex Werfel.
Speaker 6:All right, fellas. Thanks so much for taking a little bit of time before practice. I'm sure you've got pretty good practice dialed up here later today, Alex Coming off of a game night. But thanks for taking some time to come in. We're excited to have you here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a busy few days for you guys. A lot of games in the last little bit On the road. Yesterday you beat Portage 11-7 and then you hosted the Grand Haven West Ottawa Tournament this past Saturday at home Grady. How good was it to get a win yesterday.
Speaker 7:It felt great after just like playing some tough teams this week and stuff and just going for a conference win right away.
Speaker 2:It's teams this week and stuff and just going for a conference win right away it's a great feeling also that was first win in conference, first win a conference yep, yesterday district okay. Yep, all right, gotcha. And then there was a lot of contributions from a number of players yesterday, liam, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:I mean the team played really well. I kind of just sat back towards the cage and put the ball in the net, but it was a team you just had to sit back in the hole. Yeah, just sit back by the cage and put the ball in the net.
Speaker 2:Well, that was pretty good. I mean, you had a really good game. If I go to your Instagram post, you had six goals, two assists. I don't know what the DKO is and we'll get to that in a second. Noah, you had a hat trick and then it was kind of spread around. Milabinsky and Wheelock each scored a goal. Carter, lawrence and Nett, by the way, is pretty sweet, that was pretty fun, yeah, so that was great. And then the tournament this past weekend. Coach, how did that go?
Speaker 5:yeah, I mean it was. You know, fun to host a tournament always a struggle when you're always trying to balance. You know coaching and hosting. But at the same time we were ready for that competition. We had two games on Friday good competition and we had some Eastside teams that made the trip over, so we were just kind of looking forward to chomp at it. You know it was good to see how we're shaping out against better teams. That's usually kind of good for us to figure out where we had to get better. But you know, finishing 0-4 is never great.
Speaker 6:But for at least you know, taking some good takeaways from early in the season to kind of gauge where you're coming, where we are, or how do we stack up against the better teams on the inside.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, when it comes to water polo, like we talked about, it's kind of a niche sport. So some people play year-round, some people play in the summer, so for our team we have a mix of swimmers, polo players, so it's really just making sure we're all kind of ready to go take that competition where they're probably having some other guys that play you know, year-round jos and you know california. So for us, trying to figure out, before we really get into like a district conference match play, how are we shaping out, fix that strategy, make sure we're kind of, you know, crisp on those six, on five opportunities. So even after yesterday we had some you know moments we could learn from. But going into you know, yesterday's game, we had good competition. So it's really, you know, all right, we played well, let's take that into monday and it worked out 11 to 7, so we'll take that as a no, what's it like for you?
Speaker 2:you have this this weekend. You probably don't want to go on for, but you do. But in general you guys play pretty well, but these are pretty tough teams yeah, so I was really proud of how we play this weekend.
Speaker 4:I think we did good. It was just some better all top 10 teams, but yeah, I think we did great, honestly and it's not a bad thing really.
Speaker 2:You know, to bill, you do this in sports, coaches will take you into a tournament like that and if you do really well, you kind of know where you are and you're good about that. But then if you it doesn't go exactly your way, then you know where you are and then coach gets to go at you in practice because we got to get better, and that's kind of how it goes well. You know, for me it was the first time I'd ever been at a water polo match and I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Great energy, a very demanding sport. I really found myself getting into it. I even, I think I went like gritty, let's go a couple times I think you scored in the third quarter, fourth quarter, against selene.
Speaker 2:A lot of for me was a lot of. What is this? I'm kind of figuring out and really liam the loudest post in sports, like how loud are those posts when the ball hits it?
Speaker 3:I mean pretty loud. I'm experienced with that. My nickname is crossbar king and right, yeah I just couldn't score. I would hit crossbar every time. But uh, depends on the ball.
Speaker 2:Really it's a deafening sound in there. So what do you? Always hit crossbars. You're just not anymore, but I used to be.
Speaker 3:I used to. You found that king. Yeah, that's a great name for like a name of I don't. It's not really a name of failure almost, but you know, not a fun nickname, no, okay, all right let's uh kind of go around the table and maybe we'll start with you.
Speaker 6:Coach, what was kind of your introduction to the sport of water polo, like how did that happen?
Speaker 5:yeah. So for me it kind of started with had you know sports background, started in soccer, had some knee problems, so from there it's like, hey, let's get in the water. And then sixth grade, I kind of had the opening to hey, let's play, uh, wreck township. So from there it was middle school and it's kind of a love affair from there where it's like, oh my gosh, I love being in the water a ball in hand, and continue with that through high school, end up going out to California for some JOs great competition out there, kind of seeing the sport for what it is.
Speaker 2:You just said, jos, I don't even know what that is. Yeah, I'm sorry. Junior Olympics, yeah, junior Olympics, oh, junior Olympics, yeah, we qualified.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I played for a team up in Rockford. They were kind of the cream of the crop and they still kind of took all that good knowledge from California back to Michigan and from there. Once you're in the sport it's hard to get out and I found myself back in coaching.
Speaker 2:That's really sweet.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Noah, you come from a line of water polo players and swimmers. Tell me about how you got started.
Speaker 4:I do so my middle sister and middle brother both played polo in high school, Started sophomore in eighth grade year. So yeah, I started sixth grade with splash ball. Middle school polo, seventh grade, eighth grade I think there was a COVID year in there.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I've been playing since.
Speaker 2:So kind of like a family tradition almost right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sort of.
Speaker 2:And I kind of found that with a lot of you that's kind of a thing Grady for yourself.
Speaker 7:Yeah. So actually I always played lacrosse when I was like younger and stuff like that. I'd swam a little bit when I was like second grade. But eighth grade, like the team started back up after COVID and my mom signed me up. She's like, hey, you're gonna try this. And I was like I don't really want to. But she was like I think you'll like it, you are good at swimming, like when you used to swim. So I was like all right, I guess I'll try it. And that first practice I fell in love with the sport and I've done it since eighth grade now, so I had no clue what it was and then I tried it out. I mean, I knew noah and liam a little bit, but not like a ton stuff, and obviously now like some of my best friends. So I don't regret it a single bit is that a normal path?
Speaker 6:it's not normal that you're water polo player first and then you slide over to be a member of the swim program.
Speaker 7:So it's usually the opposite, yeah kind of well, I, I did not want to swim like at all and I broke my. I was gonna try for basketball. And then I broke my thumb because my brother and me were messing around stuff. So then I was like, well, I gotta do something during the winter. So as soon as I got my cast off I was like I'm gonna swim, just stay in shape for water polka, cause I definitely want to play freshman year. And then, and then I swam my freshman year Cause my brother's friends took me to practice, cause they made me.
Speaker 2:So let's take a little Grady along.
Speaker 7:So I just started off by playing water polo and then swimming after for shape, and now we just do both for fun, like they really go hand in hand.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, I I know I don't know what comes first, the chicken or the egg here with water polo and swimming. But then for yourself, liam, too, you were swimmer first and then water polo correct, so I started swimming.
Speaker 3:I think it was second grade or something. I've swum with noah since we were eight, nine years old. No, kidding I think noah told me about water polo and I was like okay and I kind of shrugged it off. And then eighth grade, my mom also signed me up for polo. She's like get in the water and do it. I showed up and I was a little skeptical at first, but it got fun pretty quick.
Speaker 2:Moms have a lot of pull right. Moms will kind of guide you in a direction. They see.
Speaker 6:Is that over at the Harbor Lights pool? It was A little chilling. You could just rip it as hard as you could.
Speaker 2:Oh, because you could stand in that pool shallow off the ground and just rip it it's like a what's the, what's the bouncy place you can go to and you can dunk.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like that sky zone, yeah, sky zone it's kind of like sky zone, for sure for you guys, though, you know, swimming is such an individual sport like it's a team sport right, we all get that but it's always about kind of getting your faster time. How is it, how much fun is it for you to go from swimming, where it's probably a lot different to, all of a sudden you're in this team sport, liam, and it's totally different atmosphere.
Speaker 3:I mean, I personally don't like swim that much. It's a lot of just in your head like swimming lap after lap. I love polo, I love talking to these guys and not just being in my own head, but I mean it is different Swimming can be that. Oh yeah, I mean, you're just swimming lap after lap after lap staring at the bottom of the pool.
Speaker 7:Singing the same five songs in your head, you know? Yeah, so, like me and Liam actually share a land in swimming, so we've gotten pretty good at starting a conversation, swim our set and then, like, as we finish, we talk on the wall for like two seconds in between.
Speaker 3:Keep the conversation up and then you go back.
Speaker 7:Like you get really good at that, just talking to everybody. You kind of think about like what you're going to say next and stuff. But like going from water polo season and like being a part of this team and stuff you get to know because majority of the team on water polo swims. So, especially for the freshmen, you get like you're like, oh, another season with you, you know, I mean it's great, like they already like are introduced to everything and so it's great. Just because, like, yes, you're like kind of like kind of more isolated, I guess, but not really because you still like talk all the time and stuff like that. So yes, it's individual, but like we share lanes with everybody and stuff, so you like talk and then like in between you'll swim, stare at the bottom and then you get to the wall talk.
Speaker 7:Stare at the bottom.
Speaker 2:Like it's just kind of like that nice little rotation.
Speaker 4:You get really good at just picking up conversations like 10 minutes later sure, sure, sure swimming, yeah, how about yourself? Yeah, I, I love it. I think it's a great break from that individual aspect kind of of swimming. And then you go to polo and it's just the opposite. It's all team orientated, thinking about where your teammate is, who you're passing to, how to pass it to them. It's a lot different, but I think it's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you guys do you know, being part of that team, you guys get that season started off at tunnel park. How much tunnel park conditioning is it just one day? Is it multiple practices out there? What's that like?
Speaker 5:yeah, I'd like to do more than one day but at least for you know, kind of keeping the guys in shape and also getting back in the pool. There's that balance of right. Let's have fun, but also let's get back in the pool for the strategy, because you can only do so much when it's come to conditioning and using the dune and for a lot of the guys, like some of the cross training, like they are very good in the water so you don't want to risk any injuries of the guy having some like tibia issues, certain splints, all that stuff that they're not maybe not used to being on the water. You're kind of used to different muscles being used. It's that balance of conditioning but also practical muscle and just getting back in the pool.
Speaker 2:It's a good time Land training versus water training.
Speaker 3:Is that difficult for you guys? I run a little bit outside of the pool. I try to. I'm not amazing but I can do it. It for sure helps with different muscle groups just working them.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I play lacrosse during the spring so I like go from a weird stage of like running to walk, but you swim it all summer and then you try to run. It's not fun.
Speaker 5:You try to run for a while. It's hard.
Speaker 7:Like it's difficult because you're so used to like I mean I guess like you're like laying down on top of the water so you're swimming that way. Then you go from standing straight up and down and you're trying to run. It's definitely you're a little sore those first few weeks and stuff that I've just straight up running.
Speaker 2:Is the conditioning at Tunnel Park. So it's one day that you guys go out there and have some fun. You do a lot of other things right Play volleyball, cookout, those kind of things. Do some runs up the big dune hill, we'll do medicine ball, we'll do a relay race.
Speaker 5:Well, you guys need to get a dyke him out there. Shoot a little video on this. Yeah, tunnel park training water, you know, go buoy to buoy.
Speaker 6:I remember a little bay watch action kovat forced us, you know, to do anything and I remember water, our water polo program at that time, going over and actually playing in the lake because you had to get outside yeah, in the spring and that was tough but we made it through is that, like a basketball game on an aircraft carrier, you could do like one water polo match per year in lake michigan, that'd be hype, yeah, I
Speaker 7:mean that'd be pretty fun, really open pool, that happens in europe.
Speaker 5:They play in the mediterranean, so oh, do they really?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, so I'm we're not stretching those Balkan skates they love it in the water, so it's a good show. Did you guys wear the Speedos out to the beach, Graney?
Speaker 7:We did our freshman year. Actually, we talked about it as a team In our freshman year. We were like, oh, we all wear Speedos. And everyone was like sure, because I think that was one we. It was a horrible snake.
Speaker 3:It was so awkward.
Speaker 7:Like everyone, we're all like we are like pasty white tan lines from like from summer, I was gonna say, are you working on the tent, trying to balance the tan line out a little bit. We were all like this is a horrible idea. So sophomore, junior and senior year, we're all just more normal swimsuits oh, you went back to normal.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, because it's not the most comfortable time when you're on a beach and the guy with the speedo comes by you know no no, it's very uncomfortable in general. So yeah, so that's pretty fun and you know that's also a bit of a recruiting day. You kind of have a jv team now which you haven't had before. Can you speak to that, alex?
Speaker 5:yeah, totally. I mean, part of like going to tunnel park was kind of bringing back those traditions that we'd had when I played, like kovid kind of did away with some of that with that loss of continuity. But it was really like, hey, let's bring guys together, it's a tough sport, let's have some fun. It's summertime. We're, you know the lakeside, so between you know cookouts, games, yard games, we you know group some, you know teammates from there. I mean, I mean I know noah brought a friend last year who became our starting goalie. So like some of those little things you're like, oh my gosh, like without that experience I could have thought you know we'd have a great goalie yeah, so know, for introducing people that are maybe like hey, what's the sport?
Speaker 5:I at least like these guys. I can, at least you know, play with these guys that I like as friends and from there you know, you're kind of in it together and it's been a great time, great experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of Carter Lawrence real quick, in the one game I watched. I watched that game against Saline. His first half was insane. I don't know if that, but he was making every save. It was incredible.
Speaker 7:Yeah, his like progress from just last year this year is incredible and stuff like it's in. It's like Like we always talk about, like you see, goalie, so they were like really tall, like skinny, lengthy guys and stuff like that, and like Carter Like anything like for like not like being like the tallest guy and stuff like that. He makes it up all with treading like he is a monster in that pool. You seem to his tread sets as goalie sets and like he's doing the trend sets full jug.
Speaker 7:I love the water and it drains and stuff. It's insane like he is.
Speaker 2:He's a beast this year is there an ability to get out of the pool too? Does he? Is that part of it?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah. So definitely all the treading he does, he'll wear two weight belts and then the, the big gallon, two gallon thing of water that really helps condition them all. The medicine ball jumps yeah that's pretty fun stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, his legs are. It sounds fun. He's got not in the water.
Speaker 6:But I, you know, I like to push weight around and you know that sounds fun yeah, it does. You had power strength now coach, over the last couple of years the program's really grown right. We had really small numbers, we were kind of piecing it together, guys playing in a lot of games. Now we're to the point where we have a jv team. Can you kind of talk a little bit about kind of what your, I guess, the approach that you've taken in order to help us begin to build those numbers back up?
Speaker 5:yeah, I mean it's been kind of like a grassroots effort between you know, know, middle school, splash ball, high school. It's been kind of an all hands on deck approach. So when I played, you know, our head coach had kind of excuse me, ran the whole thing. He did middle school, he did splash ball. So for me I'm like how can I kind of grow this program without a middle school team? In middle school it's all club based.
Speaker 5:So there you're like, hey, let's open up to like sixth through eighth graders. It's co-ed and then through that you're trying to figure out how can I make it fun, keep it competitive, and just from that, you know, the culture kind of speaks for itself. People want to play, they show out, they get to practice all in time, they're all ready to go. And it's really rewarding for me as a coach to kind of the fence. These guys have all played for about three or four years together as starters. So from having no JV to now having JV, it's really awesome to see. They can all watch, they can all learn, they can all practice six on six. So from that it's really just been like a perpetual motion machine and at this point we're hoping it keeps going.
Speaker 2:Let's just give a shout out to the players on the team this year.
Speaker 3:You guys want to walk through, who then maybe do JV? Yeah, so we can start with Graham Tlgetzky. I mean I think he started. He claims he started every single game his freshman year. I mean I don't know if that's exactly true, but for for a junior he's really solid. I mean he moves the ball, he does mostly what he's supposed to do, he swims up and down the pool, plays defense, plays offense. A really solid player all around, but yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and then we got obviously we talked about Carter and stuff, our goalie, great, I mean nothing all the good things to say about him. He's playing so amazingly right now. And we got Grant. Grant was one that we really wanted this year. He was not going to play at all because he was going to swim, because Grant's a really good swimmer, and he did not want to play at all. And I mean we all pretty good friends with them, so we just kept telling him like dude, you gotta play with us, like we need you, like we need to play and we're so glad he did.
Speaker 7:I mean, he is an incredible defender and stuff. He's got a great shot. He is quick like he's. He's a great polo player and we like we need him on this team and we love to have him on this team and everything yeah, so I'll talk a bit about Henry.
Speaker 4:Henry is great. He has that knowledge.
Speaker 2:What's Henry's last name? Henry Goetz. Okay, henry Goetz, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, henry, he's got to be one of the safest passes. I mean, you pass the ball to him. He sees the pool, he sees everywhere the ball could go, he's great at treading up on his defender, keeping keeping that ball away and great, great knowledge of the game it's really fun to have a player team that has vision isn't it yeah?
Speaker 2:if you know that player has vision, you kind of know every option's open. That's always fun to have that on a team, but there's you know there's more guys than that on the team, but just want to give a little shout to some of those guys because you know everybody matters in a sport. In a sport like water polo, where the numbers are down, you got to come out. Everybody is really, really important. We're gonna do something which I hate to do to you guys. We talked about this before you come on but we're gonna do a little water polo 101 because if you're listening out there, I'll just talk about myself. When I before I went to that match on saturday, I didn't really know anything about water polo. So why don't you guys take us through some of the basic things of it? To start Grady, you just want to maybe talk about the setup and what it looks like.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so water polo is a seven on seven based game, so like one of those seven is the goalie and then every game starts depending on the pool. Usually you do like a like your head on the lane line, cause there's like the goals, like set up, and then there's like a lane line across and stuff, so it's not like rubbing against the pool and stuff like that. So you have the sprinters on each side and they blow that whistle and everyone head on the lane line and two guys will just sprint for that ball and the ref drops it right in the middle and then you have you whoever's like following them and stuff and they flip it back and you set up in a normal like umbrella offense. So you have a guy in the middle and then you have your wings on the outside. You have your drivers who cut through the middle and then you have your point guy and your point guy is usually also your whole set defender and the whole set is the the guy who's in the middle it gets scrappy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, broad shoulders.
Speaker 7:Liam's our whole set and you got Henry's our whole set also and you just dump that ball down to them if they're open and they can turn a guy and just dump it into the goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really cool to see. I like the rubber outsides that they build. Do they build every pool that way so they get a uniform size?
Speaker 3:I mean no, every pool is a little different.
Speaker 2:So kind of like baseball, where you'd go to this ballpark or whatever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty much. I like shorter pools. I don't like swimming up and down. Our pool tends to be a little bit longer and wider than most pools, but you'll have pools that are almost half our length and narrower.
Speaker 7:Like 25. So when you go to a swim meet, you swim a 25. So they'll have their pool. It's almost like a square, so it only goes a 25 out, and our pool is closer to a 42 or something like that.
Speaker 5:So it's definitely longer. Yeah, there's base dimensions, if I could speak on that but otherwise, for the most part, the pool's kind of what it is like. For instance, grand haven's longer. That's usually like a more swimming based game. So for a strategy standpoint you're like all right, we got to make sure we're getting back, we're going to be worn down. So for at least you know that practice and prep. There's that element of all right. We can probably hangam's sake, you know, if he's playing up there and he wants to get those fast break goals, you can kind of time those better in the short pool versus getting all the way back. So there's some of that strategy element as well coach is gonna coach you, liam yeah coach is gonna coach is there a way to, I guess, scout the pool?
Speaker 6:do you guys ever find new opponents on your schedule and you're going into a place maybe you haven't played before and you walk in and you're like dang yeah, I can maybe speak on this.
Speaker 5:Just for you know, playing middle school and high school. This past year we're at, you know, at mason for middle school and these guys have not even played there in high school, so it's our first time going on the road. So I told the guys I'm like, hey, it's gonna be a short pool, like they only have so many like yards in their pool. It's gonna be condensed at 25 yards. So if we need to, you know we could hang back, but we got to make sure we're getting back like hustle back. There's no excuse. So having that inside edge usually helps. But on the other hand you're like, if you don't know the pool, you're kind of like up to just play your game, play the other team and uh, there is that edge for some of those pools, but for the most part you just kind of play the game, all right and there's.
Speaker 2:Then there's six minute quarters and one thing I didn't know was out there, but when I got to the game and started watching like, oh, this is great, the 30 second shot clock. How cool is that, noah yeah, so it's.
Speaker 4:It's a tool a lot of times. Yeah, so it's For defense. It's great because it's easy to press out on your guy, kind of make that space, make it harder for them to shoot, and then after those 30 seconds just book it down. But yeah, sometimes you leave five early if you know they're not going to shoot and score, and then that gives you a nice fast break.
Speaker 2:We're going in layers now. This is layers deep at this point.
Speaker 6:I think we need that shot clock in lacrosse Brady, I think so too, In college they have it and it's like 60 seconds something like that.
Speaker 7:Also, the other thing too is, when you play a regular season game, it's seven-minute quarters, and tournaments are six minutes.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, all right, there you go.
Speaker 3:That's the difference of regular season games versus tournament games, and then you also have four timeouts, three timeouts and then one, like setup timeout, and then regular and then two okay, in the tournament game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, so little differences between those things yeah, we do those with other sports.
Speaker 6:You know, grady, you've played in a couple of those days where we have multiple lacrosse games in the same day, so you kind of tighten the time down and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So I could see yeah and then I thought this was kind of a funny thing because I'm new to lacrosse, obviously, but the penalties.
Speaker 6:Water polo oh, did I say lacrosse, yeah, oh, all right, dan Grady, new water polo.
Speaker 2:But anyways, the penalties. What will happen is and sometimes it turns into a penalty shot and maybe we can explain that in a second, but other times a guy just swims right off and he might swim off right through the play to the corner them off right through the play to the corner.
Speaker 7:What's that? What's that all about? Um, it's, it's frustrating. I will not lie. I when like so that's a kick out. So in water polo you can get as many fouls as you want and you just generally get common fouls. Someone's pressing up, they're pushing you down a little bit, you kind of like. You find out like ways to draw a foul and stuff. Usually you lean into them and they almost like spin the ball. So if you don don't get it, you get the ball right back. Usually I would explain a kick out as like an over-aggressive foul. I feel like it's the best way to put it. So a kick out is like the ref will literally point at you, put you in timeout in the corner.
Speaker 2:Right, that's really what it is. That's how it is.
Speaker 7:So you just you can't play on them and stuff and you're in there for 20 seconds and then the ref will wave you back in. Or if it's a change of possession, you instantly get to come back in. But getting a kick out is sometimes you're like yeah, I got that, that was a kick out. Sometimes you argue that it wasn't.
Speaker 3:but you know it was and you just kind of have to go to the corner anyway, and this is the most experienced guy right here too.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I missed 15 games last year with a broken finger and I still had the most kickouts on the team.
Speaker 5:You're given three though. So if you didn't explain that you're given three per game, so it's kind of like in basketball, you can fall out with like five. So once you get two, it's kind of like alright watch yourself.
Speaker 2:But once you get that, third you the corner for the rest of the day. No, you're out of the pool. There's no corner of shame. We're going to do a few things with water polo now. We're going to talk about some different elements of it. So the first thing we're going to talk about is the roughness of water polo. When you guys walked in today, you kind of talked a few things about water polo and you're explaining what it is when people ask you what is this sport? A combination of Liam.
Speaker 3:I mean it's a lot of different things. They said rugby and that makes the most sense. It's a lot of physical contact, just kind of on top of each other grabbing that ball. I like to say baseball because you know you're throwing it Like you're throwing a baseball. Obviously it's swimming, a little bit of soccer. You know the way the pool is set up. I tend to say baseball and soccer that up I?
Speaker 2:I tend to say baseball and soccer, yeah, and even even when you're talking about it too, it's like you.
Speaker 4:You go for those passes to the corner, like grady will throw one kind of deep down the sideline yeah, yeah, a little football helmet there too yeah, it's, it's a combination of there's there's no two sports to put it with yeah, I was online like I normally do for these podcasts and came across this.
Speaker 2:It's played like a combination of soccer and basketball, with the physicality and endurance of wrestling and football. That's pretty close.
Speaker 6:After I watched it, and most of the roughness we're not even privy to as spectators in the crowd right Most of the roughness is happening underwater. Is that elbows a lot of rib shots Depends on who you're playing.
Speaker 3:If they're making you a little mad, you get a little more aggressive underwater. Just start poking and pushing them off. But it depends on who you're playing.
Speaker 5:The rule of thumb is if you can see it, you can call it, but we try to play hands out. We don't play below the belt, of course not.
Speaker 2:Why would you do that? Not you guys, coach? We were talking the other day, for anyone that's listening. We've all been at that summertime pool where there's been some rough housing, whether your older cousins are over or you're the older brother and there's a little brother there's a lot of that to this game. No, yeah, yeah, definitely there's a lot of yeah, yeah like your older brother dunking you under whatever, doing something under the water pool basketball, you're just no contact.
Speaker 5:All of a sudden you're wrestling and drowning each other.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of it is size, but also just getting in that good position for the ball or fast break or yeah, is there a way that people can get good at not having an infraction scene?
Speaker 7:yeah, I mean it kind of depends like obviously, like if you're a more experienced player, like you know, like you've been playing the game long enough, you know what people do and stuff. But also there's the aspect of just kind of like I wouldn't say laziness, but I mean that's like the only way I can think about. It is like if you're not, you don't want to swim all the way back, or like you don't want to like cut and you don't want your defender or your like say, and it's supposed to be a kick out. But I mean it all depends on what the refs see, obviously the refs watching the ball and making sure that like nothing like bad is going on over there. So it all depends kind of Sometimes like one thing that it's frustrating, like obviously if someone's holding you, it's very frustrating and you just kind of have to swim through it.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, like if someone's like especially in about this and stuff, because there's a lot of grabbing, a lot of holding and stuff. When you're cutting through, people try to stop you and it's all about like that kind of stuff. If you want to talk about it more, so yeah, I tend to play whole side a little bit more. There's a lot of grabbing, a lot of pinching, triceps and lats and just annoying little tendencies whole defenders have and you just it's more. It's almost a mental game. You know, don't let them get to your head, don't do something that's going to get you kicked out. But also you got to keep your hips up. Water polo is a game of the hips. If you have your hips up, you can step over your hips and then just grab the ball how do you keep your hips up?
Speaker 7:you just float yeah, you gotta like kind of like lean back and use your arms and like, especially when you play defense, like hips up is key. Because I mean I know you went to the game and you talked about noah's signature spin move and like if you don't keep your hips up, they, you can reach around them, you grab them and you just go right under because if it's underwater they can't see you're grabbing them. So if you keep your hips up, they can't grab you. You got to keep good position and like it's a whole, so like and it's clean.
Speaker 2:It's part of water polo yeah 100 a lot of technique, yeah, and that in the whole position. So if you haven't been to a water polo match, it is like I don't know. You're almost like posting up like basketball, right, You're like that pivot point. You're getting absolutely hammered in there.
Speaker 3:It's a wrestling match, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I was going to mention this a little bit later because I thought it was funny. But from my point of view, expression on your face, the whole game, from where I was, it's just this. This like face of frustration and anger and I'm angry at somebody. It was pretty funny to watch yeah, I want the selene game.
Speaker 3:There was one I was pretty mad at a call. This guy was holding me underwater, his hand on top of my head, and I came up and I was probably the most mad I've ever been in the game. No call and I was just sitting there dealing with it.
Speaker 2:I know I look mad, but well, to your credit, you didn't I couldn't breathe really yeah well, it didn't feel like you like reacted in a careless manner, you just kind of all right you got to control it a little bit.
Speaker 3:The refs can. If you react, they'll.
Speaker 5:They'll kick you out, they'll kick you out of the game, but yeah it happens, it happens yeah if the ref takes a slight of what you do to them like you're kind of taught to be like, hey, look at the coach, because I can look at the ref but you cannot, and if that happens they call it like a minor act of misconduct. We're out for 20 seconds. It adds to like a penalty or at least to the exclusion count.
Speaker 7:So if that were to happen but if that rises above that level, I'm pretty sure it did First tournament I yelled at the ref.
Speaker 5:Well, it didn't happen to Liam, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5:It can't be showing up the ref. They don't like that Coach?
Speaker 6:is there a certain style or body type that you're looking for that in the whole player? I just think, if it's the physical spot, is that where you're putting? Yeah, typically a bigger dude?
Speaker 5:typically yeah, and when it comes to like you know the lingo, like tread strength is really key, like we have, like you know kind of game that we do at the beginning of the year where we call it kind of a tread gauntlet, where we try to figure out right who's the strongest tread around the team. We kind of you know, winner advances up, loser goes down we try to figure out who's got the strongest legs, who keeps the hips up, who's really strategic with those legs, and you know, between the goalie and whole set you want those guys to be the strongest. So you know, between Liam Henry and, you know, carter, those guys have the best, you know, strongest core at the bottom there, and Liam's really good about, you know, using that upper body strength as well to kind of create that separation and advantage. So between you know, being strong, being strong in the legs, having as well to not rise above the occasion and get frustrated, typically it's strong legs, strong core, overall strength is probably the biggest key there.
Speaker 2:It seemed you guys can handle taking a verse like that during a game, when things don't go your way. You didn't seem to be a team that kind of lost it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So that's definitely one thing I see about our team. We're really good at keeping our emotions kind of unlocked, because what happened to Grady? If you react to that you, you get out. So that's definitely we're good at that. We just kind of shake it off and keep playing also coach helps us with that.
Speaker 3:He yeah sits us on the bench when we're getting too hot and tells us to cool off yeah, it's gonna have some bench time now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean at least now that we have subs more than often, but y'all let the guys speak on that.
Speaker 7:Definitely times you get really frustrated when you get shoved under and then you get a call on you for because it looks like they're like. The other day I got a turnover because I was underwater and it looked like I'm holding the kid underwater but yet he's just like that and in the ref's eyes it looks like you're pulling them under. Yeah, so you get up and you're like looking around and seeing which way the the ball is and stuff, and you're just like how, how is that my fault, you know? So it's like one of those things where you definitely get a little frustrated and just sometimes sit on the bench getting some water, just cool down for a second.
Speaker 2:It's always a good thing do people ever fake that you're fouling them? Like that's kind of my next question, like if I'm thinking, if I'm playing, I'm gonna make it look like this guy's yeah like water flop yeah does that happen? That happens too.
Speaker 7:All the time you have you have, it's a big water slap. You're going for the ball and so you can just see so much white water because someone's like slapping the water and obviously like when you're trying to draw a kick out, you definitely you over exaggerate a little bit like someone's holding you and it's not as bad as you appear, but you're going like. You just like completely sink, almost because they're pulling your leg a little bit. Sometimes, acting a little works a little in your favor sometimes which is part of every sport really.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's everywhere.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. It's unique, though, is they actually have a rule where it's called simulation, where if the ref sees that you're faking, they can actually create a turnover out of that. So if you're being too dramatic, some refs don't really like that at all and that can be reflective on you and it's a turnover. And sometimes those things get in the way. You're like are you sure I was acting? But sometimes the ref thinks that, and I think that's unique to water polo, where they can pretend that you're acting and use that against you and from an official standpoint, I'm sure you see the same officials all the time.
Speaker 6:right, there's not like an endless amount of water polo officials out there, so is that something that you are conscious of as well? Like very much say, oh, this is who we've got today. Okay, I got to make sure that I kind of keep things in check.
Speaker 7:A hundred percent. Like I mean some like you know, like also like you'll, sometimes like you'll do something. And then after the game, like for me and just me and Liam, yesterday I talked to official, like super nice, they're always really nice about it and there's like, hey, like I saw you do this and like next time, like this is kind of what I'm more looking for. Like, for instance, like for me, like yesterday, like I come across sometimes and sometimes it looks like I push the guy under and he's always like just make sure you keep like that hand like like off of them and stuff. So like just like nice pointers and you know what they're looking for. The more you have them and stuff, you know how like oh okay, I can't like be doing this way, this move this way, but I can do it this way because they will. That's more clean, if that makes sense, yeah one thing.
Speaker 2:One of the parents told me I was one of the moms. I talked to all three of your moms, so they give me the dirt on you guys? No, they're all very nice one cool thing that I didn't see coming was that you guys have your fingernails and toenails checked before each game. Oh, yeah, I mean, it makes sense to me now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you will come out of the pool with gashes on our chest, on our back. Uh, graham, actually yesterday he had and then like a really deep, two cuts on his like knuckle. It was really bad, just would not stop bleeding. Noah came out of the pool with a just straight claw mark across his chest, yeah. I'm glad they do check it though, because sometimes even the tiniest bit of nail so you guys have really nice fingernails then Well manicured. Oh yeah, Very well.
Speaker 2:Or nubs.
Speaker 3:Or nubs yeah.
Speaker 2:Bite them down to nothing as they go. Let's go to what's called the endurance of the sport, because this is a huge factor. The back and forth is is quite something, especially in these larger pools. You guys want to speak to kind of the endurance that is required of this sport yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4:So a big part of it is swimming, I'd say swimming down across the pool constantly driving for that ball is definitely hard. And then another part is that one-on-one like keeping the ball away from your defender playing a whole set d playing a whole set. It's definitely physically demanding.
Speaker 2:How long would bill kennedy last in the pool. You guys are down a player. For some reason, special rules made that the ad can jump in that day how long would kennedy last?
Speaker 7:At what position would he be playing? Does goal count? Yeah, I don't see why you couldn't play the whole game.
Speaker 5:I mean, we need somebody.
Speaker 2:I think we could just have you in the corner and you could be cherry-picking all game We'll just dump it to you I mean a regular person is not going to last long.
Speaker 6:Live arms play. No, I mean, I never was a competitive swimmer or water sport person Like I'm a power sport guy.
Speaker 5:Like the mechanics itself of just treading like if you're not able to tread.
Speaker 6:I can tread water all day, maybe that helps. Yeah, if you can tread, that would help. That fucking helps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, ball touches You'll just be in the pool.
Speaker 6:I'll just tread somewhere. I'll just be there, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a certain technique again. What's this? This egg beating technique is kind of a cool term. There's a lot of cool terms you guys have dropped so far. What have some of them been? This been the tread, what do you call that? You got the whole set. Yeah, the whole set, all that kind of stuff yeah, but the egg beating? This is just a way to stay up. Is it a little different than regular treading water, right?
Speaker 7:like I feel like when you get in a pool and someone's just treading water, you kind of just like kicking back and forth, like doing a like flutter kick and just kind of like moving your hands just to stay like balanced. Where, like egg beater, you go, I it's kind of hard to like like say it without like visually showing it, but you're kind of going like like a leg back and around you're tracing a d yeah almost yep, so you're going and then it's every other, so you kind of alternate your legs and then you get into this pattern.
Speaker 7:Like as soon as you get it down, it's just like second nature, like you get in the pool and it's just automatic and stuff you don't even have to like not even thinking about it.
Speaker 7:Yeah, like it's like and definitely like when you're trying to get out of the water, more like you will like pick it up and then you'll do almost like a breaststroke kick at the end there and stuff like it all kind of depends. But like the egg beater treading is just like something that like becomes second nature and it makes it like you kind of think like how did I ever tread the other way? Because it's so much easier to do this way, it's so much easier to stay balanced, so much easier to generate power and move, and it's definitely definitely takes practice and work and everything, but it's way more efficient than just how long does it take to get good at that if somebody comes out as a freshman? And they start playing.
Speaker 2:How long are is it going to take till they get good at something like that?
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously it takes a long time to get pretty good at anything, but as the course of the season goes on you only really get better. I mean you start out just sitting on the pool deck just tracing the d with your feet other other, and then you get in the water practice that get out, do, and then it's just repetition until you can do it as long as you need to.
Speaker 5:But the whole season. You just get better and better, adding endurance, you know, trying to get strong over time, making sure you have the stamina for it. It's one thing to have the motion, but if you're not able to like hold it for a minute, hold it for two minutes, you can't hold a pass, can't hold a right. Can you do it? Let's get some strength on top of that. We have weight belts for kind of increasing that strength as well. More weight over the hips really just helps. The guys with you know that. Stamina and endurance, yeah, it's definitely a process.
Speaker 2:Does endurance separate a lot of teams in the pool Like? Is there like different levels? What part does endurance have in separating teams? Coach.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'd say for our guys that's their biggest strength, for I mean, depending on for a few of them they played, you know, three years as starters for a whole varsity line and because of our numbers, for the last couple of years they had to play nearly a full game for the player's safety. I didn't like want to do that, but I'd ask the guys like hey, who needs a break, who wants out? They don't want to stay in? I get them some water on the bench. You can really see that translation from swimming to water polo and from that you know the other players kind of see that they try to emulate that from seeing these leaders here. So we try to keep it up in the pool in practice, but for the most part the guys do it themselves. We try to work around it when it comes to the team. Yeah, it's been fun to see for the last, you know, three or four years as these guys have grown and gotten better all around.
Speaker 2:What's the weight room been like for you guys with Panther strength?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that's been a lot of upper body and lower body actually. Yeah, a lot of pull-ups, a lot of jumps box, jumps on the stairs. We did a lot of that. Push-ups, just all that kind of stuff that you think of like a shooting motion for the ball. Yeah, a lot of ab work too. That's been definitely our most important thing, just for crunching get that ball some power.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's like the practical application of what's going on there. You can see or feel the difference as you play.
Speaker 7:Yeah, definitely. We definitely focus on shoulders to prevent shoulder injuries and stuff and just make sure your legs are strong and feel good. But the abs is a huge thing for water polo, especially with you got a speed of one for goodness sakes. So yeah, but for shooting and passing it just makes it like, you know, it's just, it's just very important shooting and passing yes resistance bands are huge for just, you know, having that be like kind of more just body based instead of weight based.
Speaker 5:You're kind of just keeping that body elastic and keeping it tight as well. Who's?
Speaker 6:the strongest guy on the team.
Speaker 5:I mean Liam's right here. So I want to say Liam, but I think Henry could probably outdo him Henry or Carter.
Speaker 6:Yeah, henry, henry's a big guy.
Speaker 5:He plays rugby. Brute strength, yeah, he's. I mean, between the size and strength you could probably put those guys together and who's stronger together in the pool, but Liam's pretty strong. No offense to these guys.
Speaker 6:Yeah, who's the guy with the best endurance on the team? From like a straight up, they can just swim all day.
Speaker 5:If you ask me, grady and Noah, they kind of go hand in hand. Grady himself is a long course swimmer, like the 500, he got a state cut. Noah's got the speed to go with, he's our sprinter. So Noah, noah's kind of like in that hybrid spot. He can sprint, he can do it all, he can stay in the pool for the whole game. And for me as a coach I'm like sweet, I'll give you a break so you can keep that speed, but he's also able to stay in the game. Help on defense. It's great having that asset for long course endurance.
Speaker 2:And Noah, you do that sprint to the ball as well. What's it like to get? Are you a 60-40 guy? How are you how you feel you're doing in that spot?
Speaker 4:I don't want to sound no, don't sound anything. It's numbers and numbers 70, 30 ish sounds that's a nice advantage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what every quarter? So you're gonna get yeah start hockey.
Speaker 5:Face off. You like those odds, right?
Speaker 2:you'd rather have the ball than not.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, definitely been doing it freshman year. I think that's a big part that my technique since then has changed so much. Oh, explain that. Yeah, so I was always starting with my feet facing out, head against the lane line, then push towards the middle of the pool, but now I've been kind of starting with my feet facing back and then get a big breaststroke kick into it and I feel personally that's what works best for me.
Speaker 3:You can't push off the wall.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not off the wall, just kind of starting in that swimming position.
Speaker 2:Oh interesting.
Speaker 6:Yeah, remember when I first came to West Ottawa, when I was in Forest Hills, we had like maybe a unified program at that point, just on the girls' side, and the first time I came to a water polo match it was sam smith. Uh, was the guy doing the sprints? And I'm like steve, who is this kid? He was a freak of nature in the water.
Speaker 5:Um, funny because he's a freshman when I was a senior, so like to see his growth and evolution like they were a really good team when they were seniors, so I'm sure when you saw him. He was in his peak of his powers.
Speaker 6:He was a beast.
Speaker 2:The conditioning is a huge part of this. And then, liam, you start losing some of your conditioning or your endurance stuff. You have a kind of event happen in your life where you have a heart condition come up. I think it was, was it during Christmas, when you were right? In that area, yeah, or when did it start for you? Did it start in the season, or what was that?
Speaker 3:like. So I actually started having symptoms. Sophomore swim season, so that was I don't know sophomore year, and I just kept dealing with it. I didn't really want to solve it because then I'd have to probably get out of the pool and keep practicing and it wasn't like hindering my performance at all. And then towards the end of the year I had to actually get out of the pool during a meet because I got super dizzy and super weak. I was like, all right, well, maybe I should try to figure this out.
Speaker 3:So I went to a couple doctors and then I went to a cardiologist and they ran two or three EKGs and they were like, hey, you have this. And I'm like, all right, I don't think that's what that is, because I just I didn't feel it. So they put a monitor on me and I was actually at the beach running with my cousin and they caught like the it was an irregular heartbeat is what it was. And they caught it. They're like, oh, you actually have SVT, which is what it was. I was like, oh, so what does that mean? Like you actually have to get a heart procedure, and I was a little bummed about that, but I pushed that towards the end of last water polo season so I could compete with it throughout the whole season. It didn't really hinder my performance that much I would know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he was good about keeping that in mind. We'd get him out of the pool. His family was all aware of what was going on. We had the EAP plan, of course, in place as well.
Speaker 3:Good to have that in plan. And then junior swim season. So I got the procedure. After water polo season I was like okay, season swim season's gonna be great. I have no heart problems anymore, I can practice and then first meet. I jump in the pool and 250 beats per minute like well shoot wow, yeah 250.
Speaker 2:What's that feel like physically for your body to be doing that Horrible?
Speaker 3:I almost passed out, just can't lift my arms.
Speaker 2:That's like four ghosts or something.
Speaker 3:It was bad.
Speaker 2:That's a caffeine drink by the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was not allowed to have those at all.
Speaker 3:My mom would have killed me. So junior swim season I'm like, shoot, I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I can't really practice. I thought this was supposed to be my breakout year. So they're like hey, you can either deal with it or get another procedure. And I was like, well, I could probably get another procedure, I don't know how long that'll put me out for. And I actually got it on Christmas Eve. So I was out for the whole winter break practice, which is kind of a big deal for swim. I wasn't really there.
Speaker 2:You guys want to what was it like for you guys to have a teammate have to go through that me and liam share a lane together, so I was by myself for so long oh, you missed, your missed, your friend.
Speaker 7:I'll be swimming and then I'd like do a flip turn, because you circle, swim obviously no, there's no chit chat.
Speaker 2:Where's the guy I'm talking to?
Speaker 7:I would turn and I'd be like, where did Liam go?
Speaker 3:I'm out dying on the pool deck.
Speaker 7:So we would do so. Then, like, when he came back, what was it like right at the end of like Christmas?
Speaker 3:break, first week of January or something. Yeah, I mean, you were not out for very long, maybe a week.
Speaker 7:But you know, just like being able to see him and obviously during polo season, like it was like such like a thing where you're like, are you gonna be okay, you know, and so we're just like glad you're good this year and everything, thanks yeah, welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot to go through. It's nice to have you back. I was surprised how quick you came back too. Your mom said, yeah, it was only seven to ten days, and he's right back at it the first one was definitely worse.
Speaker 3:I don't know what. They put me under something pretty bad and I was out for two weeks. But the second one it was a lot, a lot smoother recovery. But I also think having an end goal in my mind, like I really wanted to get my state cuts, I think having that in mind kind of sped up my recovery a little bit, like I need to get back in the pool.
Speaker 2:I need to work for this yeah, let's, let's talk about that, because I believe you missed it as a sophomore correct, right. And then you really, really wanted it. This comes up and you're like man, am I gonna get the chance? But then you go and get that state cut. What, what race was it in?
Speaker 3:200 I am, and the hundred fly.
Speaker 4:So congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 6:I'm a big fan of getting over to the state meet or getting to the conference meet. I love to post up with coach johnson and boyer on the on the pool deck. Those are fun great guys, by the way they're, they're awesome, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, another great part of having that procedure done now, of course, though, is you get to jump off the pier again. Oh yeah, and head deep yep, yep tell us about that.
Speaker 3:so yeah, grant and I, actually we like to go dive off the pier and go free diving down for some free fishing lures. You know people get snagged all the time when they're fishing, so we go grab pliers and rip them out of the ground.
Speaker 2:How far down are you going, by the way?
Speaker 3:25, 30, 35 feet, I mean even now going down. I still have a couple of regular heartbeats. It's not fully fixed, but it's not 250 beats per minute for five minutes at a time. It's an irregular beat here and there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was out there one year and guys were spearfishing. They were going down the bottom and they were obviously they would come back to the surface. You could see it. I thought it was great. What's it?
Speaker 3:like down, when you get down by the bottom of the pier Peaceful, there's no sound, you see fish here and there, but you're by yourself, really just on the bottom. I don't know how else to describe it. It's really peaceful.
Speaker 2:How long are you able to stay down there?
Speaker 3:Being a swimmer helps, for sure. I can do probably a minute and a half at a time.
Speaker 7:I don't know how you do that. That's something. Are you wearing a mask?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got a mask and I put wetsuits on fins on Figuring yeah, that's got to be cold. Yeah, but a minute and a half is probably my longest just down there figuring out what's on the bottom. We have it pretty mapped out at this point actually.
Speaker 2:And that's the place you go to when you're in the hole and guys are pummeling you.
Speaker 3:Yep, just go back to my happy place at the bottom of the lake. Find your happy place, happy.
Speaker 2:And you head on down there, so that's a cool story. I really like that you guys are doing that. One really cool thing about your guys' sport is the varied physical abilities everybody has. We have three guys sitting here right now that are very different physically from each other. Coach.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, yeah, depending on how they are built with genetics, grady's pretty tall and lanky. No, it's kind of like short stock with that burst of muscle, and then liam of course kind of has that you know broad shoulder back to. You know really hold that whole set off. So I mean they're all really strong, they're all really in great shape. But depending on you know that length for grady, he can kind of get to some of those steals. I know what's really good about using that you know kind of center of balance to kind of help get out of position to keep those hips up and whole set defense I should say. And then liam, you know, with that tread, strength, shoulders, all that stuff, I wish I could kind of combine all these guys and be one, you know, great player but they're all great.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they're all separated, so it's great to have three.
Speaker 2:I'd rather have three versus one yeah, I think it's just really cool because you know, oh, I'm not gonna do this sport, I I'm not tall enough to do this sport, or whatever. But in this sport here, you can be so different and just add different elements to it. Maybe why don't you guys talk about Noah just for a minute, what he brings to the team, what you like about how he plays the sport?
Speaker 7:I mean Noah, like every year, like I'll be, like he's so good, and then I'm like there's no way he can play any better, and then the next game.
Speaker 7:He just plays even better. It's insane to me. Every time we play I was like that was such a good game and then I was like I don't like it, and then he just plays even better the next game. It's insane. He's so fast, he's so smart. Noah does this move. Noah's our whole set defender and and he does this move where I don't know how he does it, but he like gets almost around him and he has both of his hands up in the air and cause you can't like push down at all. And every time he steals the ball and it is so impressive to me like he's played such good defense and his offense is speed Like you'll he'll be in whole set D. You look up, you get the ball, you're looking up the field and he's you play so great like. And every year it just gets even more impressive to me and stuff like that's like it's awesome to have someone who's such a good defender and then such a good like offensive moves off.
Speaker 2:He goes quick. It's that's around yeah, it's incredible I call.
Speaker 3:I want to call mr reliable. You know I like he was saying about henry, like having that safe pass, he's always that safe pass. You know he's not going to lose the ball, he's not going to do something stupid with the ball, like he has the vision, like we were talking about before. And then on the sprints, it's like I can put my head down and just swim to the other end of the pool and know noah won that sprint right, without second guessing you're stopping to see if you got to go the other way, yep yeah
Speaker 2:thanks, guys, appreciate that yeah grady is a very special player out there. I know you guys know this Very, very long, lots of great endurance as teammates, having Grady out there. What's it like for you just to know that Grady's on your team? He is a very Coach. He does lots of different things. I mean, I see some Instagram posts where Grady scored five goals and then the next game, the goals are in other spots and Grady's doing all these other things. Can you speak to Grady a little bit?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the amount of assists this guy gets. I mean just he sees you dime pass, perfect pass every time. Shoot it right in that goal, awesome with assists. Just his shots at the end of the quarter, like when or red clock, you know you got to shoot the ball, you got five seconds Just winds it up, shoots it corner most of the time right in that corner.
Speaker 4:But awesome accuracy for the shots I think they're great and just overall really good at, you know, turning defenders getting through, driving great at driving. And then just yeah, game sense too, it's awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Sometimes he steals the ball and I'm like, how did that just happen? He had eight steals in our game last night. And I have my head down, I'm on the other end of the pool and I see the ref blow the whistle and point in our direction. I'm like, how did we get the ball? And I see grady with the ball throwing it to me so I can score it here, and I'm like, wow, that's just awesome thank you, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, there's times, even the selene game I was. I I was taking turns watching each of you. I didn't know you at all, I didn't know who liam was like. I think that's liam now that I know who that is. But even watching you great it's just. You're very like adept at it's one arm up. You're just kind of moving this guy back and forth defensively and all of a sudden snatch right like you kind of like fame these guys into thinking things are safe or they can make that pass. Then you take it away yeah, no, it's definitely.
Speaker 7:Sometimes, though, I get a little too ahead of myself. I know I got long arms and I'll reach a little too far and I'll get a kick out. Like that's kind of sometimes I got to like do that. But it's definitely like definitely just getting the game sense of like playing for so long. And I know like Noah's going to like if that ball goes in the middle, I know Noah's got it so I can press out to my guy and I'll get in his face and make it hard to throw around my arm. And Liam plays great one-on-one defense so like I know if Liam's dropping or Liam's guy like it leams on their shooter and stuff, like I can press out and maybe cause a turnover if they throw it right to Liam. I know Liam's getting in that ball or like it's just nice to know that, like all the team around us has got it, so I can just kind of try to do my thing and just get in the way and with having long arms, it just makes it a little bit easier to get to the elbow or get to the ball and just knock it loose and whatever then you got, you got liam in the hole here, fellas yeah, I mean imagine playing first of all, just imagine playing that position on the regular you
Speaker 7:know like being there and doing that every single game yeah, sometimes, like when we play like you play a team who's like really, really good you mean they have really good whole defender so'll, like me or Noah, will slide in just to get Liam some space, because Liam's so powerful. We run a play him and Graham. I think it works like every time and he cuts down and Graham throws it over the top to Liam and he just backs up that kid and like almost into the paint Like you think about basketball just backing him up and Liam will just rip a backhand or he'll step out and just dunk it on the goalie. Every time he's so strong. You're like, oh, there's Liam.
Speaker 7:I'm going to slowly start swimming back to get to the middle because you know he's about to sink it, or he's going and you can tell, okay, that guy's going to come back down. I'm going to cut. Liam's going to make a great pass. It's just so nice to. You're just saying like like Liam's, like you gotta throw me the ball, like I got this, you know, I mean like I got this like you. You're like all right, and you throw it to the ball yep, of course he's got it turns him just, dunks it in like it's just like and going back to earlier, you said, like what's the DKO?
Speaker 5:like Liam's really good about using that strength and getting that advantage where you can get that drawn kick out. So with that ball and hole set, you're giving that advantage as offense. To think, hey, if you have that scoring position and they get that foul from behind, you get either a five-meter that's like a penalty shot in soccer, you want one-on-one with the goalie, otherwise you get a six-on-five. You get that power play opportunity. You get 20 seconds for that. So, depending on getting that goal or getting that kick out, it really puts's in foul trouble. Let's get our guys out, let's get those guys going. And yeah, he's the all-around guy on whole set there yeah, so you'll see him.
Speaker 4:I'll be at point, I'll see him. He'll give me that nod and I know I just pass it right in, shoots it right away. He he's great at every time after we get a goal they get, they get a goal. He'll look at me he'll say, hey, watch, drive, watch, play, watch, this, play, watch me in set. He's good at calling out, telling people hey, drive, now, get out, press out. Like. He's great at communicating with the team and also just like letting you know when to do what, when to pass the ball when to shoot the Really and you're just doing a lot of that with your facial expressions.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, I mean really right, you get to know each other pretty well, maybe fight with middle school.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 6:The chemistry between you guys is palpable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 6:I can just tell that you guys are around each other all the time. You know your energy feeds off of each other. It's really cool to see.
Speaker 2:Let's each other it's really cool to see.
Speaker 5:Let's do a couple things.
Speaker 2:I want to do this. When we got in. One thing I'd like is his backhand shot. You did one on saturday and I was like dang, I want to do this. How common is a backhand?
Speaker 5:shot. Is that a normal thing in water polo or? I mean, when I played it was always a strategy of whole set to be like, hey, if you can't get that sweep shot, watch, it's like turning that forehand, it's like in tennis. We're like, hey, get those elbows out, tread out, try to get that quick shot on the goalie. So some guys are really good about doing that on the swim. Otherwise I prefer to have that be out of a set position. But for liam, like, if he's in that position, back on that guy out. You just got to think the goal's right behind me, what could I do with this? And he's good about knowing that. You know cage awareness, keeping the ball in the frame.
Speaker 2:So you cage awareness another great water polo term just brought out. What's it like for you? Are you setting that move up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. It's pretty fun to watch, to be honest, you kind of just beg for the ball. You know you have your guy, you have his hand on the tip. You can't do anything about it. So you know, once you get the ball, it's game over. You just chuck it in.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you got a hand on his tip and he's probably what you kind of push him.
Speaker 3:so I'm a righty, I would prefer the ball here, so I can shoot here. So I kind of get him on my left side, so I'll kind of seal him off with my shoulders to the left side. Give Noah or Grady or someone that nods, set the ball in and then I'll just rip it.
Speaker 2:You guys know what's coming, oh yeah.
Speaker 7:And you also know shot clock, awareness and stuff. If the ball's low, you almost like, you almost like just step up, like you're gonna shoot. They slide up and then just dump it right down to him and stuff, and he'll get that and you know well, that's a goal, because he's like perfect position. You know that's fine.
Speaker 2:So the uh this, we talked about this before we got in here too is your your, your move that you did on the outside this spin move thing that you did? You had the ball, I think you had it out in your left hand or whatever, and you're up on your guy and you went underwater. The ball stayed up yeah, and all of a sudden, you're around him. What's going on on that move?
Speaker 4:yeah, so that's. Grady is way better at turning people than I am, but yeah, I'd try that some. I tried out. Sometimes I experiment with the turning the ball, turning the guy with the ball. You think of it as it's like trying to like go one way a little and then kind of going under and sweeping around and get around them, and then you just got to quick, get up, swim that through and then it's just you, your defenders, back behind you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're just kind of wiping the guy right out of your way.
Speaker 4:It's hard.
Speaker 2:How much fun is it to pull that move? Off, you guys talk about that after the game.
Speaker 7:It's a great feeling, but when it happens to you, you're like this is so embarrassing. Right now You've got to keep your hands up so you don't get a penalty. You're just like this is really embarrassing that I'm just getting turned down.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's like a nutmeg in soccer when it does happen to you. You're like, oh no, but yeah, the guys are great at that let's get to goals of the year.
Speaker 2:Last year you made that run to regionals, had a big win over grand haven to get there. What are your goals this year? Maybe, liam, you want to start it off. Maybe as a team, what are you guys trying to?
Speaker 3:pull off I mean I think states is the end goal. I think that would be amazing. As a team, we're 10th right now. I mean I don't see why we can't make state tournament no, for sure, for sure, I 100% agree.
Speaker 7:I think, going into this season, we all like, obviously us three seniors and we're like this is our last year. I mean this is me. I mean we want to make states and we haven't made it in a while. I know that. So last year going to regionals was awesome, but we're like, all right, we've got to make it to. We got enough depth and I, honestly, starting the season this year, we were like this is like we look good, just even start the season. So we just got to make sure we win those key games and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so state definitely, and also just preparing the younger guys, not necessarily underclassmen, but preparing for next year when us three aren't there. We definitely want to have the team all set up and good Start building that chemistry among those younger kids and, yeah, it's a big part of it too, it's not the first time we've heard that.
Speaker 6:No, it's one of those things. As we continue to do these podcasts, we sit down with a lot of seniors. It's really cool, as the AD, to hear seniors really looking out for the kids that are coming behind them and really trying to leave a legacy right. It's kind of you guys are helping to build that culture that coaches helped kind of promote and get us to this point, and you guys want to see it for the next group. So kudos for you for for having that mentality. It's appreciated.
Speaker 2:When's your next game, when you play again?
Speaker 5:Well, there's a JV tournament this weekend, but for varsity we play at Rockford next Monday. So that's going to be our first conference game. That's going to be tough. They're the top team in the state. They're known to be a powerhouse. So if we can go into that game, kind of give it our best, show them what we're made of. We have another game on Wednesday against Next week's going to be pretty tough Running the gauntlet.
Speaker 5:huh, yeah for us to be playing those games away. It'll be a tough road trip, but I mean that's what you play for. I mean you want to give your team a chance. It always is 0-0. I tell the guys you know defense wins the game. If we give no goals up, let's get a goal. But easier said than done. But when it comes to strategy like Rockford, of just dominance state, by state by state yeah so from people that have played, parents that have kids there.
Speaker 5:It is a unique program, to say the least, and they have a lot of depth.
Speaker 2:When are you next here at home, our first home game is 22nd, 22nd, yeah, yeah, against East Kentwood. All right 22nd against East Kentwood our pool. Get out there South High School, yeah, I was kind of thinking of a little challenge to the Panther Nation.
Speaker 5:It's like we always go to the same sports.
Speaker 2:All of us do, I mean even me. That was my first water polo, like ever, but it was really enjoyable to go. So if you're listening to this, try and do something different, like go to an event you'd never go to because the rewards are great, you get to watch these other athletes play and there's all these other great sports out there. So a little challenge.
Speaker 6:There we go, black hole.
Speaker 2:We love it 22.
Speaker 6:You're on the clock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, so we'll see you. Hopefully we'll see you on the 22nd.
Speaker 6:Good luck this week, guys, it's been really good to sit down much guys.
Speaker 4:Thank you, thank you, thank you.
