Led by coach Elizabeth Savickas, the girls’ water polo team took an interesting approach to strengthening their numbers in their season this year. To bolster their members and make sure there is a team that aligns with each player’s experience level, East and North came together across the river to create a co-op.
Savickas said, “…by coming together, we’ve made the sport stronger, and we have appropriate levels for all athletes to play.” The new and improved team has junior varsity and varsity.
The co-op creates more opportunities for players at different levels to gain skills. Sophomore Ella McKenney said, “[Joining water polo] was probably the best decision I have ever made… co-oping this year was a lot of fun because I like being able to play for JV and varsity and getting to see the difference between the different levels.”
The biggest takeaway of the experience was how enjoyable it was to join forces with the North girls that they otherwise wouldn’t have met.
Savickas said, “…currently we are having a really fun time getting to know each other and getting better in our sport.”
Sophomore Daisy Marshall commented on the benefits of the co-op, “I’ve gotten to know a lot of people from North after them being like our arch-nemeses,” she continued, “I’m glad we did the co-op. I was a little skeptical at first, as we all were, but I’m grateful that we did.”
Sophomore Gwen Reed said, “I think the co-op with St Charles North made the water polo team so close… our relationships with them [the North students], both in and out of the water, are so important to me, because those are the girls who I rely on every single day I come to play.”
Regarding some of the best parts of water polo, many of the team members reflected that the satisfaction of winning is well worth it after their hard work.
Reed said, “Just knowing that you did it and you gave it your all, and it paid off at the end, when you look at the scoreboard and that clock runs out fourth quarter, and you’re just so happy [that you won].”
The water polo co-op is expected to be a recurring facet of East and North in the coming years.
