Villa Notes
Vol. 69, No. 2 Villa Maria Academy 2403 West 8th St., Erie, PA 16505 October 2002
Pleading to be heard: the Water Polo club
Jenn Tucker
Staff Writer
At 6:15 each morning,
their alarm clocks sound, and
they drag themselves from
bed, exhausted. Fifteen
minutes later, they slowly
begin to congregate at the
Villa Center. By 6:30,
twenty-odd girls plunge into
frigid water to begin a day
that often will not end for
another seventeen hours.
They are the girls of the
Water Polo club, and they
want to be a team.
The Water Polo club
was born in 1998, in
response to an interest
expressed by many Villa
swimmers. In the clubs
infancy, victories were few,
and disappointments
abundant, but over the past
years, the club has slowly
evolved into a fierce
competitor on the
Pennsylvania water polo
scene.
Now, well into its fourth
season, the club boasts a
membership of twenty-three
dedicated girls, many of who
are graduating seniors. For
those girls who have been
with the club since its
establishment, water polo is
not merely an activity to pass
the time, but rather a
passion, and a way of life.
From the beginning of
August until late October,
these girls live, breathe, eat,
and sleep a sport they love.
Water polo demands
extreme amounts of time,
energy, perseverance, and
commitment. The girls
estimate that they devote
about forty hours a week to
the sport, between practices
and tournaments.
A typical day in the life
of a water polo players
includes a before school ball-
handling and treading
practice. Following a full day
of school, the girls head to
the weight room (but only in
the early part of the season)
to train. Then, after a little
homework and perhaps even
a snack, its back to the pool
for another two-hour practice,
which consists of forty-five
minutes of challenging lap
swimming, ten minutes of
treading drills, forty-five
minutes of passing and
shooting drills, and twenty
minutes of all-out
scrimmaging.
Not only is water polo a
physically demanding
commitment, but one that
also requires an unusual
amount of parent
participation. Since there is
only one other girls water
polo team in the Erie area,
the club must travel a
minimum of two hours to play
teams in surrounding areas.
In fact, most of their
tournaments are at least six
hours away. Parent
volunteers give of their time,
and often their money, to
transport the players from
Erie to their weekly
tournaments.
During the eight-week
competitive season, only one
tournament is held in town,
so organization undoubtedly
plays an essential role in the
clubs success. In order to
arrive promptly at
tournaments across the
state, multiple vans usually
depart from the Villa parking
lot around noon on Fridays.
After trekking hundreds of
miles, the girls play a game
that night, catch about seven
hours of sleep in a motel,
and rise a seven oclock in
the morning to begin another
long day. In a typical
tournament, the girls play
four games throughout the
day on Saturday, and begin
their homeward voyage at six
in the evening. They roll into
Erie at about one in the
morning on Sunday, and
collapse into their beds,
where they find peace at last.
It should be noted that
each member of the water
polo club is expected to pay
many of her own expenses,
which amount to a sizeable
sum of money. Tournament
expenses alone include
meals, gas, tolls, lodging,
referees, tournament fees
and pool time. In addition to
these expenditures member
must purchase bathing suits
and clothing. In order to
reduce the price expected of
each girl, the club holds car
washes and clothing sales,
the proceeds of which are
still insufficient to cover all
costs. The school does
contribute some money, but
again, that is not enough to
cover all costs.
If water polo were to
be recognized as a sport,
Villa would cover expendi-
tures of the team, but
realistically speaking, water
polo is an incredibly
expensive sport. In light of
the numerous costs incurred
throughout the season, it is
not surprising that water polo
has maintained club status
for the past four years. That
is why, says captain
Adrienne Fischer, the club
would be content to simply
obtain the classification of
hybrid sport, in which
member are still expected to
cover their own expenses.
After speaking with
senior members of the club, I
learned that the monetary
issues concerned with
remaining a club carry far
less importance for members
than their general lack of
recognition by the school.
For example, at pep rallies,
the Villa community
energetically encourages and
applauds the efforts of
athletes. Yet water polo
players are not among those
recognized because
technically, what they do is
not considered a sport.
Perhaps I am biased,
having played polo for the
first two years of my high
school career, but I
admittedly feel that the girls
of the water polo club
deserve to be seen, heard,
and supported. If, after
reading of the rigorous
demands imposed on
members of the club, you too
are not of the same opinion, I
urge you to attend just one
water polo game. My words
may prove insufficient
persuasions, but the twenty-
four minutes of battle waged
in the water speak loudly for
my appeal, and similarly the
petitions of twenty-three
other girls. If water polo is
not a sport, then I shall be
forced to consult Webster on
the proper definition of the
word