Boys State Tournament

Finally, we've made it to the last tournament of the high school water polo season.  "Let the wild rumpus start."

There is always a little time standing around and waiting for the game to start.

Generally, they have to be there in time for the game ahead of theirs so they can start warming up at half time and be ready to play when it ends.  Awesome that they are all wearing their caps in the stand.

Nervous anticipation.

And maybe some fatigue after a whole weekend of playing games.

Lined up and waiting for the pool to clear out so they can get in.

Some go for the dive in technique.

And others (like Jonas), go for the hop over the lane line technique.

Warming up with egg beater and ball passing.

Time to play.

Jarom (one of my favorite kids ever) making a shot.

Our fantastic goalie, Phil. 

Brian

And of course, Jonas.

The ball floating in the middle of the pool is kind of like the calm before the storm.

Several of the girls showed up to support the boys.

In the end, they finished 4th over all, which is fantastic. Three years ago, they placed 22nd.  Two years ago, they made a huge jump to 11th.  (The year of the heart breaking stolen state tournament game.)  Last year, they were 8th and this year 4th.  For a team to have made that kind of progress in that amount of time is pretty amazing.  I just hope we'll continue to see them improve despite losing some fantastic senior players.  The team and the coaches were thrilled with the outcome and that's what is most important.

Go Skoly!