Water Polo? Sports?
Apparently these two words go together because on Friday, September 15, San Joaquin Delta College hosted a Water Polo Invitational. The event was to be held from September 15th through the 17th, so in other worlds three days of fun in the sun. Days being literal because the games started early and finished later in the day than one would expect.
The whole event was in honor of Bill Anttila, U.S water polo hall of famer. Anttila was the first Delta water polo coach and first ever University of the Pacific. He is well known in the central valley for water polo and as stated on the deltacollege.edu had ties to many referees, coaches, and contributors known today. This list includes Bob Gaughran and John Felix.
For it’s 38th year, there were 12 to 15 teams. Water polo teams coming from West Valley, DVC, Merced, Modesto, Las positas, Santa Rosa, Cabrillo, and San Jose State.
For those that don’t know sports Coach Maroney, head coach, and Dalton Castro, delta water polo player, simplified the game for those lost souls. Basically the field is set up like soccer but played like basketball. There’s a total of seven people per team on each side, six being field players and one the goalie. “The job of the six field players is to get the ball and put it inside the cage within the span of thirty seconds that they are provided by the shot clock. If they do not score the the other team can get the ball and try to score within the other side . If they do happen to score the game stops, it goes to like a restart. Kind of like a football after the play. Everyone goes back to the line and then the team that got scored on gets the ball.” Castro
During that weekend Delta had gone head to head against West Valley and DVC on Friday, losing to West Valley. Though the team gained redemption against Las Positas and Merced the next day. As explained by Castro the first day was the hardest games for the team, especially with West Valley being the biggest competitor. So much more effort was put on in the first day so when the second day came the team was tired.
“By far West Valley was our most difficult game. By far. I don’t ever want to see the score.” Castro
Both Conner Revay and Castro, players on the water polo team, had pointed out that the team had lost a lot of talented players last season so there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Last season’s team set the bar and this season’s team hope to surpass any expectations bestowed to them. Besides everything Coach Maroney has high hopes of the team making it to championship considering the last season’s made it to 4 place.
“This season we have bigger guys not much on shooting but better defense.” Revay