The 2022 Water Polo season is underway, with a twist. After coaching Apopka Water Polo for over a decade, former Head Coach Russell has retired from coaching water polo. This year’s squad is coached by Regan and Reide Wilson, as well as by Robert Edstrom and Ms. Gillis.

The coaching change seems to have gone over well with the players, although some may still miss the coach who led them through their first few years. Junior Dylan Zeledon, on the new coaches, said “The new coaches are good. They are younger, and are more likely to listen to the players and are open to new ideas, where before, it wasn’t really like that…”

For those who are unfamiliar with water polo, it is a pool sport played with 6 players and a goalkeeper on each team. The objective is to score by throwing the ball into the goal, similar to handball, which is played on land. The challenge is that players can’t touch the bottom of pool, so they have to continuously tread water, and shoot the ball without being able to plant their feet like you would in land sports.

At the time of this publication, the Girls and Boys teams both hold a 2-1 record. The would be season opener against Lake Howell was cancelled, leading to forfeit wins for both Apopka teams. The Girls won with a last-minute goal in what was an extremely competitive game, defeating Edgewater 10-9, with a last-minute goal to prevent overtime. The boys had a much easier path to victory, defeating Edgewater and 15-4. On Thursday February 10th, both the girls and boys teams lost to Olympia by scores of 18-4 and 18-3, respectively.

Both the boys and girls teams will resume the action on Tuesday, February 15th, at West Orange.

The remaining schedule for both teams is as follows:

2/22 vs Windermere

2/24 at Gateway

3/1 at Bishop Moore

3/3 at Gateway

3/8 at Wekiva

3/10 vs Dr. Phillips

3/22 at Lake Brantley