As the middle of October approaches, so does the end of the 2014 Sycamore Water Polo Season. As the team wraps up training and looks forward to the upcoming state tournaments for JV boys and girls teams this weekend, they also look back at their season.

“I’m pretty happy with the success of the varsity boys team. They worked really hard and knocked off some tough opponents, especially St. Francis who won state last year,” coach Nicholas Hellwig said.

The varsity boys team finished with a winning record, and the coaches believe that they will be very competitive in the state tournament.

“The girls varsity did well; they were very dedicated this season and recovered well from losing a strong senior class, which last year was runner-up in state,” coach Jessen Link said.

Despite struggling early in the season, the girls recovered to have a strong end to the season. The team has showed some strong players recently and team leaders have emerged to help the team coordinate strong games.

“The boys junior varsity really improved. I think that even though we lost a lot, we learned a ton. Next year, we will definitely be able to have some serious competition against teams that we had some tough losses to this year,” freshman Brycen Gwyn said.

The boys junior varsity struggled early on with several injuries to some very important sophomores. Once the players recovered, the team formed together to get some key wins in duel matches. In tournament plays, the junior varsity squad was divided into two groups, so that the newer players could have more playing time.