Beneath the Surface : Varsity Water Polo with Liam Tuinstra, Grady Armstrong, Noah Williams & Coach Alex Wuerfel

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives ofstudent-athletes, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive

(00:29):
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition
of the 29.1 podcast.
I'm your host, Rodney Vilenka.
I'm here with Panthers AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy.
It's our third episode ofseason two.

(01:04):
It's been nice getting backinto the swing of things and
it's great to have you along.
Today we sit down with a sportthat most people only pay
attention to about every fouryears when they see it on the
Olympics, whether it's on theirTV or their phone.
But for today's group, waterpolo is their passion, a daily
commitment requiring incredibleendurance, toughness, teamwork
and agility.
They are coming off a two-gamesweep at Portage this past

(01:25):
Monday, with an 8-5 win for JVand an 11-7 win for Varsity over
the Muskies, and this seasonthey're hoping to make a run to
the state tournament afterreaching the regional final just
one year ago.
And, as I can tell youfirsthand, it's a great sport to
watch in person.
And it's our pleasure to askwho is it?
Liam Toonstra.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Grady Armstrong, noah Williams.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
Alex Werfel.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
All right, fellas.
Thanks so much for taking alittle bit of time before
practice.
I'm sure you've got pretty goodpractice dialed up here later
today, Alex Coming off of a gamenight.
But thanks for taking some timeto come in.
We're excited to have you here.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it's been a busy few days for you guys.
A lot of games in the lastlittle bit On the road.
Yesterday you beat Portage 11-7and then you hosted the Grand
Haven West Ottawa Tournamentthis past Saturday at home Grady
.
How good was it to get a winyesterday.

Speaker 7 (02:16):
It felt great after just like playing some tough
teams this week and stuff andjust going for a conference win
right away.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
It's teams this week and stuff and just going for a
conference win right away it's agreat feeling also that was
first win in conference, firstwin a conference yep, yesterday
district okay.
Yep, all right, gotcha.
And then there was a lot ofcontributions from a number of
players yesterday, liam, yeah, Imean.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I mean the team played really well.
I kind of just sat back towardsthe cage and put the ball in
the net, but it was a team youjust had to sit back in the hole
.
Yeah, just sit back by the cageand put the ball in the net.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, that was pretty good.
I mean, you had a really goodgame.
If I go to your Instagram post,you had six goals, two assists.
I don't know what the DKO isand we'll get to that in a
second.
Noah, you had a hat trick andthen it was kind of spread
around.
Milabinsky and Wheelock eachscored a goal.
Carter, lawrence and Nett, bythe way, is pretty sweet, that
was pretty fun, yeah, so thatwas great.

(03:10):
And then the tournament thispast weekend.
Coach, how did that go?

Speaker 5 (03:13):
yeah, I mean it was.
You know, fun to host atournament always a struggle
when you're always trying tobalance.
You know coaching and hosting.
But at the same time we wereready for that competition.
We had two games on Friday goodcompetition and we had some
Eastside teams that made thetrip over, so we were just kind
of looking forward to chomp atit.
You know it was good to see howwe're shaping out against
better teams.
That's usually kind of good forus to figure out where we had
to get better.
But you know, finishing 0-4 isnever great.

Speaker 6 (03:42):
But for at least you know, taking some good takeaways
from early in the season tokind of gauge where you're
coming, where we are, or how dowe stack up against the better
teams on the inside.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Yeah, I mean, when it comes to water polo, like we
talked about, it's kind of aniche sport.
So some people play year-round,some people play in the summer,
so for our team we have a mixof swimmers, polo players, so
it's really just making surewe're all kind of ready to go
take that competition wherethey're probably having some
other guys that play you know,year-round jos and you know
california.
So for us, trying to figure out, before we really get into like
a district conference matchplay, how are we shaping out,

(04:12):
fix that strategy, make surewe're kind of, you know, crisp
on those six, on fiveopportunities.
So even after yesterday we hadsome you know moments we could
learn from.
But going into you know,yesterday's game, we had good
competition.
So it's really, you know, allright, we played well, let's
take that into monday and itworked out 11 to 7, so we'll
take that as a no, what's itlike for you?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
you have this this weekend.
You probably don't want to goon for, but you do.
But in general you guys playpretty well, but these are
pretty tough teams yeah, so Iwas really proud of how we play
this weekend.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
I think we did good.
It was just some better all top10 teams, but yeah, I think we
did great, honestly and it's nota bad thing really.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know, to bill, you do this in sports, coaches
will take you into a tournamentlike that and if you do really
well, you kind of know where youare and you're good about that.
But then if you it doesn't goexactly your way, then you know
where you are and then coachgets to go at you in practice
because we got to get better,and that's kind of how it goes
well.
You know, for me it was thefirst time I'd ever been at a
water polo match and I gotta sayI thoroughly enjoyed myself.

(05:09):
Great energy, a very demandingsport.
I really found myself gettinginto it.
I even, I think I went likegritty, let's go a couple times
I think you scored in the thirdquarter, fourth quarter, against
selene.
A lot of for me was a lot of.
What is this?
I'm kind of figuring out andreally liam the loudest post in
sports, like how loud are thoseposts when the ball hits it?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I mean pretty loud.
I'm experienced with that.
My nickname is crossbar kingand right, yeah I just couldn't
score.
I would hit crossbar every time.
But uh, depends on the ball.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Really it's a deafening sound in there.
So what do you?
Always hit crossbars.
You're just not anymore, but Iused to be.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
I used to.
You found that king.
Yeah, that's a great name forlike a name of I don't.
It's not really a name offailure almost, but you know,
not a fun nickname, no, okay,all right let's uh kind of go
around the table and maybe we'llstart with you.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Coach, what was kind of your introduction to the
sport of water polo, like howdid that happen?

Speaker 5 (06:04):
yeah.
So for me it kind of startedwith had you know sports
background, started in soccer,had some knee problems, so from
there it's like, hey, let's getin the water.
And then sixth grade, I kind ofhad the opening to hey, let's
play, uh, wreck township.
So from there it was middleschool and it's kind of a love
affair from there where it'slike, oh my gosh, I love being
in the water a ball in hand, andcontinue with that through high
school, end up going out toCalifornia for some JOs great
competition out there, kind ofseeing the sport for what it is.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
You just said, jos, I don't even know what that is.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Junior Olympics, yeah, juniorOlympics, oh, junior Olympics,
yeah, we qualified.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Yeah, I played for a team up in Rockford.
They were kind of the cream ofthe crop and they still kind of
took all that good knowledgefrom California back to Michigan
and from there.
Once you're in the sport it'shard to get out and I found
myself back in coaching.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
That's really sweet.

Speaker 6 (06:50):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Noah, you come from a line of water polo players and
swimmers.
Tell me about how you gotstarted.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
I do so my middle sister and middle brother both
played polo in high school,Started sophomore in eighth
grade year.
So yeah, I started sixth gradewith splash ball.
Middle school polo, seventhgrade, eighth grade I think
there was a COVID year in there.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, and I've been playing since.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
So kind of like a family tradition almost right.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, sort of.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I kind of found that with a lot of you that's
kind of a thing Grady foryourself.

Speaker 7 (07:22):
Yeah.
So actually I always playedlacrosse when I was like younger
and stuff like that.
I'd swam a little bit when Iwas like second grade.
But eighth grade, like the teamstarted back up after COVID and
my mom signed me up.
She's like, hey, you're gonnatry this.
And I was like I don't reallywant to.
But she was like I think you'lllike it, you are good at
swimming, like when you used toswim.
So I was like all right, Iguess I'll try it.
And that first practice I fellin love with the sport and I've

(07:44):
done it since eighth grade now,so I had no clue what it was and
then I tried it out.
I mean, I knew noah and liam alittle bit, but not like a ton
stuff, and obviously now likesome of my best friends.
So I don't regret it a singlebit is that a normal path?

Speaker 6 (07:57):
it's not normal that you're water polo player first
and then you slide over to be amember of the swim program.

Speaker 7 (08:04):
So it's usually the opposite, yeah kind of well, I,
I did not want to swim like atall and I broke my.
I was gonna try for basketball.
And then I broke my thumbbecause my brother and me were
messing around stuff.
So then I was like, well, Igotta do something during the
winter.
So as soon as I got my cast offI was like I'm gonna swim, just
stay in shape for water polka,cause I definitely want to play
freshman year.
And then, and then I swam myfreshman year Cause my brother's

(08:28):
friends took me to practice,cause they made me.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
So let's take a little Grady along.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
So I just started off by playing water polo and then
swimming after for shape, andnow we just do both for fun,
like they really go hand in hand.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
It's amazing, I I know I don't know what comes
first, the chicken or the egghere with water polo and
swimming.
But then for yourself, liam,too, you were swimmer first and
then water polo correct, so Istarted swimming.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
I think it was second grade or something.
I've swum with noah since wewere eight, nine years old.
No, kidding I think noah toldme about water polo and I was
like okay and I kind of shruggedit off.
And then eighth grade, my momalso signed me up for polo.
She's like get in the water anddo it.
I showed up and I was a littleskeptical at first, but it got
fun pretty quick.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Moms have a lot of pull right.
Moms will kind of guide you ina direction.
They see.

Speaker 6 (09:13):
Is that over at the Harbor Lights pool?
It was A little chilling.
You could just rip it as hardas you could.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Oh, because you could stand in that pool shallow off
the ground and just rip it it'slike a what's the, what's the
bouncy place you can go to andyou can dunk.
It's kind of like that sky zone,yeah, sky zone it's kind of
like sky zone, for sure for youguys, though, you know, swimming
is such an individual sportlike it's a team sport right, we
all get that but it's alwaysabout kind of getting your
faster time.
How is it, how much fun is itfor you to go from swimming,

(09:41):
where it's probably a lotdifferent to, all of a sudden
you're in this team sport, liam,and it's totally different
atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
I mean, I personally don't like swim that much.
It's a lot of just in your headlike swimming lap after lap.
I love polo, I love talking tothese guys and not just being in
my own head, but I mean it isdifferent Swimming can be that.
Oh yeah, I mean, you're justswimming lap after lap after lap
staring at the bottom of thepool.

Speaker 7 (10:08):
Singing the same five songs in your head, you know?
Yeah, so, like me and Liamactually share a land in
swimming, so we've gotten prettygood at starting a conversation
, swim our set and then, like,as we finish, we talk on the
wall for like two seconds inbetween.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Keep the conversation up and then you go back.

Speaker 7 (10:20):
Like you get really good at that, just talking to
everybody.
You kind of think about likewhat you're going to say next
and stuff.
But like going from water poloseason and like being a part of
this team and stuff you get toknow because majority of the
team on water polo swims.
So, especially for the freshmen, you get like you're like, oh,
another season with you, youknow, I mean it's great, like
they already like are introducedto everything and so it's great

(10:40):
.
Just because, like, yes, you'relike kind of like kind of more
isolated, I guess, but notreally because you still like
talk all the time and stuff likethat.
So yes, it's individual, butlike we share lanes with
everybody and stuff, so you liketalk and then like in between
you'll swim, stare at the bottomand then you get to the wall
talk.
Stare at the bottom.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Like it's just kind of like that nice little
rotation.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
You get really good at just picking up conversations
like 10 minutes later sure,sure, sure swimming, yeah, how
about yourself?
Yeah, I, I love it.
I think it's a great break fromthat individual aspect kind of
of swimming.
And then you go to polo andit's just the opposite.
It's all team orientated,thinking about where your
teammate is, who you're passingto, how to pass it to them.
It's a lot different, but Ithink it's great.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, and you guys do you know, being part of that
team, you guys get that seasonstarted off at tunnel park.
How much tunnel parkconditioning is it just one day?
Is it multiple practices outthere?
What's that like?

Speaker 5 (11:35):
yeah, I'd like to do more than one day but at least
for you know, kind of keepingthe guys in shape and also
getting back in the pool.
There's that balance of right.
Let's have fun, but also let'sget back in the pool for the
strategy, because you can onlydo so much when it's come to
conditioning and using the duneand for a lot of the guys, like
some of the cross training, likethey are very good in the water
so you don't want to risk anyinjuries of the guy having some
like tibia issues, certainsplints, all that stuff that
they're not maybe not used tobeing on the water.

(12:06):
You're kind of used todifferent muscles being used.
It's that balance ofconditioning but also practical
muscle and just getting back inthe pool.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
It's a good time Land training versus water training.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Is that difficult for you guys?
I run a little bit outside ofthe pool.
I try to.
I'm not amazing but I can do it.
It for sure helps withdifferent muscle groups just
working them.

Speaker 7 (12:23):
Yeah, I play lacrosse during the spring so I like go
from a weird stage of likerunning to walk, but you swim it
all summer and then you try torun.
It's not fun.

Speaker 5 (12:34):
You try to run for a while.
It's hard.

Speaker 7 (12:42):
Like it's difficult because you're so used to like I
mean I guess like you're likelaying down on top of the water
so you're swimming that way.
Then you go from standingstraight up and down and you're
trying to run.
It's definitely you're a littlesore those first few weeks and
stuff that I've just straight uprunning.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Is the conditioning at Tunnel Park.
So it's one day that you guysgo out there and have some fun.
You do a lot of other thingsright Play volleyball, cookout,
those kind of things.
Do some runs up the big dunehill, we'll do medicine ball,
we'll do a relay race.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Well, you guys need to get a dyke him out there.
Shoot a little video on this.
Yeah, tunnel park trainingwater, you know, go buoy to buoy
.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
I remember a little bay watch action kovat forced us
, you know, to do anything and Iremember water, our water polo
program at that time, going overand actually playing in the
lake because you had to getoutside yeah, in the spring and
that was tough but we made itthrough is that, like a
basketball game on an aircraftcarrier, you could do like one
water polo match per year inlake michigan, that'd be hype,

(13:35):
yeah, I

Speaker 7 (13:35):
mean that'd be pretty fun, really open pool, that
happens in europe.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
They play in the mediterranean, so oh, do they
really?

Speaker 2 (13:40):
yeah, oh, so I'm we're not stretching those
Balkan skates they love it inthe water, so it's a good show.
Did you guys wear the Speedosout to the beach, Graney?

Speaker 7 (13:48):
We did our freshman year.
Actually, we talked about it asa team In our freshman year.
We were like, oh, we all wearSpeedos.
And everyone was like sure,because I think that was one we.
It was a horrible snake.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was so awkward.

Speaker 7 (14:02):
Like everyone, we're all like we are like pasty white
tan lines from like from summer, I was gonna say, are you
working on the tent, trying tobalance the tan line out a
little bit.
We were all like this is ahorrible idea.
So sophomore, junior and senioryear, we're all just more
normal swimsuits oh, you wentback to normal.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Okay, yeah, because it's not the most comfortable
time when you're on a beach andthe guy with the speedo comes by
you know no no, it's veryuncomfortable in general.
So yeah, so that's pretty funand you know that's also a bit
of a recruiting day.
You kind of have a jv team nowwhich you haven't had before.
Can you speak to that, alex?

Speaker 5 (14:34):
yeah, totally.
I mean, part of like going totunnel park was kind of bringing
back those traditions that we'dhad when I played, like kovid
kind of did away with some ofthat with that loss of
continuity.
But it was really like, hey,let's bring guys together, it's
a tough sport, let's have somefun.
It's summertime.
We're, you know the lakeside,so between you know cookouts,
games, yard games, we you knowgroup some, you know teammates
from there.
I mean, I mean I know noahbrought a friend last year who
became our starting goalie.

(14:54):
So like some of those littlethings you're like, oh my gosh,
like without that experience Icould have thought you know we'd
have a great goalie yeah, soknow, for introducing people
that are maybe like hey, what'sthe sport?
I at least like these guys.
I can, at least you know, playwith these guys that I like as
friends and from there you know,you're kind of in it together
and it's been a great time,great experience.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, speaking of Carter Lawrence real quick, in
the one game I watched.
I watched that game againstSaline.
His first half was insane.
I don't know if that, but hewas making every save.
It was incredible.

Speaker 7 (15:23):
Yeah, his like progress from just last year
this year is incredible andstuff like it's in.
It's like Like we always talkabout, like you see, goalie, so
they were like really tall, likeskinny, lengthy guys and stuff
like that, and like Carter Likeanything like for like not like
being like the tallest guy andstuff like that.
He makes it up all withtreading like he is a monster in
that pool.
You seem to his tread sets asgoalie sets and like he's doing

(15:45):
the trend sets full jug.
I love the water and it drainsand stuff.
It's insane like he is.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
He's a beast this year is there an ability to get
out of the pool too?
Does he?
Is that part of it?

Speaker 4 (15:55):
yeah, yeah.
So definitely all the treadinghe does, he'll wear two weight
belts and then the, the biggallon, two gallon thing of
water that really helpscondition them all.
The medicine ball jumps yeahthat's pretty fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, his legs are.
It sounds fun.
He's got not in the water.

Speaker 6 (16:16):
But I, you know, I like to push weight around and
you know that sounds fun yeah,it does.
You had power strength nowcoach, over the last couple of
years the program's really grownright.
We had really small numbers, wewere kind of piecing it
together, guys playing in a lotof games.
Now we're to the point where wehave a jv team.
Can you kind of talk a littlebit about kind of what your, I

(16:36):
guess, the approach that you'vetaken in order to help us begin
to build those numbers back up?

Speaker 5 (16:40):
yeah, I mean it's been kind of like a grassroots
effort between you know, know,middle school, splash ball, high
school.
It's been kind of an all handson deck approach.
So when I played, you know, ourhead coach had kind of excuse
me, ran the whole thing.
He did middle school, he didsplash ball.
So for me I'm like how can Ikind of grow this program
without a middle school team?
In middle school it's all clubbased.

(17:01):
So there you're like, hey, let'sopen up to like sixth through
eighth graders.
It's co-ed and then throughthat you're trying to figure out
how can I make it fun, keep itcompetitive, and just from that,
you know, the culture kind ofspeaks for itself.
People want to play, they showout, they get to practice all in
time, they're all ready to go.
And it's really rewarding forme as a coach to kind of the
fence.
These guys have all played forabout three or four years

(17:22):
together as starters.
So from having no JV to nowhaving JV, it's really awesome
to see.
They can all watch, they canall learn, they can all practice
six on six.
So from that it's really justbeen like a perpetual motion
machine and at this point we'rehoping it keeps going.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Let's just give a shout out to the players on the
team this year.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
You guys want to walk through, who then maybe do JV?
Yeah, so we can start withGraham Tlgetzky.
I mean I think he started.
He claims he started everysingle game his freshman year.
I mean I don't know if that'sexactly true, but for for a
junior he's really solid.
I mean he moves the ball, hedoes mostly what he's supposed
to do, he swims up and down thepool, plays defense, plays
offense.
A really solid player allaround, but yeah.

Speaker 7 (18:06):
Yeah, and then we got obviously we talked about
Carter and stuff, our goalie,great, I mean nothing all the
good things to say about him.
He's playing so amazingly rightnow.
And we got Grant.
Grant was one that we reallywanted this year.
He was not going to play at allbecause he was going to swim,
because Grant's a really goodswimmer, and he did not want to
play at all.
And I mean we all pretty goodfriends with them, so we just
kept telling him like dude, yougotta play with us, like we need

(18:28):
you, like we need to play andwe're so glad he did.
I mean, he is an incredibledefender and stuff.
He's got a great shot.
He is quick like he's.
He's a great polo player and welike we need him on this team
and we love to have him on thisteam and everything yeah, so
I'll talk a bit about Henry.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Henry is great.
He has that knowledge.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
What's Henry's last name?
Henry Goetz.
Okay, henry Goetz, yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
So, henry, he's got to be one of the safest passes.
I mean, you pass the ball tohim.
He sees the pool, he seeseverywhere the ball could go,
he's great at treading up on hisdefender, keeping keeping that
ball away and great, greatknowledge of the game it's
really fun to have a player teamthat has vision isn't it yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:12):
if you know that player has vision, you kind of
know every option's open.
That's always fun to have thaton a team, but there's you know
there's more guys than that onthe team, but just want to give
a little shout to some of thoseguys because you know everybody
matters in a sport.
In a sport like water polo,where the numbers are down, you
got to come out.
Everybody is really, reallyimportant.
We're gonna do something whichI hate to do to you guys.
We talked about this before youcome on but we're gonna do a

(19:33):
little water polo 101 because ifyou're listening out there,
I'll just talk about myself.
When I before I went to thatmatch on saturday, I didn't
really know anything about waterpolo.
So why don't you guys take usthrough some of the basic things
of it?
To start Grady, you just wantto maybe talk about the setup
and what it looks like.

Speaker 7 (19:49):
Yeah, so water polo is a seven on seven based game,
so like one of those seven isthe goalie and then every game
starts depending on the pool.
Usually you do like a like yourhead on the lane line, cause
there's like the goals, like setup, and then there's like a
lane line across and stuff, soit's not like rubbing against
the pool and stuff like that.
So you have the sprinters oneach side and they blow that

(20:09):
whistle and everyone head on thelane line and two guys will
just sprint for that ball andthe ref drops it right in the
middle and then you have youwhoever's like following them
and stuff and they flip it backand you set up in a normal like
umbrella offense.
So you have a guy in the middleand then you have your wings on
the outside.
You have your drivers who cutthrough the middle and then you
have your point guy and yourpoint guy is usually also your
whole set defender and the wholeset is the the guy who's in the

(20:32):
middle it gets scrappy.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, yeah, broad shoulders.

Speaker 7 (20:35):
Liam's our whole set and you got Henry's our whole
set also and you just dump thatball down to them if they're
open and they can turn a guy andjust dump it into the goal.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, it was really cool to see.
I like the rubber outsides thatthey build.
Do they build every pool thatway so they get a uniform size?

Speaker 3 (20:53):
I mean no, every pool is a little different.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
So kind of like baseball, where you'd go to this
ballpark or whatever.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, pretty much.
I like shorter pools.
I don't like swimming up anddown.
Our pool tends to be a littlebit longer and wider than most
pools, but you'll have poolsthat are almost half our length
and narrower.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
Like 25.
So when you go to a swim meet,you swim a 25.
So they'll have their pool.
It's almost like a square, soit only goes a 25 out, and our
pool is closer to a 42 orsomething like that.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
So it's definitely longer.
Yeah, there's base dimensions,if I could speak on that but
otherwise, for the most part,the pool's kind of what it is
like.
For instance, grand haven'slonger.
That's usually like a moreswimming based game.
So for a strategy standpointyou're like all right, we got to
make sure we're getting back,we're going to be worn down.
So for at least you know thatpractice and prep.
There's that element of allright.
We can probably hangam's sake,you know, if he's playing up
there and he wants to get thosefast break goals, you can kind

(21:45):
of time those better in theshort pool versus getting all
the way back.
So there's some of thatstrategy element as well coach
is gonna coach you, liam yeahcoach is gonna coach is there a
way to, I guess, scout the pool?

Speaker 6 (21:56):
do you guys ever find new opponents on your schedule
and you're going into a placemaybe you haven't played before
and you walk in and you're likedang yeah, I can maybe speak on
this.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Just for you know, playing middle school and high
school.
This past year we're at, youknow, at mason for middle school
and these guys have not evenplayed there in high school, so
it's our first time going on theroad.
So I told the guys I'm like,hey, it's gonna be a short pool,
like they only have so manylike yards in their pool.
It's gonna be condensed at 25yards.
So if we need to, you know wecould hang back, but we got to
make sure we're getting backlike hustle back.
There's no excuse.
So having that inside edgeusually helps.

(22:25):
But on the other hand you'relike, if you don't know the pool
, you're kind of like up to justplay your game, play the other
team and uh, there is that edgefor some of those pools, but for
the most part you just kind ofplay the game, all right and
there's.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Then there's six minute quarters and one thing I
didn't know was out there, butwhen I got to the game and
started watching like, oh, thisis great, the 30 second shot
clock.
How cool is that, noah yeah, soit's.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
It's a tool a lot of times.
Yeah, so it's For defense.
It's great because it's easy topress out on your guy, kind of
make that space, make it harderfor them to shoot, and then
after those 30 seconds just bookit down.
But yeah, sometimes you leavefive early if you know they're
not going to shoot and score,and then that gives you a nice

(23:08):
fast break.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
We're going in layers now.
This is layers deep at thispoint.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
I think we need that shot clock in lacrosse Brady, I
think so too, In college theyhave it and it's like 60 seconds
something like that.

Speaker 7 (23:19):
Also, the other thing too is, when you play a regular
season game, it's seven-minutequarters, and tournaments are
six minutes.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Oh, okay, all right, there you go.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
That's the difference of regular season games versus
tournament games, and then youalso have four timeouts, three
timeouts and then one, likesetup timeout, and then regular
and then two okay, in thetournament game.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, all right, so little differences between those
things yeah, we do those withother sports.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
You know, grady, you've played in a couple of
those days where we havemultiple lacrosse games in the
same day, so you kind of tightenthe time down and that sort of
thing.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
So I could see yeah and then I thought this was kind
of a funny thing because I'mnew to lacrosse, obviously, but
the penalties.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Water polo oh, did I say lacrosse, yeah, oh, all
right, dan Grady, new water polo.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
But anyways, the penalties.
What will happen is andsometimes it turns into a
penalty shot and maybe we canexplain that in a second, but
other times a guy just swimsright off and he might swim off
right through the play to thecorner them off right through
the play to the corner.

Speaker 7 (24:18):
What's that?
What's that all about?
Um, it's, it's frustrating.
I will not lie.
I when like so that's a kickout.
So in water polo you can get asmany fouls as you want and you
just generally get common fouls.
Someone's pressing up, they'repushing you down a little bit,
you kind of like.
You find out like ways to drawa foul and stuff.
Usually you lean into them andthey almost like spin the ball.
So if you don don't get it, youget the ball right back.
Usually I would explain a kickout as like an over-aggressive
foul.
I feel like it's the best wayto put it.

(24:38):
So a kick out is like the refwill literally point at you, put
you in timeout in the corner.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Right, that's really what it is.
That's how it is.

Speaker 7 (24:53):
So you just you can't play on them and stuff and
you're in there for 20 secondsand then the ref will wave you
back in.
Or if it's a change ofpossession, you instantly get to
come back in.
But getting a kick out issometimes you're like yeah, I
got that, that was a kick out.
Sometimes you argue that itwasn't.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
but you know it was and you just kind of have to go
to the corner anyway, and thisis the most experienced guy
right here too.

Speaker 7 (25:15):
Yeah, I missed 15 games last year with a broken
finger and I still had the mostkickouts on the team.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
You're given three though.
So if you didn't explain thatyou're given three per game, so
it's kind of like in basketball,you can fall out with like five
.
So once you get two, it's kindof like alright watch yourself.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
But once you get that , third you the corner for the
rest of the day.
No, you're out of the pool.
There's no corner of shame.
We're going to do a few thingswith water polo now.
We're going to talk about somedifferent elements of it.
So the first thing we're goingto talk about is the roughness
of water polo.
When you guys walked in today,you kind of talked a few things
about water polo and you'reexplaining what it is when
people ask you what is thissport?
A combination of Liam.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
I mean it's a lot of different things.
They said rugby and that makesthe most sense.
It's a lot of physical contact,just kind of on top of each
other grabbing that ball.
I like to say baseball becauseyou know you're throwing it Like
you're throwing a baseball.
Obviously it's swimming, alittle bit of soccer.
You know the way the pool isset up.
I tend to say baseball andsoccer that up I?

Speaker 2 (26:15):
I tend to say baseball and soccer, yeah, and
even even when you're talkingabout it too, it's like you.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
You go for those passes to the corner, like grady
will throw one kind of deepdown the sideline yeah, yeah, a
little football helmet there tooyeah, it's, it's a combination
of there's there's no two sportsto put it with yeah, I was
online like I normally do forthese podcasts and came across
this.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
It's played like a combination of soccer and
basketball, with the physicalityand endurance of wrestling and
football.
That's pretty close.

Speaker 6 (26:39):
After I watched it, and most of the roughness we're
not even privy to as spectatorsin the crowd right Most of the
roughness is happeningunderwater.
Is that elbows a lot of ribshots Depends on who you're
playing.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
If they're making you a little mad, you get a little
more aggressive underwater.
Just start poking and pushingthem off.
But it depends on who you'replaying.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
The rule of thumb is if you can see it, you can call
it, but we try to play hands out.
We don't play below the belt,of course not.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Why would you do that ?
Not you guys, coach?
We were talking the other day,for anyone that's listening.
We've all been at thatsummertime pool where there's
been some rough housing, whetheryour older cousins are over or
you're the older brother andthere's a little brother there's
a lot of that to this game.
No, yeah, yeah, definitelythere's a lot of yeah, yeah like
your older brother dunking youunder whatever, doing something

(27:31):
under the water pool basketball,you're just no contact.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
All of a sudden you're wrestling and drowning
each other.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of it is size, but
also just getting in that goodposition for the ball or fast
break or yeah, is there a waythat people can get good at not
having an infraction scene?

Speaker 7 (27:48):
yeah, I mean it kind of depends like obviously, like
if you're a more experiencedplayer, like you know, like
you've been playing the gamelong enough, you know what
people do and stuff.
But also there's the aspect ofjust kind of like I wouldn't say
laziness, but I mean that'slike the only way I can think
about.
It is like if you're not, youdon't want to swim all the way
back, or like you don't want tolike cut and you don't want your
defender or your like say, andit's supposed to be a kick out.

(28:12):
But I mean it all depends onwhat the refs see, obviously the
refs watching the ball andmaking sure that like nothing
like bad is going on over there.
So it all depends kind ofSometimes like one thing that
it's frustrating, like obviouslyif someone's holding you, it's
very frustrating and you justkind of have to swim through it.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Sometimes, like if someone's like especially in
about this and stuff, becausethere's a lot of grabbing, a lot
of holding and stuff.
When you're cutting through,people try to stop you and it's
all about like that kind ofstuff.
If you want to talk about itmore, so yeah, I tend to play
whole side a little bit more.
There's a lot of grabbing, alot of pinching, triceps and
lats and just annoying littletendencies whole defenders have
and you just it's more.
It's almost a mental game.
You know, don't let them get toyour head, don't do something
that's going to get you kickedout.
But also you got to keep yourhips up.
Water polo is a game of thehips.

(28:57):
If you have your hips up, youcan step over your hips and then
just grab the ball how do youkeep your hips up?

Speaker 7 (29:05):
you just float yeah, you gotta like kind of like lean
back and use your arms and like, especially when you play
defense, like hips up is key.
Because I mean I know you wentto the game and you talked about
noah's signature spin move andlike if you don't keep your hips
up, they, you can reach aroundthem, you grab them and you just
go right under because if it'sunderwater they can't see you're
grabbing them.
So if you keep your hips up,they can't grab you.
You got to keep good positionand like it's a whole, so like

(29:27):
and it's clean.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
It's part of water polo yeah 100 a lot of technique
, yeah, and that in the wholeposition.
So if you haven't been to awater polo match, it is like I
don't know.
You're almost like posting uplike basketball, right, You're
like that pivot point.
You're getting absolutelyhammered in there.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's a wrestling match, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, I think I was going to mention this a little
bit later because I thought itwas funny.
But from my point of view,expression on your face, the
whole game, from where I was,it's just this.
This like face of frustrationand anger and I'm angry at
somebody.
It was pretty funny to watchyeah, I want the selene game.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
There was one I was pretty mad at a call.
This guy was holding meunderwater, his hand on top of
my head, and I came up and I wasprobably the most mad I've ever
been in the game.
No call and I was just sittingthere dealing with it.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
I know I look mad, but well, to your credit, you
didn't I couldn't breathe reallyyeah well, it didn't feel like
you like reacted in a carelessmanner, you just kind of all
right you got to control it alittle bit.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
The refs can.
If you react, they'll.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
They'll kick you out, they'll kick you out of the
game, but yeah it happens, ithappens yeah if the ref takes a
slight of what you do to themlike you're kind of taught to be
like, hey, look at the coach,because I can look at the ref
but you cannot, and if thathappens they call it like a
minor act of misconduct.
We're out for 20 seconds.
It adds to like a penalty or atleast to the exclusion count.

Speaker 7 (30:56):
So if that were to happen but if that rises above
that level, I'm pretty sure itdid First tournament I yelled at
the ref.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Well, it didn't happen to Liam, though.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:03):
It can't be showing up the ref.
They don't like that Coach?

Speaker 6 (31:05):
is there a certain style or body type that you're
looking for that in the wholeplayer?
I just think, if it's thephysical spot, is that where
you're putting?
Yeah, typically a bigger dude?

Speaker 5 (31:16):
typically yeah, and when it comes to like you know
the lingo, like tread strengthis really key, like we have,
like you know kind of game thatwe do at the beginning of the
year where we call it kind of atread gauntlet, where we try to
figure out right who's thestrongest tread around the team.
We kind of you know, winneradvances up, loser goes down we
try to figure out who's got thestrongest legs, who keeps the
hips up, who's really strategicwith those legs, and you know,
between the goalie and whole setyou want those guys to be the
strongest.
So you know, between Liam Henryand, you know, carter, those

(31:38):
guys have the best, you know,strongest core at the bottom
there, and Liam's really goodabout, you know, using that
upper body strength as well tokind of create that separation
and advantage.
So between you know, beingstrong, being strong in the legs
, having as well to not riseabove the occasion and get
frustrated, typically it'sstrong legs, strong core,
overall strength is probably thebiggest key there.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
It seemed you guys can handle taking a verse like
that during a game, when thingsdon't go your way.
You didn't seem to be a teamthat kind of lost it.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah.
So that's definitely one thingI see about our team.
We're really good at keepingour emotions kind of unlocked,
because what happened to Grady?
If you react to that you, youget out.
So that's definitely we're goodat that.
We just kind of shake it offand keep playing also coach
helps us with that.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
He yeah sits us on the bench when we're getting too
hot and tells us to cool offyeah, it's gonna have some bench
time now.

Speaker 5 (32:31):
Yeah, I mean at least now that we have subs more than
often, but y'all let the guysspeak on that.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Definitely times you get really frustrated when you
get shoved under and then youget a call on you for because it
looks like they're like.
The other day I got a turnoverbecause I was underwater and it
looked like I'm holding the kidunderwater but yet he's just
like that and in the ref's eyesit looks like you're pulling
them under.
Yeah, so you get up and you'relike looking around and seeing

(32:57):
which way the the ball is andstuff, and you're just like how,
how is that my fault, you know?
So it's like one of thosethings where you definitely get
a little frustrated and justsometimes sit on the bench
getting some water, just cooldown for a second.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
It's always a good thing do people ever fake that
you're fouling them?
Like that's kind of my nextquestion, like if I'm thinking,
if I'm playing, I'm gonna makeit look like this guy's yeah
like water flop yeah does thathappen?
That happens too.

Speaker 7 (33:19):
All the time you have you have, it's a big water slap
.
You're going for the ball andso you can just see so much
white water because someone'slike slapping the water and
obviously like when you'retrying to draw a kick out, you
definitely you over exaggerate alittle bit like someone's
holding you and it's not as badas you appear, but you're going
like.
You just like completely sink,almost because they're pulling
your leg a little bit.
Sometimes, acting a littleworks a little in your favor

(33:42):
sometimes which is part of everysport really.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I mean, it's everywhere.

Speaker 5 (33:45):
Absolutely.
It's unique, though, is theyactually have a rule where it's
called simulation, where if theref sees that you're faking,
they can actually create aturnover out of that.
So if you're being too dramatic, some refs don't really like
that at all and that can bereflective on you and it's a
turnover.
And sometimes those things getin the way.
You're like are you sure I wasacting?
But sometimes the ref thinksthat, and I think that's unique
to water polo, where they canpretend that you're acting and
use that against you and from anofficial standpoint, I'm sure

(34:08):
you see the same officials allthe time.

Speaker 6 (34:10):
right, there's not like an endless amount of water
polo officials out there, so isthat something that you are
conscious of as well?
Like very much say, oh, this iswho we've got today.
Okay, I got to make sure that Ikind of keep things in check.

Speaker 7 (34:23):
A hundred percent.
Like I mean some like you know,like also like you'll,
sometimes like you'll dosomething.
And then after the game, likefor me and just me and Liam,
yesterday I talked to official,like super nice, they're always
really nice about it and there'slike, hey, like I saw you do
this and like next time, likethis is kind of what I'm more
looking for.
Like, for instance, like for me, like yesterday, like I come
across sometimes and sometimesit looks like I push the guy

(34:44):
under and he's always like justmake sure you keep like that
hand like like off of them andstuff.
So like just like nice pointersand you know what they're
looking for.
The more you have them andstuff, you know how like oh okay
, I can't like be doing this way, this move this way, but I can
do it this way because they will.
That's more clean, if thatmakes sense, yeah one thing.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
One of the parents told me I was one of the moms.
I talked to all three of yourmoms, so they give me the dirt
on you guys?
No, they're all very nice onecool thing that I didn't see
coming was that you guys haveyour fingernails and toenails
checked before each game.
Oh, yeah, I mean, it makessense to me now.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, you will come out of the pool with gashes on
our chest, on our back.
Uh, graham, actually yesterdayhe had and then like a really
deep, two cuts on his likeknuckle.
It was really bad, just wouldnot stop bleeding.
Noah came out of the pool witha just straight claw mark across
his chest, yeah.
I'm glad they do check itthough, because sometimes even
the tiniest bit of nail so youguys have really nice

(35:41):
fingernails then Well manicured.
Oh yeah, Very well.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Or nubs.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Or nubs yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Bite them down to nothing as they go.
Let's go to what's called theendurance of the sport, because
this is a huge factor.
The back and forth is is quitesomething, especially in these
larger pools.
You guys want to speak to kindof the endurance that is
required of this sport yeah,definitely.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
So a big part of it is swimming, I'd say swimming
down across the pool constantlydriving for that ball is
definitely hard.
And then another part is thatone-on-one like keeping the ball
away from your defender playinga whole set d playing a whole
set.
It's definitely physicallydemanding.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
How long would bill kennedy last in the pool.
You guys are down a player.
For some reason, special rulesmade that the ad can jump in
that day how long would kennedylast?

Speaker 7 (36:32):
At what position would he be playing?
Does goal count?
Yeah, I don't see why youcouldn't play the whole game.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
I mean, we need somebody.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I think we could just have you in the corner and you
could be cherry-picking all gameWe'll just dump it to you I
mean a regular person is notgoing to last long.

Speaker 6 (36:49):
Live arms play.
No, I mean, I never was acompetitive swimmer or water
sport person Like I'm a powersport guy.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Like the mechanics itself of just treading like if
you're not able to tread.

Speaker 6 (37:03):
I can tread water all day, maybe that helps.
Yeah, if you can tread, thatwould help.
That fucking helps.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, no, ball touches You'll just be in the
pool.

Speaker 6 (37:10):
I'll just tread somewhere.
I'll just be there, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
There's a certain technique again.
What's this?
This egg beating technique iskind of a cool term.
There's a lot of cool terms youguys have dropped so far.
What have some of them been?
This been the tread, what doyou call that?
You got the whole set.
Yeah, the whole set, all thatkind of stuff yeah, but the egg
beating?
This is just a way to stay up.
Is it a little different thanregular treading water, right?

Speaker 7 (37:34):
like I feel like when you get in a pool and someone's
just treading water, you kindof just like kicking back and
forth, like doing a like flutterkick and just kind of like
moving your hands just to staylike balanced.
Where, like egg beater, you go,I it's kind of hard to like
like say it without likevisually showing it, but you're
kind of going like like a legback and around you're tracing a
d yeah almost yep, so you'regoing and then it's every other,

(37:54):
so you kind of alternate yourlegs and then you get into this
pattern.
Like as soon as you get it down,it's just like second nature,
like you get in the pool andit's just automatic and stuff
you don't even have to like noteven thinking about it.
Yeah, like it's like anddefinitely like when you're
trying to get out of the water,more like you will like pick it
up and then you'll do almostlike a breaststroke kick at the
end there and stuff like it allkind of depends.
But like the egg beatertreading is just like something

(38:15):
that like becomes second natureand it makes it like you kind of
think like how did I ever treadthe other way?
Because it's so much easier todo this way, it's so much easier
to stay balanced, so mucheasier to generate power and
move, and it's definitelydefinitely takes practice and
work and everything, but it'sway more efficient than just how
long does it take to get goodat that if somebody comes out as
a freshman?
And they start playing.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
How long are is it going to take till they get good
at something like that?

Speaker 3 (38:36):
I mean, obviously it takes a long time to get pretty
good at anything, but as thecourse of the season goes on you
only really get better.
I mean you start out justsitting on the pool deck just
tracing the d with your feetother other, and then you get in
the water practice that get out, do, and then it's just
repetition until you can do itas long as you need to.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
But the whole season.
You just get better and better,adding endurance, you know,
trying to get strong over time,making sure you have the stamina
for it.
It's one thing to have themotion, but if you're not able
to like hold it for a minute,hold it for two minutes, you
can't hold a pass, can't hold aright.
Can you do it?
Let's get some strength on topof that.
We have weight belts for kindof increasing that strength as
well.
More weight over the hipsreally just helps.
The guys with you know that.

(39:19):
Stamina and endurance, yeah,it's definitely a process.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Does endurance separate a lot of teams in the
pool Like?
Is there like different levels?
What part does endurance havein separating teams?
Coach.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Yeah, I'd say for our guys that's their biggest
strength, for I mean, dependingon for a few of them they played
, you know, three years asstarters for a whole varsity
line and because of our numbers,for the last couple of years
they had to play nearly a fullgame for the player's safety.
I didn't like want to do that,but I'd ask the guys like hey,
who needs a break, who wants out?
They don't want to stay in?

(39:54):
I get them some water on thebench.
You can really see thattranslation from swimming to
water polo and from that youknow the other players kind of
see that they try to emulatethat from seeing these leaders
here.
So we try to keep it up in thepool in practice, but for the
most part the guys do itthemselves.
We try to work around it whenit comes to the team.
Yeah, it's been fun to see forthe last, you know, three or
four years as these guys havegrown and gotten better all
around.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
What's the weight room been like for you guys with
Panther strength?

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, so that's been a lot of upper body and lower
body actually.
Yeah, a lot of pull-ups, a lotof jumps box, jumps on the
stairs.
We did a lot of that.
Push-ups, just all that kind ofstuff that you think of like a
shooting motion for the ball.
Yeah, a lot of ab work too.
That's been definitely our mostimportant thing, just for
crunching get that ball somepower.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, so it's like the practical application of
what's going on there.
You can see or feel thedifference as you play.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
Yeah, definitely.
We definitely focus onshoulders to prevent shoulder
injuries and stuff and just makesure your legs are strong and
feel good.
But the abs is a huge thing forwater polo, especially with you
got a speed of one for goodnesssakes.
So yeah, but for shooting andpassing it just makes it like,
you know, it's just, it's justvery important shooting and
passing yes resistance bands arehuge for just, you know, having

(41:09):
that be like kind of more justbody based instead of weight
based.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
You're kind of just keeping that body elastic and
keeping it tight as well.
Who's?

Speaker 6 (41:16):
the strongest guy on the team.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
I mean Liam's right here.
So I want to say Liam, but Ithink Henry could probably outdo
him Henry or Carter.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
Yeah, henry, henry's a big guy.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
He plays rugby.
Brute strength, yeah, he's.
I mean, between the size andstrength you could probably put
those guys together and who'sstronger together in the pool,
but Liam's pretty strong.
No offense to these guys.

Speaker 6 (41:34):
Yeah, who's the guy with the best endurance on the
team?
From like a straight up, theycan just swim all day.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
If you ask me, grady and Noah, they kind of go hand
in hand.
Grady himself is a long courseswimmer, like the 500, he got a
state cut.
Noah's got the speed to go with, he's our sprinter.
So Noah, noah's kind of like inthat hybrid spot.
He can sprint, he can do it all, he can stay in the pool for
the whole game.
And for me as a coach I'm likesweet, I'll give you a break so
you can keep that speed, buthe's also able to stay in the
game.
Help on defense.
It's great having that assetfor long course endurance.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
And Noah, you do that sprint to the ball as well.
What's it like to get?
Are you a 60-40 guy?
How are you how you feel you'redoing in that spot?

Speaker 4 (42:15):
I don't want to sound no, don't sound anything.
It's numbers and numbers 70, 30ish sounds that's a nice
advantage.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, yeah, what every quarter?
So you're gonna get yeah starthockey.

Speaker 5 (42:26):
Face off.
You like those odds, right?

Speaker 2 (42:28):
you'd rather have the ball than not.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Yeah, yeah, definitely been doing it
freshman year.
I think that's a big part thatmy technique since then has
changed so much.
Oh, explain that.
Yeah, so I was always startingwith my feet facing out, head
against the lane line, then pushtowards the middle of the pool,
but now I've been kind ofstarting with my feet facing

(42:51):
back and then get a bigbreaststroke kick into it and I
feel personally that's whatworks best for me.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
You can't push off the wall.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Yeah, not off the wall, just kind of starting in
that swimming position.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Oh interesting.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
Yeah, remember when I first came to West Ottawa, when
I was in Forest Hills, we hadlike maybe a unified program at
that point, just on the girls'side, and the first time I came
to a water polo match it was samsmith.
Uh, was the guy doing thesprints?

(43:23):
And I'm like steve, who is thiskid?
He was a freak of nature in thewater.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
Um, funny because he's a freshman when I was a
senior, so like to see hisgrowth and evolution like they
were a really good team whenthey were seniors, so I'm sure
when you saw him.
He was in his peak of hispowers.

Speaker 6 (43:35):
He was a beast.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
The conditioning is a huge part of this.
And then, liam, you startlosing some of your conditioning
or your endurance stuff.
You have a kind of event happenin your life where you have a
heart condition come up.
I think it was, was it duringChristmas, when you were right?
In that area, yeah, or when didit start for you?
Did it start in the season, orwhat was that?

Speaker 3 (43:55):
like.
So I actually started havingsymptoms.
Sophomore swim season, so thatwas I don't know sophomore year,
and I just kept dealing with it.
I didn't really want to solveit because then I'd have to
probably get out of the pool andkeep practicing and it wasn't
like hindering my performance atall.
And then towards the end of theyear I had to actually get out

(44:17):
of the pool during a meetbecause I got super dizzy and
super weak.
I was like, all right, well,maybe I should try to figure
this out.
So I went to a couple doctorsand then I went to a
cardiologist and they ran two orthree EKGs and they were like,
hey, you have this.
And I'm like, all right, Idon't think that's what that is,
because I just I didn't feel it.

(44:38):
So they put a monitor on me andI was actually at the beach
running with my cousin and theycaught like the it was an
irregular heartbeat is what itwas.
And they caught it.
They're like, oh, you actuallyhave SVT, which is what it was.
I was like, oh, so what doesthat mean?
Like you actually have to get aheart procedure, and I was a
little bummed about that, but Ipushed that towards the end of

(44:59):
last water polo season so Icould compete with it throughout
the whole season.
It didn't really hinder myperformance that much I would
know.

Speaker 5 (45:07):
Yeah, he was good about keeping that in mind.
We'd get him out of the pool.
His family was all aware ofwhat was going on.
We had the EAP plan, of course,in place as well.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Good to have that in plan.
And then junior swim season.
So I got the procedure.
After water polo season I waslike okay, season swim season's
gonna be great.
I have no heart problemsanymore, I can practice and then
first meet.
I jump in the pool and 250beats per minute like well shoot
wow, yeah 250.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
What's that feel like physically for your body to be
doing that Horrible?

Speaker 3 (45:37):
I almost passed out, just can't lift my arms.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
That's like four ghosts or something.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
It was bad.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
That's a caffeine drink by the way.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Yeah, I was not allowed to have those at all.
My mom would have killed me.
So junior swim season I'm like,shoot, I don't know what I'm
supposed to do now.
I can't really practice.
I thought this was supposed tobe my breakout year.
So they're like hey, you caneither deal with it or get
another procedure.
And I was like, well, I couldprobably get another procedure,

(46:08):
I don't know how long that'llput me out for.
And I actually got it onChristmas Eve.
So I was out for the wholewinter break practice, which is
kind of a big deal for swim.
I wasn't really there.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
You guys want to what was it like for you guys to
have a teammate have to gothrough that me and liam share a
lane together, so I was bymyself for so long oh, you
missed, your missed, your friend.

Speaker 7 (46:29):
I'll be swimming and then I'd like do a flip turn,
because you circle, swimobviously no, there's no chit
chat.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Where's the guy I'm talking to?

Speaker 7 (46:35):
I would turn and I'd be like, where did Liam go?

Speaker 3 (46:37):
I'm out dying on the pool deck.

Speaker 7 (46:39):
So we would do so.
Then, like, when he came back,what was it like right at the
end of like Christmas?

Speaker 3 (46:45):
break, first week of January or something.
Yeah, I mean, you were not outfor very long, maybe a week.

Speaker 7 (46:52):
But you know, just like being able to see him and
obviously during polo season,like it was like such like a
thing where you're like, are yougonna be okay, you know, and so
we're just like glad you'regood this year and everything,
thanks yeah, welcome.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, it's a lot to go through.
It's nice to have you back.
I was surprised how quick youcame back too.
Your mom said, yeah, it wasonly seven to ten days, and he's
right back at it the first onewas definitely worse.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
I don't know what.
They put me under somethingpretty bad and I was out for two
weeks.
But the second one it was a lot, a lot smoother recovery.
But I also think having an endgoal in my mind, like I really
wanted to get my state cuts, Ithink having that in mind kind
of sped up my recovery a littlebit, like I need to get back in
the pool.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
I need to work for this yeah, let's, let's talk
about that, because I believeyou missed it as a sophomore
correct, right.
And then you really, reallywanted it.
This comes up and you're likeman, am I gonna get the chance?
But then you go and get thatstate cut.
What, what race was it in?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
200 I am, and the hundred fly.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
So congratulations, thank you.

Speaker 6 (47:53):
I'm a big fan of getting over to the state meet
or getting to the conferencemeet.
I love to post up with coachjohnson and boyer on the on the
pool deck.
Those are fun great guys, bythe way they're, they're awesome
, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Well, another great part of having that procedure
done now, of course, though, isyou get to jump off the pier
again.
Oh yeah, and head deep yep, yeptell us about that.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
so yeah, grant and I, actually we like to go dive off
the pier and go free divingdown for some free fishing lures
.
You know people get snagged allthe time when they're fishing,
so we go grab pliers and ripthem out of the ground.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
How far down are you going, by the way?

Speaker 3 (48:29):
25, 30, 35 feet, I mean even now going down.
I still have a couple ofregular heartbeats.
It's not fully fixed, but it'snot 250 beats per minute for
five minutes at a time.
It's an irregular beat here andthere.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Yeah, I was out there one year and guys were
spearfishing.
They were going down the bottomand they were obviously they
would come back to the surface.
You could see it.
I thought it was great.
What's it?

Speaker 3 (48:56):
like down, when you get down by the bottom of the
pier Peaceful, there's no sound,you see fish here and there,
but you're by yourself, reallyjust on the bottom.
I don't know how else todescribe it.
It's really peaceful.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
How long are you able to stay down there?

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Being a swimmer helps , for sure.
I can do probably a minute anda half at a time.

Speaker 7 (49:13):
I don't know how you do that.
That's something.
Are you wearing a mask?

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Yeah, you got a mask and I put wetsuits on fins on
Figuring yeah, that's got to becold.
Yeah, but a minute and a halfis probably my longest just down
there figuring out what's onthe bottom.
We have it pretty mapped out atthis point actually.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
And that's the place you go to when you're in the
hole and guys are pummeling you.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yep, just go back to my happy place at the bottom of
the lake.
Find your happy place, happy.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
And you head on down there, so that's a cool story.
I really like that you guys aredoing that.
One really cool thing aboutyour guys' sport is the varied
physical abilities everybody has.
We have three guys sitting hereright now that are very
different physically from eachother.
Coach.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, depending on how they are built
with genetics, grady's prettytall and lanky.
No, it's kind of like shortstock with that burst of muscle,
and then liam of course kind ofhas that you know broad
shoulder back to.
You know really hold that wholeset off.
So I mean they're all reallystrong, they're all really in
great shape.
But depending on you know thatlength for grady, he can kind of
get to some of those steals.
I know what's really good aboutusing that you know kind of
center of balance to kind ofhelp get out of position to keep

(50:15):
those hips up and whole setdefense I should say.
And then liam, you know, withthat tread, strength, shoulders,
all that stuff, I wish I couldkind of combine all these guys
and be one, you know, greatplayer but they're all great.
Yeah, they're all separated, soit's great to have three.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
I'd rather have three versus one yeah, I think it's
just really cool because youknow, oh, I'm not gonna do this
sport, I I'm not tall enough todo this sport, or whatever.
But in this sport here, you canbe so different and just add
different elements to it.
Maybe why don't you guys talkabout Noah just for a minute,
what he brings to the team, whatyou like about how he plays the
sport?

Speaker 7 (50:48):
I mean Noah, like every year, like I'll be, like
he's so good, and then I'm likethere's no way he can play any
better, and then the next game.
He just plays even better.
It's insane to me.
Every time we play I was likethat was such a good game and
then I was like I don't like it,and then he just plays even
better the next game.
It's insane.
He's so fast, he's so smart.
Noah does this move.

(51:08):
Noah's our whole set defenderand and he does this move where
I don't know how he does it, buthe like gets almost around him
and he has both of his hands upin the air and cause you can't
like push down at all.
And every time he steals theball and it is so impressive to
me like he's played such gooddefense and his offense is speed
Like you'll he'll be in wholeset D.
You look up, you get the ball,you're looking up the field and

(51:33):
he's you play so great like.
And every year it just getseven more impressive to me and
stuff like that's like it'sawesome to have someone who's
such a good defender and thensuch a good like offensive moves
off.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
He goes quick.
It's that's around yeah, it'sincredible I call.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
I want to call mr reliable.
You know I like he was sayingabout henry, like having that
safe pass, he's always that safepass.
You know he's not going to losethe ball, he's not going to do
something stupid with the ball,like he has the vision, like we
were talking about before.
And then on the sprints, it'slike I can put my head down and
just swim to the other end ofthe pool and know noah won that
sprint right, without secondguessing you're stopping to see

(52:08):
if you got to go the other way,yep yeah

Speaker 2 (52:12):
thanks, guys, appreciate that yeah grady is a
very special player out there.
I know you guys know this Very,very long, lots of great
endurance as teammates, havingGrady out there.
What's it like for you just toknow that Grady's on your team?
He is a very Coach.
He does lots of differentthings.

(52:32):
I mean, I see some Instagramposts where Grady scored five
goals and then the next game,the goals are in other spots and
Grady's doing all these otherthings.
Can you speak to Grady a littlebit?

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Yeah, so the amount of assists this guy gets.
I mean just he sees you dimepass, perfect pass every time.
Shoot it right in that goal,awesome with assists.
Just his shots at the end ofthe quarter, like when or red
clock, you know you got to shootthe ball, you got five seconds

(53:04):
Just winds it up, shoots itcorner most of the time right in
that corner.
But awesome accuracy for theshots I think they're great and
just overall really good at, youknow, turning defenders getting
through, driving great atdriving.
And then just yeah, game sensetoo, it's awesome.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Thank you.
Sometimes he steals the balland I'm like, how did that just
happen?
He had eight steals in our gamelast night.
And I have my head down, I'm onthe other end of the pool and I
see the ref blow the whistleand point in our direction.
I'm like, how did we get theball?
And I see grady with the ballthrowing it to me so I can score
it here, and I'm like, wow,that's just awesome thank you, I

(53:44):
appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, well, there's times, even the selene game I
was.
I I was taking turns watchingeach of you.
I didn't know you at all, Ididn't know who liam was like.
I think that's liam now that Iknow who that is.
But even watching you greatit's just.
You're very like adept at it'sone arm up.
You're just kind of moving thisguy back and forth defensively
and all of a sudden snatch rightlike you kind of like fame

(54:07):
these guys into thinking thingsare safe or they can make that
pass.
Then you take it away yeah, no,it's definitely.

Speaker 7 (54:13):
Sometimes, though, I get a little too ahead of myself
.
I know I got long arms and I'llreach a little too far and I'll
get a kick out.
Like that's kind of sometimes Igot to like do that.
But it's definitely likedefinitely just getting the game
sense of like playing for solong.
And I know like Noah's going tolike if that ball goes in the
middle, I know Noah's got it soI can press out to my guy and
I'll get in his face and make ithard to throw around my arm.

(54:34):
And Liam plays great one-on-onedefense so like I know if
Liam's dropping or Liam's guylike it leams on their shooter
and stuff, like I can press outand maybe cause a turnover if
they throw it right to Liam.
I know Liam's getting in thatball or like it's just nice to
know that, like all the teamaround us has got it, so I can
just kind of try to do my thingand just get in the way and with
having long arms, it just makesit a little bit easier to get

(54:55):
to the elbow or get to the balland just knock it loose and
whatever then you got, you gotliam in the hole here, fellas
yeah, I mean imagine playingfirst of all, just imagine
playing that position on theregular you
know like being there and doingthat every single game yeah,
sometimes, like when we playlike you play a team who's like
really, really good you meanthey have really good whole
defender so'll, like me or Noah,will slide in just to get Liam

(55:17):
some space, because Liam's sopowerful.
We run a play him and Graham.
I think it works like everytime and he cuts down and Graham
throws it over the top to Liamand he just backs up that kid
and like almost into the paintLike you think about basketball
just backing him up and Liamwill just rip a backhand or
he'll step out and just dunk iton the goalie.
Every time he's so strong.

(55:38):
You're like, oh, there's Liam.
I'm going to slowly startswimming back to get to the
middle because you know he'sabout to sink it, or he's going
and you can tell, okay, thatguy's going to come back down.
I'm going to cut.
Liam's going to make a greatpass.
It's just so nice to.
You're just saying like likeLiam's, like you gotta throw me

(55:59):
the ball, like I got this, youknow, I mean like I got this
like you.
You're like all right, and youthrow it to the ball yep, of
course he's got it turns himjust, dunks it in like it's just
like and going back to earlier,you said, like what's the DKO?

Speaker 5 (56:08):
like Liam's really good about using that strength
and getting that advantage whereyou can get that drawn kick out
.
So with that ball and hole set,you're giving that advantage as
offense.
To think, hey, if you have thatscoring position and they get
that foul from behind, you geteither a five-meter that's like
a penalty shot in soccer, youwant one-on-one with the goalie,
otherwise you get a six-on-five.
You get that power playopportunity.
You get 20 seconds for that.
So, depending on getting thatgoal or getting that kick out,

(56:35):
it really puts's in foul trouble.
Let's get our guys out, let'sget those guys going.
And yeah, he's the all-aroundguy on whole set there yeah, so
you'll see him.

Speaker 4 (56:44):
I'll be at point, I'll see him.
He'll give me that nod and Iknow I just pass it right in,
shoots it right away.
He he's great at every timeafter we get a goal they get,
they get a goal.
He'll look at me he'll say, hey, watch, drive, watch, play,
watch, this, play, watch me inset.
He's good at calling out,telling people hey, drive, now,
get out, press out.
Like.
He's great at communicatingwith the team and also just like

(57:07):
letting you know when to dowhat, when to pass the ball when
to shoot the Really and you'rejust doing a lot of that with
your facial expressions.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean really right, you get to know
each other pretty well, maybefight with middle school.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
That's pretty crazy.

Speaker 6 (57:24):
The chemistry between you guys is palpable.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 6 (57:27):
I can just tell that you guys are around each other
all the time.
You know your energy feeds offof each other.
It's really cool to see.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Let's each other it's really cool to see.

Speaker 5 (57:42):
Let's do a couple things.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
I want to do this.
When we got in.
One thing I'd like is hisbackhand shot.
You did one on saturday and Iwas like dang, I want to do this
.
How common is a backhand?

Speaker 5 (57:46):
shot.
Is that a normal thing in waterpolo or?
I mean, when I played it wasalways a strategy of whole set
to be like, hey, if you can'tget that sweep shot, watch, it's
like turning that forehand,it's like in tennis.
We're like, hey, get thoseelbows out, tread out, try to
get that quick shot on thegoalie.
So some guys are really goodabout doing that on the swim.
Otherwise I prefer to have thatbe out of a set position.
But for liam, like, if he's inthat position, back on that guy
out.
You just got to think thegoal's right behind me, what
could I do with this?
And he's good about knowingthat.

(58:07):
You know cage awareness,keeping the ball in the frame.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
So you cage awareness another great water polo term
just brought out.
What's it like for you?
Are you setting that move up?

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Yeah, yeah.
It's pretty fun to watch, to behonest, you kind of just beg
for the ball.
You know you have your guy, youhave his hand on the tip.
You can't do anything about it.
So you know, once you get theball, it's game over.
You just chuck it in.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Okay, so you got a hand on his tip and he's
probably what you kind of pushhim.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
so I'm a righty, I would prefer the ball here, so I
can shoot here.
So I kind of get him on my leftside, so I'll kind of seal him
off with my shoulders to theleft side.
Give Noah or Grady or someonethat nods, set the ball in and
then I'll just rip it.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
You guys know what's coming, oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (58:48):
And you also know shot clock, awareness and stuff.
If the ball's low, you almostlike, you almost like just step
up, like you're gonna shoot.
They slide up and then justdump it right down to him and
stuff, and he'll get that andyou know well, that's a goal,
because he's like perfectposition.
You know that's fine.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
So the uh this, we talked about this before we got
in here too is your your, yourmove that you did on the outside
this spin move thing that youdid?
You had the ball, I think youhad it out in your left hand or
whatever, and you're up on yourguy and you went underwater.
The ball stayed up yeah, andall of a sudden, you're around
him.
What's going on on that move?

Speaker 4 (59:24):
yeah, so that's.
Grady is way better at turningpeople than I am, but yeah, I'd
try that some.
I tried out.
Sometimes I experiment with theturning the ball, turning the
guy with the ball.
You think of it as it's liketrying to like go one way a
little and then kind of goingunder and sweeping around and
get around them, and then youjust got to quick, get up, swim

(59:46):
that through and then it's justyou, your defenders, back behind
you.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
You're just kind of wiping the guy right out of your
way.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
How much fun is it to pull that move?
Off, you guys talk about thatafter the game.

Speaker 7 (01:00:00):
It's a great feeling, but when it happens to you,
you're like this is soembarrassing.
Right now You've got to keepyour hands up so you don't get a
penalty.
You're just like this is reallyembarrassing that I'm just
getting turned down.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
Yeah, it's like a nutmeg in soccer when it does
happen to you.
You're like, oh no, but yeah,the guys are great at that let's
get to goals of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Last year you made that run to regionals, had a big
win over grand haven to getthere.
What are your goals this year?
Maybe, liam, you want to startit off.
Maybe as a team, what are youguys trying to?

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
pull off I mean I think states is the end goal.
I think that would be amazing.
As a team, we're 10th right now.
I mean I don't see why we can'tmake state tournament no, for
sure, for sure, I 100% agree.

Speaker 7 (01:00:37):
I think, going into this season, we all like,
obviously us three seniors andwe're like this is our last year
.
I mean this is me.
I mean we want to make statesand we haven't made it in a
while.
I know that.
So last year going to regionalswas awesome, but we're like,
all right, we've got to make itto.
We got enough depth and I,honestly, starting the season
this year, we were like this islike we look good, just even
start the season.

(01:00:58):
So we just got to make sure wewin those key games and just
keep moving forward.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
Yeah, so state definitely, and also just
preparing the younger guys, notnecessarily underclassmen, but
preparing for next year when usthree aren't there.
We definitely want to have theteam all set up and good Start
building that chemistry amongthose younger kids and, yeah,

(01:01:23):
it's a big part of it too, it'snot the first time we've heard
that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:26):
No, it's one of those things.
As we continue to do thesepodcasts, we sit down with a lot
of seniors.
It's really cool, as the AD, tohear seniors really looking out
for the kids that are comingbehind them and really trying to
leave a legacy right.
It's kind of you guys arehelping to build that culture
that coaches helped kind ofpromote and get us to this point
, and you guys want to see itfor the next group.

(01:01:48):
So kudos for you for for havingthat mentality.
It's appreciated.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
When's your next game , when you play again?

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
Well, there's a JV tournament this weekend, but for
varsity we play at Rockfordnext Monday.
So that's going to be our firstconference game.
That's going to be tough.
They're the top team in thestate.
They're known to be apowerhouse.
So if we can go into that game,kind of give it our best, show
them what we're made of.
We have another game onWednesday against Next week's
going to be pretty tough Runningthe gauntlet.
huh, yeah for us to be playingthose games away.

(01:02:16):
It'll be a tough road trip, butI mean that's what you play for
.
I mean you want to give yourteam a chance.
It always is 0-0.
I tell the guys you knowdefense wins the game.
If we give no goals up, let'sget a goal.
But easier said than done.
But when it comes to strategylike Rockford, of just dominance
state, by state by state yeahso from people that have played,

(01:02:37):
parents that have kids there.
It is a unique program, to saythe least, and they have a lot
of depth.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
When are you next here at home, our first home
game is 22nd, 22nd, yeah, yeah,against East Kentwood.
All right 22nd against EastKentwood our pool.
Get out there South High School, yeah, I was kind of thinking
of a little challenge to thePanther Nation.

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
It's like we always go to the same sports.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
All of us do, I mean even me.
That was my first water polo,like ever, but it was really
enjoyable to go.
So if you're listening to this,try and do something different,
like go to an event you'd nevergo to because the rewards are
great, you get to watch theseother athletes play and there's
all these other great sports outthere.
So a little challenge.

Speaker 6 (01:03:20):
There we go, black hole.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
We love it 22.

Speaker 6 (01:03:22):
You're on the clock.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Yeah, all right, so we'll see you.
Hopefully we'll see you on the22nd.

Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
Good luck this week, guys, it's been really good to
sit down much guys.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Beneath the Surface : Varsity Water Polo with Liam Tuinstra, Grady Armstrong, Noah Williams & Coach Alex Wuerfel

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Beneath the Surface : Varsity Water Polo with Liam Tuinstra, Grady Armstrong, Noah Williams & Coach Alex Wuerfel

Stuff You Should Know