As the Boys Water Polo season crawls closer and closer, the team is working hard to prepare for the new season.

Last year, the team fell to Gunn in a triple-overtime league championship game, thus ending the season in second place. They later lost in the quarterfinals of CCS.

After falling short last year, the Viking boys are hoping to bounce back and come out on top. The team’s goal for this season is to win the league championship they came so close to last season, and possibly even make a run at the CCS title.

The team lost 5 graduates from last year’s team, however they are returning with 10 players, and will have a lot of new players.  Some important assets this year are Jack Andersen (18’) and Matthew Nemeth (18’), as well as starting sophomore Dexter Gormley (20’). The seniors carry an important leadership role within the team, and look to support and help improve the younger, yet talented players.

New this year, the Vikings will be able to use the Paly pool instead of traveling to the Gunn High school Pool. For the past two seasons the Paly gym and Pool have been out of use due to a major remodel. Players reported to the pool one week before the start of pool for hell week.

During preseason, the Vikings have been putting in hard work every single day, pushing themselves to get better.

“This year’s team has an unbelievable work ethic. The whole team has committed to each other to put in the hard work required to be successful,” head coach Aaron Johnson said.

Johnson acknowledges that every member of the team shares the willingness to hurt to get better, and believes that their mindset and physicality will help them throughout the season.

One of the early challenges of a new team is chemistry. Players must learn to play with new teammates to keep the flow of the game going. As a team, it is important for the vikings to play to the strengths of their teammates, which they must learn first.

The Vikes have a young team with three members of the sophomores  and one member freshman.

“We need to learn how the game works, and how to catch and shoot with each other,” goalie Ben Rapperport (‘19’) said. Rapperport knows how the team needs to function in order to win due to his 2 years of underclassman experience.

After a tough ending to the season last year, the Vikings look to build off their overtime loss in the league championship.

“Our main goal is to win league, we do not want to be the team that was so close two years in a row,” Gormley said.

The team’s first match is against Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo on August 30th. Their first matchup against crosstown rival Gunn is on September 14th, a match they are hoping to win in order to avenge last year’s league championship loss.