By Colin Boyle

  Six players and a goalie take to the pool for each team to start the first quarter of each game. A goal is located at either end of the pool and the object of the sport is to throw the ball into the goals to score points. An aquatic mix of soccer, basketball, and hockey, water polo is an eclectic, contact sport, and one that is lesser known at Lane.

   Mark Gullickson, Div. 651, sees that since water polo is not a part of “the big three [football, basketball, and baseball],” it does not receive enough attention from the student body. Despite this, it is one with quite a lot of success in years past.

   “Even though it’s [water polo is] very difficult, I enjoy the fast paced aspect of the game and the nature of being on a team,” said Gullickson. “Being able to breath is always a plus.” Comparing water polo to swimming since your head is above the water for the most part in water polo, while swimming you are mostly underwater.

   In their conference the girls team went undefeated. The girls team won the city championship last year in a “tight game” against Northside, as Arijana Sabanovic, Div. 771, described it, and the boys placed second.

   Gullickson has been on the team every year that he has been at Lane and plays every position. In water polo, the positions include two wings, a point, two drivers, a hole set, which is almost like the center in basketball according to Wikihow.com, and a goalie.

   Goalie Anne Puralewski, Div. 667, has always seen a “good team dynamic” in her four years of playing water polo on the girls side. Puralewski is excited for this upcoming season because “a lot of our freshmen have played before,” which can be promising for the future of the girls team. What can challenge the future of the team is the addition of a new coach, Coach Bartucci.

   Between having the new coach and a younger team, Puralewski finds it “nerve wracking” for the upcoming season. On the boys side, it is the first year in three years to have a coach returning from the previous season. They have a few returning players, as well as some new ones.

   Games are typically an hour long and when they are at Lane, the boys games are at 5 p.m. and girls at 6 p.m. Check the Lane athletic website for more information.