Girls get Feet Wet in New Sport
January 28, 2015
Diamond Bar’s water polo woes continue, now with the girls. The struggling Lady Brahmas are currently 4-17 overall and 0-4 in the Palomares League with five games remaining left on their schedule.
“The coaching staff’s concentration right now is teaching the fundamentals of the game. We have yet to touch any major offensive or defensive strategies. We have focused on teaching and playing a team-oriented defense,” coach Alexander Matal said.
Since the summer, the Lady Brahmas have been practicing the basics and the fundamentals of the game. Now, they do passing and shooting drills, body position drills, transition drills and always ends with scrimmages to make sure what they practiced stays with them during practice. To add versatility to practice, Matal and his staff often change up the drills in order to keep the team focused.
“The coaching staff does not measure how well the team is doing based on our win and loss record, but whether or not the team is able to take what we do during our practices and implement it during games,” Matal said.
Senior co-captain Sierra Sanchez and juniors co-captains Jenna Canova and Mia Le were chosen as captains because of the leadership qualities and skills they possess.
Since they’re in their debut season, the Lady Brahmas lack experience. Matal thinks that season will serve as a learning experience to help the athletes become aware of what they need to do in certain situations and broaden their knowledge in the sport. Since the underclassmen will still be here when the seniors leave, the seniors will be able to give advice to the new recruits about what the upperclassmen have learned in the past year. As this cycle continues, the team hopes to get better and finally compete evenly against the schools they previously couldn’t to win league.
On January 16, DB attended a two day tournament, First Annual Lady Brahmas Winter Classic at Chino Hills High School. The tournament consisted of DB, Fontana, Chaffey, Western, and La Mirada High School. DB lost their first game to Western, 11-5, and also lost the second match of the day to La Mirada, 10-7. On the second day, the Lady Brahmas started out with a 10-6 win against Fontana, but lost the other two games that day to Chaffey and Western. DB ended up in fourth place in the silver division. Its next league game is at Claremont tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.
“I would say we’re doing pretty well considering the fact that we’re in a good league and it is our first year. Even though we lost a lot, there is still room to improve,” junior Erica Kim said.
