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Personal Narrative: My Water Polo Game

500 Words2 Pages

It wasn’t even the third quarter and we were losing by 12 points. This water polo game was already a loss before the game even started. I knew that our team had no spirit to defeat Newberg, the back to back to back state champions. Newberg throughout the whole game commanded the lead with physicality and speed. Every single Newberg player was ready to counter attack when we made a mistake. Their defense made us look silly with their outstanding ability to steal the ball. There was no silver lining to that game other than that we couldn’t get worse.

Thirteen hours after the horrendous loss, our team had practice. We went grudgingly through our warm ups without any source of purpose. Practice didn’t improve. Our shots kept hitting the crossbar or bombarding onto the pool deck. Our morale was destroyed thanks to Newberg. To me this was unacceptable. How could a capable team like ours manage to lose all hope after one really bad game? Giving up not only reflects the team, but also me. I wanted to inject my philosophy of finding a way to win no matter what restraints are prevalent.

After practice I herded the team together for a player’s only meeting. I explained to them that we are not the biggest or fastest team but we manage to win our games with determination and resilience. If we stick to that and execute our jobs, we could …show more content…

We had a gameplan in place on how we were going to attack Newberg, but that obviously didn’t work. I knew that if our team was going to get our swagger back, that it meant I had to show my confidence in our team. Part of my job as a leader is to put out fires and maintain the team morale. Before that Newberg loss, our team was very emotional. If we won a game, it was a party in the locker room. If we lost a game, it was war in the locker room. By staying calm and confident, the team felt the same no matter a victory or a

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