With only one more game to go until the league finals tournament, the boys water polo team sits in fourth place in the Capital Valley Conference with a record of 3-3. Proving to have been much more consistent than last year’s 1-7 team, this year’s boys are older and more experienced.

Senior Obadiah Stauffer and junior Kyle Gard, this year’s captain, both feel that this age difference is one of the factors in the team’s improved performance this year.

“Last year we had three or four seniors and this year we have about eight or nine,” Stauffer said. “So overall this year we have a much stronger and mature team because of our ages.”

In regards to the postseason, the Tigers must perform well in the end-of-year league championship tournament to have any hopes of advancing. Gard believes that the team excels on offense but will have to work on communication in order to make it into the postseason.

“We are really good at countering and just making good shots,” Guard said. “Yet we really struggle with communicating in the pool.”

Looking back on the season so far, Stauffer is proud of the work that the boys put in and how much they have grown.

“We are now getting together as a family more than we ever have,” Stauffer said. “This year we worked much harder in the pool, harder than we ever have before.”

The Tigers’ final game before the league finals tournament is tomorrow against the 2-8 Kennedy Cougars, and Stauffer feels confident in the team’s ability to finish the season strong and possibly advance into the postseason.

“I feel like our team is just stronger, we just work together,” Stauffer said. “We have lost a few games, but I feel like if we work hard we still have a good chance to make it to sections.”