The Palo Alto High School boys water polo team has enjoyed great success during its first few games back from the long summer break, beating both Los Gatos High School and Monta Vista High School by two points.

“The game [against Los Gatos] was a little disappointing,” senior Alex Beaudry said. “It should have been a blowout, but instead we only won by two. But against a team like Los Gatos we need to be able to shut them down because they’re not very good. All in all we need to be able to keep our intensity throughout the entire game and not slack in the third and fourth quarter.”

“[Losing many talented players] doesn’t really affect us because we [still] have a lot of good players.”

Alex Beaudry, Senior

However, the team regained its confidence after a strong scrimmage against Davis High School.

“I think our season is going to go better than last year because we’re more focused,” Beaudry said. “We’re also a lot more in sync with each other than last year, so we’re playing as a team instead of individuals.”

The boys ended up losing the scrimmage against Davis, though they held their own against a talented and well-coordinated team. They continue to look for improvement.

“The scrimmage was tough but Davis was a good team, so [losing was] not really much of a surprise,” Beaudry said. “However we were able to come out firing and keep it close [during] the first half, which is a major improvement from last year.”

Many of the team’s key seniors have graduated, but the boys are restructuring their play style around the available talent.

Despite the loss of last year’s seniors, the team remains optimistic.

“[Losing many talented players] doesn’t really affect us because we [still] have a lot of good players,” Beaudry said. “New people always come in, and we will always get better players.”

As the pool is still unavailable due to construction, the team continues to practice off-campus at the Avery Aquatic Center at Stanford.

“[Practicing off-campus] is really awesome,” Beaudry said. “We practice at Stanford now which is nice.”

The boys look forward to playing against Wilcox High School on Sept. 20 at Gunn High School.