The boys water polo team beat St. Francis School 24-4 in its first home game of the season Aug. 25.

Center defender Jack Burghardt ’23 said he hopes the team’s positive start to the season will allow for more wins in the future.

“Today’s win felt good,” Burghardt said. “It shows that all of our hard work and training is paying off. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum from this win and carry it into training and future games.”

The team began preparing for its fall season by weightlifting as a group and attending early morning practices in early August. Center defender Jaxson Tierney ’23 said the team’s diligence led to its success in the game.

“I think this game reflected our work over the summer because we all were able to implement the skills [that] we have been working on in practice in a game setting successfully,” Tierney said. “We were finally able to show off the hard work we have all been putting in this summer. I believe everyone gave it their all at all times, really showing what this team is about. No matter the opponent [we] always [give] max effort, and I think that showed in this game.”

The Wolverines won the 2019 CIF Championship and finished their shortened 2020 season with a league record of 5-0. Center Ilias Stothart ’22 said his team will work to continue their winning tradition.

Stothart said the team’s younger athletes will allow them to continue improving as the season moves forward.

“We’re a really young team with only one playing senior, but we also have a lot of talent,” Stothart said. “We made an enormous amount of progress this summer, but since we’re so young, a lot of our starters are still improving really fast. We get better and better every time we play, and I think we have a really good shot at continuing our two year CIF championship streak if we keep working hard.”