EZ Lang-Loveless (12) anxiously anticipated his entrance into the Westview pool. In front of more than 75 spectators, he would ceaselessly tread water, try to complete powerful passes to his teammates, and dive far into the deep end to dodge the opposing team. He said this water polo match was one of the most challenging games of his life. Only, this was Lang-Loveless’s first-ever water polo match, as his sport of choice is football.

The girls water polo team hosted a match with the boys water polo team against the football team as a collaborative fundraiser for the water polo programs, Sept. 30. The event raised $391 to replace the team’s worn balls and cages. To Lang-Loveless, the match was an exciting opportunity to try something new with his teammates and a fun way to support water polo. 

“I knew win, lose, or draw, I was gonna have a blast,” he said. “It was pretty competitive too, so it was a lot of fun at the same time.”

Before the match, girls water polo set guard Cecilia Carlson (12) gave the football players an overview of the game’s mechanics and rules. Two members of the boys water polo team as well as two members of the football team assumed roles as football’s coaches, both to strategize and explain the game throughout the match. Soon, seven football players and seven trained water polo players faced off in the pool. At the sound of the referee’s whistle, the match, with shortened five-minute quarters, had begun. 

Football kicked off the game with an early 3-2 lead in the first quarter that Lang-Loveless attributes partly to the strong defense from Manny Avina (12), who played as goalie for the team. However, Lang-Loveless said his team was unprepared for the constant water treading, so they were given floaties to start the second quarter. With little stamina left, football scored no goals in the quarter, falling behind at halftime, 6-3. 

“We had Manny start out as our goal keeper, and he was going crazy,” Lang-Loveless said. “But in the second half, all of us were tired. Swimming in the pool was wild and I had cramps in both my legs by the end of the first quarter. Since I was mostly playing on defense, if our offense was on, I would just sit there and float.”

To Carlson, seeing athletes struggle in the sport was initially shocking, since she has been playing on water polo teams for the past eight years. She said the football team’s enthusiasm to take on the demanding sport, despite having close to no preparation, added a light-hearted feel to the match and made the fundraiser enjoyable for the participants and viewers. 

“It was kind of funny because I’m in the water basically every day, so I’m used to seeing people comfortable in water,” Carlson said. “I had to pull three [football players] across the pool at half[time] to get them back to the wall because they didn’t want to have to swim. But it was really all a lot of fun.”

After halftime, however, the game rules quickly began to bend. At the start of the third quarter, both teams had 12 players in the water, and coaches were encouraging new strategies. One strategy was used exceptionally frequently in this game — a strategy less common in a varsity water polo match but extremely popular at the fundraiser: the flying salmon. 

“The first time one of the boys did a flying salmon, the crowd was very impressed,” Carlson said. “Basically somebody’s underneath you and you’re kind of standing on their shoulders. They push you up and so you’re launched up into the air to try and shoot.”

Lang-Loveless said the intimidating move was unexpected, but soon, both teams were executing flying salmon. 

“They stood on each other’s shoulders, popped out the water, and then shot the ball really hard,” he said. “That was scary because I was actually right in front of it once and I saw the ball zip past my face, and I’m like, ‘what the heck.’ It was crazy.”

The last quarter introduced a new change to the match — the traditional water polo ball was replaced with a rubber football, which Lang-Loveless said made a difference in football’s offense. 

“[The football] was not an accurate size, it was smaller,” Lang-Loveless said. “But we threw it a lot harder than the water polo ball, and then everybody just jumped in the pool.”

Football coach Mitchell Donnelly also jumped in to join the game alongside his players. With every water polo and football player — plus a coach — in the pool, the teams ended the quarter tied, 10-10. They entered overtime with the final shootout, adjusted to have three goalies per cage. 

Football started, scoring all of its three shots. Water polo followed, making the first two, but missing the third, losing the team the match. Still, the game ended on a high note, as all the players celebrated the fundraiser’s success.

“We won by one point and we all just started diving in the pool and doing flips into the pool,” Lang-Loveless said. “It was a lot of fun.”

The fundraiser marked the fulfillment of long-awaited plans, since alumna Sora Page (’25) sparked the idea in the spring. Carlson took charge to organize the event this school year, coordinating a date with football, advertisements with ASB, money distribution with the Wolverine Athletic Foundation, and various other elements with volunteers that allowed the game to run smoothly. She attributed the fundraiser’s success to the cooperation of everyone involved. 

“It was a lot of just moving parts because people’s timelines were different,” Carlson said. “The snack shack with baked goods from the teams and the clocks were student-run, after I asked friends and people on the team if they’d be down to do it. The boys water polo coach and one of my coaches were referees in the game. Football actually showed up with their own recording system, so that there was a drone recording the whole thing. [There] were a lot of people just being nice and letting me boss them around for a bit.”

Lang-Loveless said the experience changed his perspective on water polo. 

“After that, I have a newfound respect for water polo players on top of what I already knew because just being able to swim like that is crazy but then having to go against other people, I don’t know how they do it,” he said. “None of them looked winded. They looked like they could go for another hour and a half while we’re all sitting there trying to catch our breath.”

For Carlson, the fundraiser was an incredibly fun and successful event that she said she hopes will continue annually to both fund the water polo equipment and to raise awareness of the sport. 

“Water polo is underfunded everywhere and girls water polo is [both] a niche sport and a women’s sport, so it can easily fly under everybody’s radar,” Carlson said. “[In water polo,] the people there are there because they really want to be there. I won’t lie, it’s a hard, hard sport. There’s no way to cheat it. But the people who are there really care about the sport and each other, because it is so hard that you have to be there for each other.”