Water Polo

 Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to Boise for Andrew's state water polo tournament.  It was held after the state swim meet at the Boise aquatic center.

This was the first real game Andrew had ever competed in and the first game Steve and I had ever seen.

 The Magic Valley swim team had two water polo teams, A and B.  Andrew was on the B team which consisted of mostly freshman players.

Warming up before the first match.

Still warming up.

(And yes…this team is co-ed.  Each team had to have two girls in the water at all times.)

 

Ok…I got lots of warming up pictures and not a lot of game pictures.  The games were crazy fast, violent and I was way up in the stands.

Grady watching.

Walker, Jeff, Steve, Grady, Carter and Wyatt cheering Andrew on.

Team huddle.

Andrew is dead center in the white cap handling the ball.

The tournament was double elimination and sadly, we lost both games.

The first game our team played a bunch of GROWN MEN.  Honestly, some of them were losing their hair.  These boys (men) were giants next to our freshmen players.  We lost 11-4, but I was impressed with the fight we put up.

Our second match was more evenly matched up and most of the game we were tied.  Sadly, we lost that game 9-6.  Andrew's team played so hard and it was crazy fun to watch.  I had a hard time sitting on my seat and cheered probably too loud.  Oops.  At one time an aggressive girl opponent was all over my son when he had the ball.  My mama bear claws came out…and I was surprised how proud I felt when he dunked the girl to get him off his back.  Illegal?  Yes.  Can you get away with it?  Yep.

Andrew mostly played defense, but one of the goals of the second game Andrew tossed the ball in the air and his friend Michal tapped it in.  These boys did a fantastic job working as a team. 

The boys of Magic Valley B Team.

It will be so fun seeing them grow and progress the next three years.  It will be crazy to see how much they change by the time they are seniors.

Another really fun part of this weekend was that my nephew Walker hung out with Andrew at the pool almost the entire time he was there.

My sister JaNae let my middle three kids hand out at her house most of the tournament.

They had the best time…and caught nasty frogs in the back stream.

I was texted these last two pictures.

I bet the frog was totally grossed out.  Ewww…boy kisses.