Water polo and field hockey teams make a connection

Anyone attending a field hockey home game this season may be in for a eye-opening sight: boys running across the field in Speedos.

The boys’ water polo team has started performing Speedo runs and cheers at field hockey games to promote school pride and encourage the team to do well. In return, the field hockey team attends water polo home games whenever they can.

“Normally, not many people besides parents come to the games,” senior field hockey captain Anna Ashe said. “It’s really great to have the boys out there now. I think we play better when we have fans backing us up.”

Water polo captain Nicolas Doyen arranged the pact with Ashe at the beginning of the fall sport season, after the boys did their first Speedo run during one of the field hockey games.

“The boys came to one of our games in their Speedos, and that weekend I ran into Nic Doyen,” Ashe said. “I told him that we really appreciated the support. We then went on to make the deal that we’d try to get our teams to go to each other’s games as often as possible.”

Empty bleachers at field hockey and water polo games have recently started to fill up thanks to to the arrangement, a change that is much appreciated by the players.

“It’s very discouraging for us to see half our stands empty, or filled with other team’s parents,” said Doyen. “I thought this was a good way to spread school spirit and have people attend.”
Both teams enjoy the new crowds and would love to see an even higher attendance at their games.

“It’s always nice to have a loud crowd, no matter the sport,” said Doyen.

The captains hope to see this arrangement carry on in the future to extend the positive results.

“I hope that the the teams will continue to do this after we graduate,” said Ashe. “I think it would boost school spirit a lot and increase attendance at both teams’ games.”