During the fall season, the walls of the gym can be seen adorned with the smiling faces of seniors from girl’s swim and dive, girl’s volleyball, girl’s soccer, boy’s tennis, football, and boys and girls cross country. Absent from their peers is boys water polo whose posters hang in the commons, causing many to wonder why.
Enzo Rolfe, one of the senior captains, described dealing with posters as a battle lasting weeks. Eventually, they decided to hang the posters in the commons. “I don’t know why that couldn’t have been a solution. The school came quicker because it took almost two weeks of stuff to make that happen, which it really just could have taken a day,” Rolfe said.
In Washington, all high school sports are governed by the Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association or WIAA. They are the governing body for all Washington state high school sports, currently, they recognize 20 sports. Water polo along with many other sports do not make the official list. Instead, they are classified as clubs “The state of Washington doesn’t recognize them as a competing varsity sport. So they’re put in the category of club.” said Joann Fukuma, the athletic director here at Shorewood. “I wish I could have bowling and flag football and boys volleyball. Everybody wants that. Lacrosse, water polo, archery club, badminton club. I would love to see those be Washington state sports” Fukuma said. “I know those sports are trying to get going here, but there’s some pushback by schools, because of facilities, they find it hard to do that. So we in Washington, we never voted in,” said Fukuma
Water polo is governed by American Water Polo, a non-profit organization that organizes and runs the leagues. Water polo athletes must pay a fee of $500 as opposed to the $200 fee that other sports pay. “The club fee they pay for their organization fee, which includes insurance, they have to pay for their pool use. They have to pay for uniforms. They have to pay for all their officials.” said Fukuma. The extra cost can be a barrier for some. “It can be very daunting, especially for people who are just trying out the sport,” said Maren Bell, Junior captain for girls water polo. “People don’t want to pay those prices for something they haven’t tried out yet because they don’t know if they’ll like it,” Bell said. Waterpolo must find other ways to obtain funding “It can be difficult and there is a lot of raising money that we have to do,” said Bell.
Water polo does not stand alone however, many students choose a different sport to play during the spring season. Instead of two teams for two high schools, a combined team of Shorewood and Shorecrest students play under one team, The Shoreline Lake Forest Park Lacrosse Club runs the team. “The community decided to stay with a shoreline group and they rented the fields over at Shorecrest,” Fukuma said.
With the winter season starting, these sports take the back seat for now. While they might not be official school sports, that won’t stop Shorewood students from representing on the field and in the pool.
