One of the most unique sports team in spring is the CHS is water polo. Why? Because there is only one female on the team, junior Julia Grasse.

Water polo is one of the few sports that are coed because of the few female members involved. There are not enough females in most school districts to make a whole female league, and thus, boys and girls compete together.

Though some would say that females may be at disadvantage on an all male team, Grasse stands out as one of the stronger members.

“She’s probably one of the best females in St. Louis,” teammate Jack Layden said. “Other females are nothing compared to Julia and can’t compete with her.”
Co-captain Brett Virgin-Downey also agrees with Layden.

“She’s really good for a girl,” Virgin-Downey said. “Though some girls find trouble playing with a lot of males, she finds no difficulty playing with the other guys. She definitely knows what she’s doing.”

Head coach Wally Lundt praises Julia for her effort and her crucial role on the team.

“Julia is doing very well and she’s in our starting lineup,” Lundt said. “She’s great on defense and her placement of shots is very accurate. When she’s not guarded well, she can score easily.”

Though it may seem awkward to be the only female on the team, Grasse says that she is used to and that being the only female is nothing new.

“When I was in 8th grade,” Grasse said, “I was the only girl so I’m pretty much used to it. Since this is also my third year on the team, I feel like my teammates respect me and it doesn’t affect our teamwork.”

Despite Grasse’s and other team members’ efforts and participation, the team had a rough start in the beginning of the season. One of the main reasons why the team is not as strong as last year is because last year’s star JB Garfinkel graduated. As a result of the loss of Garfinkel and other graduates, many JV members have been moved to varsity.

“We lost JB this year who was a major basis of our team,” Virgin-Downey said. “We have moved up a lot of JV members and they are still transitioning to the varsity level.”

Layden states that the loss of graduates has been motivation for many of the team members to pick up their game.

“I think everyone has picked up their slack and developed their abilities even though JB left,” Layden said. “We’re doing really well this year and we’ve beat a lot of teams that gave us trouble last year, so I think we have improved a lot.”

The water polo team’s game is not yet perfect and they are focused on improving several aspects of their game to do better in tournaments.

“There’s usually at least one quarter in the game where we do badly,” Grasse said. “But if we go strong for the whole game, we could do a lot better. We need a little more practice in the fundamentals, but everyone is trying their best and the team is playing great.”

Lundt also agrees with Grasse and encourages the team to put more effort into the offensive side of the game.

“The biggest thing we need to improve is scoring,” Lundt said. “Not everyone goes for the shot and plays as offensive as they should. However, more members are starting to take shots, which is an improvement.”

Though the team struggled, they now have four wins and four losses and are continuing to improve.

“I hope by the end of the season we will have more flawless games,” Virgin-Downey said. “We have some shining moments and other times where people make a lot of mistakes, but we learn from them and by the end of the season, our team should be in good shape.”