New coach builds up water polo team spirit
Over the last couple years, the NPHS water polo team has overcome a multitude of problems: ranging from coaching shortages, to player shortages, to bumps in the road with the CIF season, but the program persists and continues to run and grow stronger.
At the beginning of this year’s season, Izzy De’Souza, a former Cal Lutheran University [CLU] alumni and water polo goalie took over the coaching position, not only for all of the boys’ water polo teams, but also the girls’ water polo team.
Despite coming in late, D’Souza quickly took the reins and began to work on team spirit. “I came in late, obviously, and so my main focus has kind of been on the culture of the team and the environment. My focus has been more on the people, the individuals, creating a good team environment and then for next year, more focused on mindset,” De’Souza said. “Something we’ve talked a lot about is the difference between wanting and needing something and I think that we’re trying to shift from simply wanting to win, wanting to succeed, to needing it.”
Players on the team have found this new approach to coaching beneficial. Instead of being punished for what they do wrong, mistakes are now an opportunity for growth. Sebastian Laubner, junior, finds that this has helped the team in this year’s season. “I think this new style of coaching [has] benefited the team.This year is a lot more fluid. There is room for improvement. If you mess up, you mess up. You just line back up and then try and improve yourself better on that,” Laubner said.
The new coach also prioritizes team building, allowing them to become closer and stronger this year. Jeremy Slack, junior, feels that team bonding benefited all players. “This year we are a lot more like a family, kind of a lot closer together because we have done a lot more team events together. For example, we are going to a Cal Lutheran University [CLU] volleyball game to build our team dynamic and see what a good team looks like playing together and how that positive environment works,” Slack said.
Sometimes it is not about how skilled you are but how well you work with others. De’Souza plans on implementing this mindset with NPHS water polo players to strengthen the team for upcoming seasons and lead them to victory.
“If you have a team of amazing athletes and not good people you will not be successful. For me, the bottom line is to have good people who are friends with each other and want to be friends with each other and be around each other outside the sport because with that type of environment, it doesn’t matter what everybody’s skill level is at. You will be successful in whatever you do,” De’Souza said.
