WACO, Texas — Take a dive with Midway as the Panthers water polo season is holding tryouts.
"I'm so excited — water polo is definitely like my love, my passion. I start like I started with swim, then came to water polo and I swim doesn't even matter to me anymore, it's just water polo," Midway girls water polo captain, Rylie Graham, said.
"There's obviously some nerves with all the new people coming in — but I think it's really fun. We have a lot more boys this season, so it's really good for our team last year. We were right down to just enough boys on the team to have a team. So now we have a full team probably almost like 12-13 boys. So that's really good," Midway boys water polo captain, Ben Blalock, said.
Water polo is also being played overseas with a bigger audience in the Paris Olympics. For the Panthers, they. love seeing the sports they love get more exposure.
"Every four years, it seems like we have what we call the Olympic effect where people see things on TV. And they're like, oh, that looks fun or that looks interesting or that looks new," Midway water polo head coach, Dan Marlin, said.
"Normally, like people hear water polo and they're like, what's that? But like when the Olympics are going on, people are like Rylie, I'm watching water polo and it's cool and I'm like, I told you," Graham said.
The Olympic effect has shown results as water polo reaches its third year under being a UIL recognized sport and more Panthers are joining the team.
"In the Waco area in general, but specifically in Midway, our teams have grown, mostly our boys team. Our girls team has always been pretty decently sized. Last year, I think we had the most people try out that we've ever had," Blalock said.
"Compared to last year when we had eight boys just enough to make a team. Now, a lot of our freshmen boys and our other boys that have previously been on the team have been doing a lot of recruiting. So I think it's growing in popularity at Midway," Graham said.
Tryouts finished up as the season is about to be underway.
