The St. Benedict’s Preparatory School (SBP) Varsity Water Polo team is gearing up for the last game of its season and an upcoming tournament. Despite a lackluster record this season, the team’s spirit remains high as the season’s end approaches.

This Friday, SBP’s Gray Bees are going head-to-head with Horace Mann School, a private college preparatory school in the Bronx, New York. Next Friday, the team will head to The Lawrenceville School, a co-ed preparatory school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to compete in
the Garden State Water Polo Championship, an annual interscholastic water polo tournament.

The team’s record stands at three wins to five losses going into its Friday match. According to Varsity water polo captain Nicholas Rojas, UDII, the team’s record reflects that the season could have gone better and that the team has a lot to improve on. He hasn’t given up on his team, however, and is optimistic about this Friday and the next. “We need to come with energy,” he said. “If we have the energy, the right mindset, if we’re on top of our game, I think that we can bring it home.”

The team has had no shortage of energy throughout the last days of its season. At practice this past Thursday, along with the usual splashes of water produced by the constant swimming back and forth and the throwing of heavy water polo balls across the pool, there was considerable banter among the players. Interwoven with that banter were serious moments and interjections from the coaches aimed at pointing the players in the right direction.

Head water polo coach Kenya Moncur ‘15 and Assistant water polo coach Christopher Bonilla ‘13 share in the captain’s assessment of the season. “We’re restructuring and we’re rebuilding,” said Moncur. “This year, we had a team full of guys who were young but willing to rock.”

This season marked Moncur’s first year as head coach and Bonilla’s first year as assistant coach. The water polo program at SBP and the larger SBP community were devastated by the loss of teacher and former head water polo coach, Spencer Vespole ‘09, in 2019. The program has since been making strides to get back up and running.

The coaches, like captain Rojas, are optimistic about the remaining two events of the season, but they still want their players to give everything they have to offer at those events.

To conclude practice this past Thursday, Moncur shepherded his team into a corner of the pool and reminded his players about the key to winning.

“The only way to win is if you mentally prepare yourself and tell yourself that you are good enough,” he said.