To start out the season against a water polo team as talented as the Murray Spartans is a tall order, but for Park City it was a great way to get a good test. Although both the boys and girls’ squads lost by fairly wide margins on Wednesday at the Park City Aquatic Center, they felt the games showed them the strengths and weaknesses of their teams.
“I thought it would be more rough than that,” said Park City head coach Larry Jackson.
In the girls’ game, the Miners struggled to keep up, trailing the Spartans 11-3 by halftime. Their scoring woes continued into the second half, as they eventually lost 19-6. The team is playing with a number of new players and passed up a number of shots on goal. The Miners also have a new girl at the goalie position.
We’re trying to get the new girls to know the game … but I think we had a lot of fun,” said senior Ashley Loyens.
One area in which the girls shined was in their defensive pressure. Although the Spartans still managed to pour a number of shots into the net, the Miners consistently kept a body on the Murray scorers.
Loyens, who was kicked out the championship game at the state finals last year after a double foul, is anxious to get back there this season. Although she knows it will be a tall order, she said that a lot could happen in the next few weeks to put the Miners in good position in the postseason.
It was a slightly different story on the boys’ side, where the Miners managed to stay closer in scoring to the defending-state-champion Spartans. Although the boys lost 22-14, they were as close as 12-9 at the start of the third period.
Senior Briggs Lyman, who scored a bulk of the Park City points, said they could have played better.
“It was our first game,” said Lyman. “It’s good to know where we are.”
The boys’ problems seems somewhat opposite of the girls. While the Miners took a number of shots — many of which went into the net defensively, they couldn’t stop the Spartans’ top three scorers.
“We need to get more pressure coming down the pool,” Lyman said.
Not only was it the first game of the season, but the team is also trying to break in two new coaches and number of new players. Lyman said that adjusting to the styles of each new coach made it hard to know exactly where to be in the game.
“We don’t know exactly where we are and when we are supposed to rotate,” he said.
All the new elements affected transitions as well as passing for both teams. Lyman expects that, once the team is more cohesive,e those things will come easily.
Joining the boys’ varsity team are Shawn Livingston, Weston Archibald and Ben Haynes. Jackson said once the rookies get acclimated to top-level competition, games should run more smoothly. There is also a fair number of water polo players who did not compete for the high school swim team, so some poolside cohesion will need to take place as well.
“They need to learn to play together as a team,” Jackson said.
Although the team had a tough start, Jackson said that he isn’t too concerned about the regular season. His focus is on working toward the state championships. In past years, Park City has had a mediocre showing throughout the season but come up big in the finals.
“We’ll play a lot of schools like this,” he said. “Our concern is state.”
The Miners will have a week to work out the kinks, with no games scheduled until next weekend’s 3A tournament. On Saturday, March 21, the Miners will host 12 games between 3A North opponents Bear River, Wasatch, Park City and Cache Valley, in a round-robin series of double-headers at Park City Aquatic Center. The Lady Miners will open play against Wasatch at 8 a.m., followed by the boys’ game between Park City and the Wasatch Wasps at 8:50 a.m. Bear River, Wasatch and Cache Valley will then fill the midday slate with six straight games. The Miners return to action at 1 p.m. for the girls and 1:50 p.m. for the boys against Cache Valley, and then face Bear River at 2:40 p.m. (girls) and 3:30 p.m. (boys). Cache Valley and Bear River will wrap up play by 6 p.m.