This is the fourth of four articles interviewing four different generations of  Ventura Water Polo players ranging from 1980 to present.

Thirty years since Mark Schmidt played his last Buena ventura water polo game, the Cougar team has grown more popular and more competitive but continues the tradition of intense rivalries, camaraderie and of course, hazing.

I spoke with Junior Palmer Rovelli who played for the 2019 Varsity Water Polo Team about where the team is today and what it looks like for the near future.  Palmer described a climate of intense competition and camaraderie.

G: What made you want to do water polo

P: My friends played it before like some older friends that had played it and

my sister played it actually.

G:  What’s your favorite part?

P: Being in shape and like swimming in the water.  I feel like you don’t sweat if you’re swimming.

G: so you get that kinda like sore feeling but then it’s not like sweating [  ].

P:  Yeah it feels good cuz it like equals out and stuff so yeah that’s pretty much it.

G:  Do you have any good stories? What’s your favorite stories that quantify why water polo at VHS is fun for you? Ones you wouldn’t mind sharing . . .

P:  we had a tournament down south but we were playing some team at night and they were crushing us in the beginning but then everyone started going off, the whole team was playing well and it was insane and everyone was super hyped and we ended up just killing ‘em and everyone was hyped and we were like talking [trash] to em.  It was beast.

G:  I’m looking at the generations of water polo and one of the questions I’m asking is about hazing to see how it’s progressed.  Has there been any hazing? When you first entered?

P:  Yeah there’s definitely been hazing like not nearly as much as what I’ve heard about [   ].

P:   Like Schmidt, Schmidt’s like cutting back on it.  He’s like cracking down super hard.

G:  I interviewed Schmidt about it.  

P:  Really?  [ ] He’s like you guys need to stop doing that.

It appears that Ventura’s Water Polo’s popularity grows and the enjoyment of the intense competition and the camaraderie continue to attract new Freshman players despite almost 40 years of coaches and players trying to keep the hazing to a minimum.

2018 Boys Water Polo schedule