Women’s water polo emphasizes mental health
After spring sports for 2020 were cancelled, teams have been staying ready in different and often unique ways. This is a continuation of the COVID-19 Chapman Panthers chronicles.
After the COVID-19 pandemic left most contact sports inaccessible, players on women’s water polo weren’t able to hop back in the pool to practice, so they focused on what they could control. Panther Archives
Some sports, like basketball and cross-country, lend themselves to individual play. Isolated in the middle of a pandemic? That’s not a problem for those athletes who can go put up shots at a local hoop, or keep their legs fresh with a weekly run.
That, however, is not quite the case with water polo.
“It’s been difficult to find motivation, but my team has talked me through it and we all check in with each other,” said Camille Chiang, a sophomore on the women’s water polo team. “We’re all optimistic about what we can be doing instead of what we’re not able to do,”
They may no longer be able to hop in the pool every morning or afternoon and joke around, but players on Chapman women’s water polo still find ways to stay connected and keep team morale up.
“We still all keep in touch. We have a GroupMe, a Snapchat where we send random pictures and we even did a TikTok trend where we passed a ball to each other,” Chiang said. “We’re all open about communication, so I feel like it’s a very safe space for everyone to talk.”
Head coach Eric Ploessel had advised his team to keep in contact during quarantine, knowing the extended stretch of isolation could take a mental toll on them.
“I let the players do what they wanted and deal with what happened to them. It hurt a lot of us not to finish (the season),” Ploessel said. “I told them to keep trying to find things to do … It’s more about mentally being there.”
With current uncertainty over a spring season and the many regulations brought on by the coronavirus, players are limited in the practice they can take part in. Training starts Oct. 1, according to senior Audrey Hattori, and until then the team has been trying to focus on the things they can control.
“Hopefully when school opens back up, we’ll get practices in the pool,” Hattori said. “We’ve just been trying to get to know each other as much as possible right now and form a little community.”
Coming to terms with the loss of a season hasn’t been easy for many players, and an uncertain future only makes that coping process more difficult. However, there’s only one way to persevere, Hattori said.
“You have to stay positive; if you have a negative attitude about it, nothing good will ever come out of that,” Hattori said. “You just have to remind yourself that our situation isn’t permanent, and hopefully we can get back to some sort of normalcy.”