Asserting their prowess in the pool, on Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th of August, the Jesuit Water Polo team hosted the Jesuit Dallas Invitational. Preceding the UIL season, the tournament provides a great opportunity for not only the Jesuit team, but also all those participating, to prepare themselves and gather experience for the season ahead.

So far the Rangers’ performance is looking up, they entered into the tournament off of a six-game win streak from the Keller Back to School Bash and a non-district match also against Keller.

“The tournament was a good showcase of all the strong teams in Texas and I’m glad we could compete with them” – Flyn Hughes ’25

The results from the competition for the team were a total of four losses and five wins.

Jesuit Dallas vs Foster (Loss 5-12)

Jesuit Dallas vs Dawson (Loss 5-12)

Jesuit Dallas vs Hebron (Win 12-11)

Jesuit Dallas vs St. Mark’s (Loss 3-19)

Jesuit Dallas vs Hebron (Loss 5-13)

Jesuit Dallas vs Strake Jesuit (Win 14-10)

Jesuit Dallas vs Denton Guyer (Win 9-8)

Jesuit Dallas vs Dawson (Win 13-9)

Jesuit Dallas vs Highland Park (Win 13-12)

Following fierce competition and a tough start at the beginning of the tournament, the Rangers made an impressive turnaround winning four consecutive matches against strong teams.

Here’s what Coach Gall had to say about the teams performance so far.

Insight from Coach Gall

Do you think the team lived up to expectations against tough competition so far?

We had no seniors on the team last year. So we basically returned with everyone from last year’s team that finished the season playing our best water polo.

  “We expected to be stronger this year and so far the results are showing that.” – Coach Gall 

We’ve had several wins in which the score has been decided by 1 goal. I think a lot of that has to do with the senior leadership, the experiences that we’ve been through the last few years and the confidence that has carried over from last year.  Against the elite teams, we are still making some correctable mistakes that I think will allow us to close the gap or even beat them down the road.”

Is the performance at the invitational indicative of how the team is likely to perform for the rest of the season? 

I think so. We didn’t play exceptionally well in our first 2 games of the tournament, but made some great adjustments vs Strake and then really put some good playing sequences together in our wins vs Dawson and Highland Park on the last day.   I’ve always felt it’s important to play the top teams early in the season to really get a sense of where we stand and what we need to do to compete with them.

What are your goals and hopes for the team this year? 

I think we have a good chance of winning our district and making a deep run in the playoffs.  At some level, as we go through this year, with 7 seniors, (6 of them starters) we need to make sure we don’t drop off next year. So preparing the next group of kids to fill those starting roles is also something we’re thinking about right now.  We’ve been fortunate to be able to have entered a Varsity “B” team in a couple tournaments and that group has picked up some very impressive wins this year and have gained valuable game experience which will pay off for them as we go through this season and into next.

Have there been any standout moments or impressive performances from the team you’d like to highlight?

Dominic Arra has done a great job setting the tone on offense.  He’s leading the team in goals and has been more or less our go to guy when we are in need of a goal.
Dominic Arra ’24 (Jesuit Athletics)

Teddy Scherer is continuing to be a dominate defensive presence as well as hitting timely shots.

Teddy Scherer ’24 (Jesuit Athletics)

Mack Frary has been solid in the cage, as we’ve had some very low scoring games and have really made it tough for our opponents to score.

Charlie Gall, a current freshman, has led the way in drawing exclusions and penalties and giving our team multiple power play opportunities each game as well as earning penalty shot opportunities for our team.

Beating Hebron in the last 30 seconds of the game was a highlight. Beating Flower Mound in a Shoot out at the Keller tourney was also a great victory for us.” – Coach Gall

Thank you to Coach Gall for his valuable insights, and best of luck to the Water Polo team in their upcoming season!
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more sports news!

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