Update from Head Water Polo Coach John McBride - Bucknell University Athletics

Dear Alumni, Family, and Friends,

Hello from Bison Water Polo!

Happy New Year! The women started their 2023 campaign with a tough preseason on January 11th. We have 15 women on the roster this year, and a large percentage of the group are first-year students, so this was their first Division I preseason experience. Six-hour days can be a lot when you come fresh from a break, but they all handled it well, and we could push through without injury. Our first weekend of games started last weekend at Princeton.

It was the earliest start for the women ever, but with such a young group, it was better to get them going sooner rather than later against a high level of competition to see what we needed to build our practices around. We also needed to see who on the team was capable of doing what so we could game plan moving forward. The great thing about a weekend like this is everyone on the team will be able to play, and everyone gets a significant amount of playing time. After the games, we, as coaches, could see where we needed to improve and what the actual line-ups will be for games moving forward in the season.

The first game was against 12th-ranked UC Santa Barbara. Our focus for this game was to possess the ball as long as possible and not give up any counterattack goals. It was UCSB's ninth game of the year as opposed to our first. Surprisingly we played very well. I say surprisingly because we didn't know what to expect. We did not concede any counterattack goals and consistently made good decisions in the first half. We were only down 8-3 at the half, and it could have been closer had we converted a few more 6v5 opportunities but overall, we were pleased with how we were competing. The third quarter got away from us, but we rallied in the fourth quarter and won that quarter 3-2. All of our first-year students played great as well, which provided a lot of hope for the future.

The second game was against 15th-ranked UC San Diego. We didn't change our tactics and still had the same goals as we did in the first game. We played great in the first quarter and were only down 4-2. In the two middle quarters, we got drained, and because we were tired, we started to make some poor decisions. Our center entry passes were not good, which allowed UCSD some goals. Our centers were getting and maintaining great positions, but we couldn't get them the ball. In the fourth quarter, we rallied and scored three goals, but UCSD was so fast we couldn't keep up.

Our final game was against 13th-ranked Wagner. Wagner had already beaten UCSD by six goals, lost to UCSB by one goal, and beat Princeton by four, so we knew we had our work cut out for us. This may be the best game of the weekend that we played. We competed from start to finish and never gave up. If you look at the box score, we held our own against a primarily international and experienced team of athletes. Our decision-making was much better, and we were playing tough. The women were not afraid to be physical and mix it up. We handed out as many lumps as we took, and I am very proud of them for not backing down.

Overall it was a fantastic start despite losing all three games. We are a young team, and our first-year players got great exposure to this level of water polo. Now it is time to get back in the pool and prepare for the rest of the season. The most important part of the season will be April, and if we learned anything from the last men's season, as long as we work hard on our weakest parts, we could be there at the end when games matter the most. Next weekend we head to the Brown Invite for four games. It will be another good test, and we look forward to the challenge.

The women have a full schedule with 33 games, and most games are with top-15 talent, so we will earn our bruises and wins. The women are taking a training trip to Puerto Rico this spring break. We are going for two reasons, one of which is cost. It is far more inexpensive to travel to Puerto Rico and train than it would be to go to California. The second reason is that the women will have played so many challenging games by then that we will need a week of training and re-focus so we can have a solid finish to the end of the year.

The men will begin their off-season training in February. I know they are anxious to get into the pool and begin to work towards getting back to NCAA's. Bucknell will host the men's championship this year, which is exciting.

Here is this year's women's season schedule. If you can make any of the games, please let us know. We would love to see you at our games.

We have a significant 24-hour period approaching for our program. The annual One Herd One Day 24-Hour Giving Challenge will be on March 28-29 from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. The polo programs have historically been very competitive with the sports across the athletic department during the challenge. I hope we can all come together in March to turn in a huge day for Bison Polo.

I hope this note finds you well, and see you on deck!

All my best and ...

John McBride
Head Water Polo Coach
Bucknell University
jwm035@bucknell.edu
Office# (570) 577-1777
Cell# (570) 238-6653

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