Update from Head Water Polo Coach John McBride -- October 2023

	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q	Final
BUCKNELL	3	1	4	2	10
#20 USNA	3	3	3	6	15

Hello from Bison Water Polo,

The men traveled to Navy last weekend for one game. We spent an entire week preparing for one game, which was a first. It would be a great advantage because we would be the third game for Navy on their weekend. The head coach for Navy received a red card in the game before ours, so he couldn’t coach against us, which was another advantage we had. Needless to say, things were looking good.

The game plan was to press Navy hard. Their three best players are freshmen; with our experience, we should be able to control the game. We were also going to play slow to take away Navy’s speed on the counterattack. The Navy goalie is good with low shots, so I told the team that we couldn’t shoot low and needed to place our shots mid-range to high. We also had to ensure we were not committing contra-fouls, which would lend to Navy’s counter.

In the first quarter, the press was working well. We scored some big goals but also let in some easy ones. Regardless, we were tied after the first quarter. In the second quarter, we took a couple of bad “low” shots and had some unnecessary contra-fouls, leading to the Navy team outscoring us 3-1. At the half, we were down 6-4, but I decided to make a defensive adjustment and go to more of a zone defense because Navy was having a lot of success entering the ball to their center. At one point, we were down 9-5, and I called a time-out because we were making terrible defensive decisions, and I needed to settle the team down. We ended up storming back and tied the game 9-9. The Navy assistant coach received a red card when we tied things up. Navy called a time-out, and I told the team that now was the time to attack and win this game.

Well, the complete opposite happened. Navy got stronger, and we imploded. We were shooting low, and the Navy goalie was blocking everything. We started playing way too fast because we couldn’t handle the intensity the Navy team was bringing, which set us up for failure. We had several contra-fouls because we tried to go one-on-one instead of sticking to the “team” strategy. Navy took advantage of us falling apart mentally and outscored us in the fourth 6-2 to win by a score of 15-10.

Usually, I’ll try and find a positive in the message, but there was nothing positive about how we performed as a team. I told the team afterward I was disappointed in our approach to the fourth quarter. There was more of an individual approach than a team approach, and we wouldn’t win anything if we continued to not play as a team. I hope the team received the message.

We will play Navy again, but we must put the game behind us, fix our issues, and prepare for a challenging weekend. Over this week, we have four games to prepare for. We travel to Mount St. Mary’s Friday evening for one game. Then we host GW and Wagner on Saturday, followed by our second game against Navy on Sunday at Bucknell. These four games are happening over our fall break, which means the student body, “fans,” will be gone, so if you can make it to Bucknell for some exciting water polo games and support the team, that would be awesome. The season is a long way from being over, and just like we proved last year, the regular season doesn’t mean a lot. We didn’t play well last year during the regular season but made it to the championship game, and that is our expectation for this year!!

As for the women's team, let's hear from some of our players on how the fall season is going:

I hope this note finds you well. Thank you for being so supportive, and see you on deck.

John McBride
Head Water Polo Coach
Bucknell University
jwm035@bucknell.edu

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