The moment the 2016 water polo season finished, Wilbraham & Monson Academy Coach Steve Gray 'W70 already knew what he wanted to do for the 2017 campaign: he was going to have his experienced group of returners play a team-first game.
That unselfish approach is working beautifully for Coach Gray's Titans, who are 6-2 headed into the final stretch of their schedule.
"At the end of last year, I looked at the rosters of our opponents and noticed a lot of teams were graduating a lot of people who have been thorns in our sides for 3-4 years," Coach Gray said. "I thought this would be our year. I made plans last year how to approach this year. I talked to some of the older players. We decided to go with the team concept – not selfish and everyone understanding what was going on and the success we wanted to have this year. It's working fine."
It's working more than fine. WMA opened with wins against Loomis Chaffee, Williston Northampton School, Suffield Academy and Deerfield Academy. After a close loss to Hopkins School, the Titans topped Loomis again.
WMA showed its true mettle within the last two weeks. After getting thumped at Canterbury School Oct. 21 by double digits, the Titans answered with a 19-18 victory Oct. 28 at home versus the Saints.
"It showed how much we got our act together in less than a week, and gave it to them," Alex Ravelli '18 said. "We put up a challenge for them. They thought they were going to blow us out. They had a hard time keeping up with us."
Alex said, for him, he knew the team was in for a special season when the Titans beat Williston in the second match.
"Against Williston we showed we can get the ball down the pool and how much we work together," Alex explained. "Every game after that, I'm more and more surprised how well we played and the teams we've beaten, or we came close to teams we've never beaten.
"Our passing and shooting are really good. A lot of other teams are swimming teams, but we're not like that, which is unusual. Other teams don't expect that. We don't swim fast but we have some strong arms and people who can pass accurately."
Along with Alex, leading the Titans this season have been John Adams '20, Tianyi "Tony" Zhu '18, Egor Tokarskiy '20, Alberto Marcellini '18, Carlos Garcia Bodini '19, Max Pinchet '18 and Eren Ekinci '19, as well as goalies Nick Spellman '19 and Liam Murphy '20.
WMA's Senior Day is Nov. 4 against Deerfield at 3:30 p.m.