Joshua Chin stands out by diving into water polo

Joshua Chin first started playing water polo two years ago. His friend, Aaron Wood, encouraged him to try out, and now he’s an important member of the varsity team. As the starting point, his job is to shoot and score. Chin is confident in the water, because for the past six years he’s swum competitively for the Solano Aquatic Sea Otters, also known as SASO. Although he’s only played water polo for a short time, he said he really loves the sport.

When asked about his strengths, he said, “I think my greatest strength is being a team player. Water polo is definitely a team sport. One person can’t carry any team to the Olympics.”

To get ready for games, the team practices about two hours a day. The coach, Robert Marin, who was a star water polo player in high school and college, helps the team practice their setups. “If we can start to setup correctly and make good passes, then we can win games,” said Chin. Another important part of practice is when the Coach has them work on their swimming endurance. “The qualities that I think water polo players need to have are ab strength, arm and leg strength, and swimming endurance,” said Chin.

It’s unclear how the season will go this year. The team went 0-9 last year, and may have a difficult season this year, because some of the strong seniors graduated.“We currently only have about four experienced players on our team,” said Chin. Last year, Armijo’s toughest rival was Rodriquez, but this year Napa is the dominant team.

When asked if there are any negative aspects of the sport he said, “No, there is nothing about the sport that I don’t like. The rules are pretty fair, most of the time.” Chin intends to continue with water polo when he goes to college. He’s only a sophomore, so he has lots of time to decide which college he’ll attend.