Drowning the competition

Tom+Agos+18+to+the+left

Tom Agos ’18 to the left

When the Jesuit High School water polo varsity team played against Monterey Trail High School, player Tom Agos ’18 made his team bark three times. Earlier in the season, they agreed that every time someone scored, players on the bench (known as the “dog house”) would bark loudly in response. Jesuit ended up winning the game 27-3, which meant twenty-seven loud barks in all.

However, a lot of barks didn’t always mean a blowout. When they played against Christian Brothers High School, they didn’t need too much energy because they already had the game in the bag (12-3). And although CB and Jesuit are considered rivals, Tom would disagree.

“CB is awful,” said Tom. “It felt good to beat them; it almost felt too easy. It felt like we shouldn’t have even been there, but I liked it that way.”

Jesuit won most of their games but also lost some close ones. Against St. Mary’s High School, for example, they lost 7-6. But that didn’t bother them. Later in the season, they came back and showed who the better team was, winning the section title against De La Salle (7-6).

“St. Mary’s is good, but we won the section title and they didn’t,” said Tom.

Their success wasn’t groundless either. The varsity team would practice from four to seven in the evening, lifting weights for an hour and then practicing by conditioning, passing, and shooting for the last two hours in the pool. On top of that, they also had something special to prepare for games.

“We usually listened to music out on the field and got hyped. I would usually listen to who ever played the music.” said Tom, who added he specifically liked Katy Perry.

Tom won’t be playing water polo at California Polytechnic State University. But, overall, he still loved his four years of winning, swimming, and barking.