GAMES
RANKINGS
THE WRAP: Foster Water Polo excels in Postseason
The Foster Boys' Water Polo Team completed their 2022 season with a record of 18-10 and 2. The Falcons competed against mostly 6A schools in this inaugural season of water polo in the University Interscholastic League. On their way to making their first appearance at the UIL State Tournament in San Antonio, the team upset 5 of those 6A schools to claim the Region 3 Championship.
The boys' team fought hard against the senior-laden team from Boerne Champion in the semifinals, falling just short of the eventual state champions. However, with most of their roster coming back next school year, the Falcons are looking forward to great things from these young men.
Elijah Molina was selected to the All-Tournament Team at the State Tournament and, in future months, many more accolades will be rolling in for the team and individual players. The team is proudly sporting their Bronze Medals as the 3rd Place finishers in the State of Texas. We congratulate them on a record-setting first year of UIL competition!
The Foster Girls Water Polo Team started the year ranked number 1 in the State and did not disappoint. They played 30 games over the course of 3 months and did not lose a single one. They claimed two pre-season tournament championships en route to winning their Regional Championship by an average of 18 goals per game against their opponents.
At the State Tournament, the girls faced off with perennial powerhouse South Lake Carroll in the semi-finals and came out on top 10 – 7, thanks to some timely goals and stout defense. The Lady Falcons then cruised to victory in the State Finals, with a 12-6 victory over Brazoswood, claiming their gold medals. An additional win was Lola Trujillo being named UIL State MVP with 6 goals, 2 assists, and 4 steals.
Joining Lola on the All-Tournament Team are Clara McKee and Dalia Kohn. We look forward to even more accolades, awards, and rankings for the girls. We are proud to celebrate the first-ever, 2022 UIL Girls Water Polo State Champions, the Foster Lady Falcons!
“It’s for Everybody”: UIL to add Water Polo in 2021
HOUSTON – This was for everybody.
It was for anyone who has ever played water polo since the 1970s. It was for Lamar coach Steve McDonald. It was for 10-year-old Baylor Slay.
For all of them the wait is over. Water polo will officially start its pilot program in Fall 2021 as a sanctioned UIL sport.
"It was scary because you don't know what to expect in that vote, it can go anyway," Foster water polo coach Chris Slay said.
Adding water polo to the sports lists marks the first sport to be added to the UIL since wrestling was added for the 1998-1999 season.
On Sunday, Slay was the one to give a speech, which he was allotted a maximum of five minutes to give, to the UIL Legislative Committee. Slay admitted it was a little scary facing a board of superintendents with his "nerves going about a million miles per hour".
The nerves carried over into Monday morning up until the vote was complete, which also included 205 schools saying they would play water polo when it starts in fall of 2021.
A school counted in that number is Foster, whose boys water polo team finished as TISCA State Runnerups in 2019 and the girls water polo team, which won a TISCA State Championship in May for the first in program history.
"I hope so or something has gone horribly wrong," Slay said about Foster being considered a contender when the sport starts in 2021. "I think we have infrastructure in place. There are good youth aquatic sports in the area where we are. We're trying to build a tradition and people are taking note and it's growing."
Leading up to that fall, Slay knows they will have to continue to grow.
"We're going to build," Slay said. "We have a pretty good group of young kids that are freshmen right now. We've got a lot coming into the program in the future. It's pretty exciting.
"My freshmen right now will get to see this happen, my sophomores as well," "It's going to be very exciting for them. My son is 10 years old and plays this sport, so I'm really excited for him by the time they're playing where we're going to be."
Getting the sport approved by the UIL was only step one of probably 1,000 before the inaugural season opens in 2021.
Slay knows what they must do in the under two-year window they have to get ready.
"We have to put out a good product," Slay said. "Every sport has referee challenges today, so we're no different. So, we're going to have to recruit and grow and use referees from sports like soccer and basketball. We will have to teach them, will have to teach coaches. It's going to be a lot of education components to it."