Despite the recent loss of key players, boys water polo is fired up heading into Sectional Tournament on May 14 looking to stir the pot as an underdog.

“Our league is our best competition. We will likely be the sixth or seventh seed at Sectionals as we don’t play Maine South until after seed meeting,” said coach Kevin Auger. “We have played everyone else.”

Leading the way to sectionals are varsity starters Chase Bailey, Kane Kulman, Joe Seguine-Hall, Liam O’Connor, Stuart Hays, Sean Finn-Samuels, David Figueredo and Nathan Stein. First off the bench are John Muyres, Brandon Botas and Leo Rubenstein.

On top of this, Auger expects some key contributions from some underclassmen call-ups.

“Moving up to play at the end of the year from JV we anticipate Miguel Figueroa, Richard Alonso and Thomas Fies will be making the trip to some of our Varsity tournaments,” said Auger.

On May 10 the Kits head to Niles North for a tourney. These games are not significant to the sectional seeding but it’s a good chance to get some playing time heading into the end of the season. Niles West, Maine East and GBS are scheduled to compete.

The team relies on seniors Joe Seguine-Hall and Stuart Hayes as well as junior Liam O’Connor for offensive production. However, Auger admits that Hayes and O’Connor struggle to stay in the game at times.

“Our biggest obstacle this season is having a small bench without a lot of subs. We cannot afford ejections and ejections are a big part of the game,” said Auger. “In early games both and Joe and Liam got two quick ejections and it definitely hurt us. Since then we have been able to keep Joe and Liam in the game.”

On April 16, Loyola pummeled Evanston winning 19-3. However, the team acknowledges what didn’t work and they hope to make adjustments.

“Loyola ran an effective press on us which shut down our shooters, so our offense was unsuccessful,” said O’Connor.

Prior to that, the team went 1-2 in the St. Patrick’s Tournament. The boys lost to Brother Rice and Whitney Young by scores of 12-7 and 12-9 respectively, and they beat Lincoln-Way East 15-8. An abundance of players couldn’t attend the tournament as they were away during spring break.

“We were reasonably successful at the St. Pat’s Tournament, considering we were missing both our goalies and several other players,” added O’Connor.

Ultimately, the team understands that they lack depth, but they work extremely hard, which Auger thinks could lead to late season success.

“A small but efficient group of players is what we have this year,” said Auger. “We may not be the best, but we compete like we are.”