The St. Olaf Water Polo Club has had a busy fall filled with tournaments. The club is led by President Jackson Hoover ’26, who assists in coaching the Rogue Waves — the team’s official nickname — alongside Head Coach Iris Phillips ’26. The club has more than a dozen members, with 12 competing at each tournament.
The club practices three times a week: Mondays and Wednesdays from 7:30-9:00 p.m., and Saturdays from 3:30-5:00 p.m.
“Practices always start with a 30-minute swim warm-up,” Phillips said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “We then move to passing, shooting drills, and workshopping plays. We always try to end practice with some kind of fun game.”
The club has grown over the past few years, and with graduating seniors leaving gaps in experience and leadership during the 2022-23 school year, the shift made room for new waves of leadership, keeping old traditions and creating new ones.
“We’ve kept a lot of our old traditions — like team dinners, intramurals, and monthly socials — but also added a few new ones,” Phillips said. “One of my favorite new traditions is ‘game ball’ where we recognize a player who stood out in every practice and game.”
Hoover and Phillips look forward to the off-season and getting more time for team socials and fun practices. “We are hoping to do scrimmages with Carleton and [Macalester] this spring while we prepare [for] the club reigns [to change to] the next group after the seniors graduate,” Hoover said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
The Rogue Waves competed this past weekend in the Heartland Division Championship tournament — the playoffs — at Macalester.
The energy at the games this weekend was high, and the team dynamic is clearly very strong. “My favorite part of the club is bonding with my teammates. We spend a lot of time together from practices and team socials to long car rides after an away tournament,” Phillips said. The Rogue Waves have enjoyed an active fall season and look forward to the rest of the year.
If you are interested in learning more about the Water Polo Club, contact the organization’s leadership at [email protected].
