“We haven’t had the practice we usually do. We haven’t had the summer tournaments we’ve had in the past and we will have to really work on our cohesive playing again as a team,” said QUEST Senior and varsity swimmer and water polo player, Devon Fletcher.
The lead-up to the Rams girls’ Swim and water polo seasons this year was not ideal, mostly due to the absence of a coach over the summer.
According to Fletcher, the team has just recently acquired two new aquatics coaches who will be leading the girls in their season.
“The new head coach’s name is Mike Carillo. He is loved by many members of the team for his mindset and style of coaching. He has coached some athletes through the LBCC Vikings Aquatics club team, so it should be a smooth transition as people already know him with a coach-athlete relationship,” said Fletcher.
The previous coach of the Rams Aquatics quit after the completion of last season, leaving Millikan in a hole.
“He was trying to get his assistant to take over which is kinda what we wanted, but it never went through,” said Millikan’s Women’s Athletics Director, Lorene Morgan.
This absence of practices and competitions could cause the team to be a bit out of shape come their first meet. Extra work will have to be put in by the aquatics teams to ensure a successful season.
Despite all of this, the aquatics teams are going to be competing in the tournaments and swim meets they normally would participate in for the rest of the regular season.
¨We are so excited to start competing again and seeing what we can do,” added Fletcher.
Carillo has quite the job ahead of him, mostly because of his late entrance to the Millikan aquatics team. With the help of an extremely resilient girls’ aquatics program, he should be able to coach these girls into a successful season.
Maggie Wells • Nov 1, 2023 at 8:57 am
On October 17th, 2023, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “The Calm After The Storm”. In the article, Holland addresses the issues that the Millikan Girls Water Polo has faced in the past months. Holland brings in evidence from an interview with one of the players, making the piece more convincing and creditable. He is sure to highlight the struggles of the girls team and the effort they are putting in to prepare for season with their new coach. One suggestion I would give is to bring in more information on their goals for this upcoming season. Holland is sure to talk a lot about the team’s struggles, which no doubt is important, but if the piece is about the “calm after the storm”, then I think it’s important to mention more of the “calm”. Even an interview with the new coach if possible would really give a new addition to the story and bring more light to the effort the girls team is putting in.
Lilly Alexander • Oct 24, 2023 at 11:57 am
This article explains the difficulty the Millikan Girls Aquatic program has had to go through over the past 6 months, due to the quitting of a coach. The intro to this article shows a picture of the Millikan Girls Aquatics Team and a quote from a participating senior discussing what this article is talking about. The quote helps the audience understand why this article was written. I like how instead of addressing the topic of the difficulties the Millikan Girls Aquatic program had to go through, the Editor instead decides to talk about the positive. Which are the new coaches they have. The mention of absences of practice causes concern because without practice many teams could become less advanced and out of shape. The highlighted links seem out of place but are a good addition because they lead to the Millikan Girls Waterpolo schedule for this year. The conclusion to this article tells of the difficulty Mike Carillo (the coach) will have to go through in order to be successful but gives credit to the Millikan Girls Aquatic team for their resilience.
Isla Haffner • Oct 24, 2023 at 11:57 am
In this article, Hollon addresses the struggles the Millikan Girls Water Polo team has endured since the end of their last season and how they hope to continue into the upcoming season with their new coach, Mike Carillo. The well stated article uses quotes from a star player as well as the Millikan’s Woman’s Athletics Director, giving the audience a view from the perspective of those dealing with the loss of their coach and difficulty training without one. Something I wish was included is a quote from the current coach to give the audience a better picture of how the team has been affected, from someone other than a player. Another suggestion would be to include how the new coach, Mike Carillo, is being incorporated into the practices, how Carillo is addressing the loss of time he’s had with the team, and what the team thinks of his coaching. Otherwise, this is a very well written article on the team.