As seen in the Dec. 16 issue
Juliette Deutsch, staff writer
Girls varsity water polo recently hired a new head coach, Artem Gevorkyal, for the 2013 season. Gevorkyal was hired to take the team in a new direction in order to properly compete with other schools in the Ocean League.
Coach Gevorkyal, also known as coach Coach Arte, came to Beverly with the belief that the team has the drive to work hard and improve.
“The team is already a close knit group and expressed that they want to improve by the amount of hard work that they put into the first practices and attending Boopocalypse to brush up on their skills before we started practicing as a team,” Gevorkyal said. “My philosophy is that if you have a high team standard then you can succeed, and these girls definitely have a high standard.”
Before his arrival at Beverly, Gevorkyal coached Los Angeles Trade Tech College’s women’s and men’s water polo teams. Gevorkyal has many goals for the season and plans to implement all of them.
“One of my main goals for the season is to bond the team together and make them enjoy coming to practice and playing the game. I want us to place high or win a tournament which has not happened in a very long time,” Gevorkyal Said
The first positive result that the team has noted since Gevorkyal’s arrival is that practices are more efficient, allowing for them to have enough time to practice plays and train in the weight room.
“Coach Arte does a really good job with planning out practices with enough time to practice in the water and get in shape by running and doing other exercises on the track. Last year running was left out of alot of our practices and it reflected poorly on our performance in the water,” sophomore Maggie Curtis said.
Team members feel that Gevorkyal is a great fit and exactly what they needed to help them succeed and accomplish their goals.
“Coach Arte works us really hard and is exactly what we needed this year. He makes us repeat drills over and over until we perfect them and trains us in the weight room. He is my definition of a perfect coach,” senior Allison Klemes said.
The team has also bonded through their improvements from last year.
“Before we started training with Coach Arte there was a really awkward vibe between the new players and returning players. Since we are all improving and starting to have a more competitive attitude towards the game we are all bonding and becoming closer,” Klemes said. “Last year we did not have a bond at all as a team which made practices and games unenjoyable.” Klemes said.
The team participated in their first tournament of the season on Friday, Dec. 6 at Western High School in Anaheim, Calif. This was the first tournament win that the team has had since 2010.