Why I do what I do.

[cole consani]

All my life I have been involved in some sort of athletics program. From roller hockey to baseball, there were no sports that were offered that I hadn’t tried. Unfortunately, I never developed any passion for any of them. It wasn’t until 7th grade that I finally found what I had been missing. When I first heard of water polo, I had no understanding whatsoever of what the rules were, or how the game was played. All I knew was that it involved water, and that the players wore funny hats and speedos. All of that changed when I got involved with a club team with some of my good friends. Since then, more hours than I could ever possibly count have been put into this sport, because if you want a shot to play in college, you had to play on multiple teams, and put in a lot of time in the weight room. Pretty soon it was where all my free time went. It was hard to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep swimming. Waking up at 5:30 to get into a freezing pool makes you just want to quit right there. You get beat up for three hours in the morning, just to go back and put in another two and a half in the afternoon. One might ask why someone would continue to play, even when the chlorine has burned off your arm hair, and you can barely see at the end of practice. The answer for me is simple. At this point in my life, I havn’t been able to do much of anything else, pursue goals outside of sports, or pick up other hobbies. Right now, a water polo player is who I am, and playing water polo is what I do.