Posted: Apr 09, 2021
"It's great that we are finally able to get our athletes back on campus," said men's water polo and swimming coach Michael Maroney earlier this week as the Mustangs will start hitting the pool for the first time this year.
"Everyone misses the competition but so much of sports is the camaraderie and that day-to-day interaction."
While they have not used zoom as much as some other teams the men's swimming and water polo programs have done what they can to stay in shape with athletes training on their own or with other programs.
"We really have relied on our athletes to step up and do individual training on their own and report back. We are doing our best to make sure they see the light at the end of the tunnel. They know what their team and individual goals are and we are trying to do the best we can to make sure they succeed."
"Everyone misses the competition but so much of sports is the camaraderie and that day-to-day interaction."
While they have not used zoom as much as some other teams the men's swimming and water polo programs have done what they can to stay in shape with athletes training on their own or with other programs.
"We really have relied on our athletes to step up and do individual training on their own and report back. We are doing our best to make sure they see the light at the end of the tunnel. They know what their team and individual goals are and we are trying to do the best we can to make sure they succeed."
As things continue to improve and a 2021-22 season looks to be on the way many coaches will be helped by the return of many of their athletes but that will be not the case for Michael Maroney.
"Between swimming and water polo we might have maybe 12-15 sophomores and I would expect maybe just a couple of them return"
"It's going to be a tricky situation. Without a large returning class and then with a bigger if on who is coming as well it really is going to be a matter of how good our summer program is. It is going to be essential for Delta to allow us to go day to day for training. With day-to-day training in the summer that will allow us to be ready in the fall."
Luke Martin is one of the many from the water polo program that will be moving on as he will be headed to Baylor, Benton Peterson will be headed to Arizona State while others have yet to officially decide.
"I feel bad for all our guys. Julio (Murguia) and Nikolas (Brink) as freshman maybe got half a swim season and Julio was going after a state title," said Maroney about some of his top swimmers that had their time at Delta cut short without a chance to swim in the postseason and try to win a state championship. Murguia who was in the top five in two different events during his freshmen year is expected to go to San Jose State.