MISSION — Mission CISD has had consolidated boys and girls water polo teams for the past five years, combining student-athletes from its two high schools — Mission High and Mission Veterans.
This season, water polo’s first as a UIL sanctioned sport, the two schools went their separate ways and established boys and girls teams at both campuses.
Mission Veterans’ girls team proved to be the class of District 31-6A by winning the first district championship in program history with a 7-1 record in league play.
“It’s honestly a huge honor. We worked and improved so much from the beginning of the season,” Mission Veterans junior point Sarah Garcia said. “Each one of us has improved our passes, our throws, our scoring, and especially the team bonding we have is absolutely incredible. Winning district just made us all happy because we’re the first ever girls water polo team and I’m super excited for what’s to come.”
Boys and girls water polo head coach Melissa Reyna, who is also in her sixth year as swimming and diving head coach at Mission Veterans, said her group took to the sport like fish to water.
“We just got really lucky that a lot of my swimmers picked it up really quick, really enjoyed it and stuck with it, and they’re really hard workers,” she said. “I’m lucky with the school that I’m at and the administration I have that’s really supportive.”
The Patriots prevailed over their District 31-6A competition in Los Fresnos and crosstown rivals Mission High, Sharyland High and Sharyland Pioneer.
Sophomore goalie Monika Regalado, who also plays volleyball at Mission Veterans, said she’s proud to be part of the first team to add a water polo district championship to the school’s trophy case, alongside others won in sports like football and volleyball.
“It’s going to be the first one in there, and it means a lot to us,” Regalado said.
Mission Veterans closed the regular season with a dominant 13-2 win over Los Fresnos on Saturday and an 11-5 victory against Sharyland Pioneer on Monday. As a team, the Patriots have scored double-digit goals in half of their games (5) this season.
Sophomore center back Vivian Salinas admitted she was surprised by the Patriots’ success in Year 1, but not shocked because of the work they put in.
“It’s been a little nerve-wracking, but really fun. I’ve seen all my teammates get a lot better, and it’s been fun watching us slowly get the score difference bigger,” Salinas said. “We have a really good coach, and I think we slowly got a lot closer and our communication got a lot better. Once we got to know each other, things went uphill from there.”
The Patriots’ first journey into the UIL playoffs is a bi-district contest against PSJA Memorial, the No. 4 seed from District 32-6A. Game time is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the City of Pharr Natatorium in Pharr.
“We’re going to try to go in and do our best and make sure our team is as positive as possible,” Reyna said.
