Oakville High Girls Water Polo Has Championship Hopes For Historic 1st Season

Press release from Oakville High School:

April 15, 2021

Missouri State High School Activities Association is hosting its first-ever all-girls water polo season, and the team at Oakville High School has their sights on winning the first state championship. Historically, girls have only been able to compete with boys as part of coed teams.

“Usually girls are the ones assisting the boys, and we don’t get much action in the water,” said Alexis Penning, Oakville High junior. “It’s nice to finally be recognized for what we can do playing water polo.”

The girls believe playing with the boys for the past two years has been beneficial in helping improve their game, but they’re excited to showcase those skills and help the sport grow.

“I believe the popularity of girls water polo is going to explode,” said Coach Brett Walters, who is an OHS alum. “If you look at what happened with girls wrestling, once they gave them a state championship, it just took off.”

Having a girls-only league is also going to open up more scholarship opportunities for students.

“There are more opportunities for college play for women than there are for men,” said Coach Walters. “For every men’s college team, there are three girls teams.”

Earlier this season, the team competed in and won the first regular season girls water polo match in the state of Missouri, defeating Lafayette High School 19-7.

“When we won our first game, I felt like we made history, which we did,” Penning said.

Oakville High School has enough interest in the sport to have both varsity and junior varsity girls water polo teams. Only a handful of schools in the St. Louis-area currently have girls water polo teams. Mehlville High School does not currently offer girls water polo.

This press release was produced by Oakville High School. The views expressed here are the author’s own.