Team 16 Blog with Emily Sejna: The Challenge Program
10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
Oct. 16, 2015
Hi all!
I am Emily Sejna, a senior utilities player on the University of Michigan water polo team. I am currently studying communications. I look forward to sharing with you the behind the scenes of Team 16 this season.
We finished off our eight-hour weeks with team bonding at the University of Michigan's Challenge Program. This program allowed our team to be challenged out of the water and test our skills on land. Each activity invited my teammates and I to test our leadership skills and execute different tasks at hand. Throughout this process we were able to work on our communication skills, thought process and (most importantly) have fun! Water polo was the Challenge Program's first varsity athletic sports team to participate. The program director said we blew the previous group away in terms of being odd and having the most fun (the group before us was eighth graders, I'll keep that as a compliment). After leaving our competitiveness at the ropes course, we finished off a great day eating in our team room where we met our coaches and debriefed them about what we learned.
As a senior on the team, I was very grateful to have had this opportunity to bond with the girls out of the water. Team culture is so crucial to any program. The Challenge Program was a great way to start our full-time hours. The following week, we were able to get into full-time hours for three days. The first three days were great because it was amazing to get back into the water. I felt like the connection was still there with my teammates, but something was definitely different than the past. Last year, Coach Celo (Dr. Marcelo Leonardi) broke everything down. And when I say everything, I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g; new drills, plays, ways to shoot, defense, offense, counter attacks (I think you get the point). However, this year, my team was able to hop into the water and execute what our coach asked us to do. Safe to say, we were more prepared mentally and physically with one year under our belt.
I do believe that our bonding events have impacted our program overall. Currently, we have team dinners on Friday nights and love engaging with a local second-grade class in a Pen Pal program. This togetherness brings more cohesion to our group, allowing us to create the positive team culture we want. I am excited to continue to share the different things we do in this blog.
I hope you have an opportunity to continue to read the Team 16 blog. I look forward to sharing more about how our team continues to push through the practices, deal with the weather changing, study through midterms, and then compete at the Collegiate Cup in November. The University of Michigan water polo team faces hard challenges that other schools don't face. Not only are the academics and athletics competitive, but we face the cold, the travel and being far from home. So how do 24 girls get through all of this? Because we are ALL IN.
Hail,
Emily Sejna #3
