After a slow start, the Sac State water polo club is finally starting to make waves.

Last year, the club was comprised of six people (the number of people needed to make up a team is seven, including the goalie).

This year, behind new club president Matt Cardoza, the club has greatly expanded. The club now has more than 30 people involved with it in some capacity. Under Cardoza, the plan is to not only expand the team at CSUS, but also to propel water polo into the national spotlight.

“Our goal is to make water polo a major national sport,” Cardoza said. This involves expanding water polo into a major sport in both the men?s and women?s division as well.

Since the first week of school, the club has been adding both men and women to their pool of talent. The team is made of an eclectic group of people with players coming from as far as Turkey. What all players have in common though, is experience as they have played in previous leagues and in high school. Members of the team will be frequenting high schools in the area in an effort to recruit more players. There have also been various flyers posted around the campus for interested players. The team has their own Web site ([email protected]). According to Cardoza, they can never have too many water polo players.

The competition the club faces is also formidable, as weekly matches are played at away sites such as Sierra College. Matches are played each week, but there are practices every night. The season will end the week before finals then start back up in February. The games are broken down into five minute quarters.

This is still an arduous task with players putting their endurance to the test as they tread water. This is why the year round schedule is beneficial for players as they stay in game shape.

The club has laid their foundation. Now in the coming seasons, they will add to it.