Olympia coach saddened by interrupted campaign
The same day longtime water polo coach Stephanie Johnson-Possell reached 500 wins with both the Olympia High School boys and girls programs, their respective seasons were put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s exciting personally to hit 500 wins, but it’s something I don’t want to celebrate right now because it’s just heartbreaking for our team,” said Johnson-Possell. “We had really big goals this season, and at the moment those are still on hold. But we’re hoping they just delay everything and that we can pick up where we left off because this 2020 team is not done yet.”
The Olympia girls gave Johnson-Possell the milestone victory on March 13 and improved their record to 19-4 with a 14-3 win against Boca Raton at the annual Wildcat Tournament in Winter Park. The boys also defeated Boca Raton that day, 18-5, to improve to 21-2.
But later that night, after coaches and players had dispersed, Johnson-Possell was informed that Orange County Public Schools had suspended extracurricular activities. That meant the Titans would not be together the next day to finish out the tournament.
The girls were scheduled to play Winter Park in a matchup they’d circled on the calendar. The boys were excited for another crack at Miami Gulliver Prep, the only team they’d lost to this season.
“When we left the pool Friday, we expected to come back and play again,” Johnson-Possell said. “It’s sad that I was not with our team at the time [the OCPS decision was made]. If I was, maybe we would’ve been able to have some type of closure or planned something.”
High school athletics throughout the state are on a mandatory hiatus through at least April 15.
Before the shutdown a senior night celebration was to take place Tuesday for six boys and five girls on the Olympia water polo teams. District tournaments were scheduled to begin next week.
“I keep holding out hope that we’ll have a senior night,” Johnson-Possell said. “I don’t know when that’ll be and I don’t know what that’s going to look like, but we will be sure to get together and celebrate our seniors at some point.”
Johnson-Possell, an eastern Pennsylvania native in her 30th season as a high school water polo coach, said she’s kept busy during the shutdown by biking, running and swimming, in part “as a way to stay sane” while not being able to coach.
“As a team we’re going through all of the stages,” she said. “For the first few days of spring break there was a lot of somberness. There was denial, then being upset, and now anger pops up a little more frequently than it used to.”