Winning is contagious at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington. In November, the school’s baseball team captured the Palm Beach County Middle School Championship. Now, Polo Park’s girls volleyball team is undefeated after nine games and is poised to play in the post-season, starting in January.
According to head coach Matt Besman, his talented squad is playing together with energy and enthusiasm.
“The key to our success is our work and practice ethic. We practice hard,” said Besman, now in his ninth year as the school’s girls volleyball coach. “We do have fun drills, but the last part of our practice is game situation time. I also sub our other players into the starting rotation, so in case we ever have an illness or injury, they can enter the game without missing a beat.”
Communication is another key to their success.
“The girls communicate with each other, and their ability to adjust to whatever it takes to win is also a contributing factor in their success,” Besman said. “At the start of the year, I make it known that while winning is great, getting better throughout the season is more important. I am most proud when a player at the start of the year may not be able to serve the ball over the net, but by the end of the year, they are serving and playing on a totally different level.”
It takes a core of on-court leaders to take charge in every match. Polo Park is blessed with a quartet of leaders.
“I have four returning players from my team a couple of years ago when they were in sixth grade,” said Besman, who also teaches seventh grade math at Polo Park. “They are outside hitter Lyla Buser, outside hitter Daniela Garrido, setter Isabela Duque and middle blocker Olivia Berman. They are all excellent players, but without our outstanding other players, we would not be as successful as we have been.”
Besman noted that his four top players have a strong and talented supporting cast.
“Volleyball is a team sport,” he said. “You need six players to work and communicate together, because one or two great players just can’t carry a team that requires play on every point from all six.”
The other members of the volleyball team are Nicole Koch, Paula Castillo, Lily Hutcheson, Tyler Young, Zoe Pikula, Elianna Acosta, Jillian St. Leger, Sophia Bui, Jordan Molnar and Ana Galindo. Besman’s assistant coach is Nestor Garrido.
Another positive aspect of Polo Park’s girls volleyball team is its all-inclusive approach.
“The team is very disciplined. They have a lot of fun playing the game, but they know when to turn it on and give 110 percent,” Besman said. “One of the most important things this team embodies is that we are a family. Everyone on the team enjoys playing with each other, and no one person is thought to be better than the other. Everyone cheers for each other, and I can’t stress enough how important that has been for our success. Even if a player starts making mistakes, her teammates pick her up. There has never been any ‘blame-game’ negative energy that may occur when someone is struggling.”
Polo Park has a tradition of producing strong girls volleyball teams, but the school has yet to win a Palm Beach County championship in volleyball.
“We have won seven division titles in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, and the furthest we have gone is to the semifinals of the county championship,” Besman said. “We have had one other undefeated season, but never a perfect regular season without a single game loss like this year.”
Besman is cautiously optimistic that this year’s squad might be able to win that elusive county championship.
“The team has already qualified for the playoffs,” he said. “If we stay undefeated, we should get a bye in the first round of the playoffs. The playoffs start a week after the holiday break in early January.”
According to Besman, he and his players do not feel any pressure to perform as well as the baseball team. “While the boys championship was incredible, we do not take cues from the other teams,” Besman said. “We focus on our team and our goals. Our expectation is to win every game, every time. Results and players vary from year to year, but our expectations stay the same.”
As for the boys baseball team, the celebrations have not stopped, as the team continues to get honored and recognized for its championship season.
“We got all the boys championship shirts,” said head baseball coach Craig Kaliser, who also teaches physical education at Polo Park. “PDQ threw us a party, and we also had a little private party with the softball team. We will also recognize the baseball team at halftime of one of the basketball games in late January or February when we put up the numbers on the banner for both the division title and the county championship. The boys have gotten a lot of attention and seem to love it.”
