With the new water polo season, the team feels they have better players and more depth in the field than ever before which will make for a promising season.

The first game was Tuesday, September 9, against Fullerton Community College at ECC pool at 3p.m. The team will go on to play L.A. Valley on Thursday September 11 at 3 p.m. and compete in the Santa Monica Tournament on Friday September 12.

“We have got a really good starting group and several people that can fill in and we will have no drop off what so ever,” water polo coach, Corey Stanbury said.

Currently, 17 people are on the men’s team which is one of the largest EC has ever had. Part of the new line up, includes David Olson, an incoming Freshman from Mira Costa, who was the top goalie out of high school.

“We have been able to score a very, very good goal keeper which is the one piece we were missing last year,” Stanbury said.

Other incoming players are Alexander Heck from El Segundo High School, a leading scorer from his high school team, and Jeff Craver, 19 years old and a strong field player.

“I played for Wilson which was the big school. We won CIF all four years, but once you get into college it is a little more practice and effort,” Carver said.

Carver originally played at Long Beach before coming to EC and wants to see his ol d team during the regular season.

“I’m looking forward to playing Long Beach City College. I started a couple of semesters there, but then I didn’t follow through with it. The coaches aren’t really fans of me so it would be pretty fun to aggravate them,” said Carver.

Chris Smith, 19, is looking forward to playing this season as soon as his toe recovers in seven days. He split it open after hitting a jet in the pool during conditioning routines.

“We are doing a lot of work with the ball, getting people back into the feel of handling the ball,” said Smith.

Stanbury has been trying to develop the individual skills needed to create a strong defense and offense.

“We are going to start building some pieces of things that will go into a coordinated offense and defense. That’s where we stand right now. We have got a little bit of time to try to get into shape which is always an important thing since we play eight minute quarters,” Stanbury said.