For the first time since its founding in 1956, Cor Jesu Academy has added water polo to its athletic offerings. Though monumental for the school itself, the team is making regional history as the first and only all-girls private school water polo team in St. Louis that is not co-opted with another high school. 

“I think it’s really cool to be a part of history,” freshman Mia Tettamble said.

This all came to be thanks to Cor Jesu’s swim coach, Qi Franz, her son, Mark Franz, and a few inquisitive parents. 

Qi explained that a few years ago, a family from the area involved with water polo came to Cor Jesu for an open house. They inquired about water polo at Cor Jesu, as their son’s private high school had a team, wanting the same experience for their daughter. 

“I told the AD (athletic director), we’re going to have water polo. You have a coach, you have swimmers, just get going,” Qi said.

To form the inaugural team, Qi began with recruiting the Cor Jesu swim team, then looked to contact sports athletes wanting to try something new in order to find players not as intimidated by aggression.

“I didn’t come from the swim team, so it’s a little more challenging, the swimming aspect of it. But the aggressiveness was kind of right up my alley because I played a lot of soccer,” freshman Claire Madsen said.

Since its formation this winter, the team’s skills have grown exponentially, with almost every player on the 10-man team scoring against well-established, large teams in the area at least once. Couple this with the fact that the entirety of Cor Jesu’s had never played the sport before February makes this season that much more impressive, despite their losing record.

“Our team is (pretty much a) JV team, everybody’s brand new, with no knowledge (of the sport before this season),” Qi said. “They’re getting better. They’re having more fun.”

“It’s really cool to see that the girls took a leap of faith, playing a sport that they’ve never done before,” Mark, who played water polo when he was in high school at SLUH, added. “Coming from swimming, they don’t make contact. It’s hard to get in the mindset of doing something with the ball before it comes to you, having something planned out. It was a lot of panicking at the beginning of the season, but (as) the season went on, people are a lot more comfortable. It’s pretty cool to see.”

As the team is currently made up of 10 members, with seven playing at any given point during each game, Cor Jesu water polo hopes to grow its numbers next season and for seasons to come.

“Some days we have negative one subs,” senior Sophia Spivey, one of the team’s captains and the only goalie, joked. 

“I think through social media and talking about it, people have heard more about our team, and a lot of people at our school want to join it next year,” junior Nora Cooke, one of the team’s captains, said. “When they talk about it on our CJATV broadcast system in the morning, everyone’s like, ‘oh, I want to do water polo,’ so I think the team will actually grow a lot next year.”

In the meantime, to prepare for a successful second year, the team plans on practicing and enhancing their newfound skills during the off-season. Many will also compete in summer swim leagues, keeping their swimming strength up.

Though the future looks bright for Cor Jesu water polo, not all members of the inaugural team will be there for it as seniors – and captains – Spivey and Ella Kuntz graduate this month from Cor Jesu.

“It feels absolutely spectacular,to be a captain of the first-ever all-girls school water polo team in St. Louis,” Spivey said.