S'pore Sports School clinch back-to-back titles in B Div water polo

Six years ago, the Singapore Sports School (SSP) did not have a water polo team. Two years ago, they had a combined team with Meridian Secondary School who finished fifth in the B Division competition of the National School Games (NSG).

And in 2024, they claimed their maiden B Division title, before retaining it on Feb 19 with a 14-8 victory over Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) in the final.

From starting its water polo programme to back-to-back titles in just five years, SSP's achievements in water polo have created a splash.

Ng Kok Wei, SSP's individual programme senior general manager, said the school's dominance in the past two years is due to various factors.

One key initiative was their collaboration with Singapore Aquatics aimed at developing up-and-coming water polo talent. Under the partnership, players have had the opportunity to spar with those in the national youth development squad.

Having national men's assistant coach Rio Shirahama as the SSP coach has also accelerated the growth of the team, with Ng saying "there's an environment of discipline that coach Rio emphasises".

The players train up to 10 times weekly, which sometimes includes two sessions in a day.

SSP captain Javier Ng, who scored two goals in the final, said: "Since last year, we've been preparing for the B Division competition and every day we train one to two times and we barely have any rest.

"Even during Chinese New Year, we trained every day and rested only one day.

"This win is not just a gold medal, but it's (a testament to) the amount of effort we put in during the past few months."

While it is a rigorous routine, left driver Rhys Vaswani believes the training regimen has been crucial in getting the team ready for the NSG, especially with SSP being one of the leaner sides.

Teams can register up to 15 players for the inter-school competition, but the SSP had only seven players and one substitute until the semi-finals.

The Secondary 4 student, who scored three goals on Feb 19, said the regular training and sets focusing on building speed and stamina were important to ensure they stayed competitive even with fewer players in the squad.

The 15-year-old said: "It's the second time in a row (we've won), it's very memorable.

"Our team is the smallest in the whole competition so we did a lot of stamina training and that helped us get the win, especially with our coach Rio.

"We just train a lot more than other schools and that's what is important."

A number of SSP's players are in the national youth development squad, and that has also helped raise the level of play, said Javier.

He added: "We play with older, stronger and faster players so after we gain experience there, when we join SSP training, we can also impart some of the wisdom that we learn from the national team training to our juniors at SSP.

"So it's beneficial for both of us and after we improve, we can spur our juniors on to improve."

In the final at Our Tampines Hub on Feb 19, SSP were in control from the start, building a 5-0 lead before seeing out the first quarter with a 6-2 advantage.

SSP comfortably led in a low-scoring second quarter to head into half-time 8-3 up. While ACS(I) outscored their opponents in the third quarter, they still trailed 10-6 going into the final seven minutes.

The defending champions then sealed the win 14-8 to claim their second consecutive B Division crown.

It was a bittersweet loss for ACS(I) goalkeeper Hemish Menon, 15, who lauded his team's hard work as they returned to the final after missing out in 2024.

While he was saddened by the defeat, Hemish said: "The team put in a lot of effort, coming to training regularly and during the tournament we all tried our best.

"Even though we didn't win, it's a learning opportunity to be back again."