Harper water polo club proves resilient

For the Harper College co-ed water polo program, the recently completed season was a labor of love.

Founded in the 2014-15 school year, the teams faced a special challenge this spring due to the renovation of Harper's pool.

That forced the program founded by Patrick Butler and Kimberly Butler a couple of seasons ago to hit the road for practices.

The team got that opportunity at Hoffman Estates High School on Monday and Wednesday evenings this spring, thanks to the cooperation of Hawks girls water polo and swimming coach Chris Fetterman, himself a onetime water polo player.

Cory Perlman, a Wheeling grad (2012), is the current club president and considers it fortunate that things worked out the way they did, saying, that Fetterman, "really stepped up and supported us."

The team's roster features almost exclusively players who attended high schools in the Mid-Suburban League.

And it's coached by Pat Bauer, formerly Fenwick's coach and a standout referee in recent years, having worked numerous high school state tournament matchups.

"He loves the sport," Perlman said. "He was sacrificing a lot to coach us."

And it proved to be a winning blend this year, as Harper thrived in the American Collegiate Water Polo Association among clubs from much larger schools such as Iowa State, Minnesota-Nebraska, Creighton, NIU, DePaul, Kansas Marquette and Minnesota-Duluth.

The main events were in late April, in tournaments held at Northern Illinois and at Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.

Harper was seeded fourth in the conference tournament and opened with a victory over Kansas. In the semifinals, the Hawks defeated Marquette before defeating Iowa State for the championship.

Perlman said the late practices during the season actually may have helped in the sense that they helped form "good team chemistry."