Pitman High’s girls water polo team had to rebuild last year, a fact that was reflected in the Pride’s one-win season. Now, head coach Michaela Solario and her girls are back in the pool and eager to rise above last season’s foundational toils as they eye the Bulldogs and the rest of the Central California Conference.

“We have a lot of individual talent right now but we’re still trying to find our groove as a team,” Solario said. “I’m very confident in the season we’re going to have.”

With leaders like Cameron Wait and Kristiana Oshana returning, it’s easy to see why Solario is enthused. Wait is expected to lead Pitman’s offensive attack while Oshana is set to lead the defense. Add in Emma Burke’s speed and elusiveness with Lilian Backstram’s experience as an offensive weapon and Pitman has a nice combination of weapons to work with.

“Our strength is definitely going to be in our offense,” Solario said. “We have a team with a lot of speed. We’ll probably be one of the fastest teams in the league.”

Pitman has the chance to test its offense on Thursday in the CCC season opener against Atwater High. If the Pride can beat the Falcons they’ll already be halfway to their goal of besting last season’s record. As for Pitman’s second goal, they’ll have to wait a little bit longer to achieve that.

“The girls’ goal right now is to beat our hometown rivals, which we haven’t been able to do in a number of years so that’s definitely something they’ve been working hard towards,” Solario said.