Water Polo
Favorite athlete: Maggie Steffens
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: When we beat Pennridge after an exhausting game that ended in sudden death overtime to clinch our spot at states.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: After winning Flight 2 champs, I grabbed the trophy to take pictures with the team to celebrate our win. After the last photo was taken, I dropped the trophy on the pool deck and dented the corner and loosened the plaque. Everything worked out in the end because Coach Greg was able to fix it.
Music on mobile device: Country and Alternative
Future plans: Study to become a pediatric nurse practitioner.
Words to live by: “It is always a good day to have a good day.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Thailand.
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a box of candy/chocolate hidden under my bed in case of emergencies.
By Ed Morrone
For Emma Benning and water polo, it was love at first swim.
For a sport that is played in a pool, one would assume that Benning’s journey to competitive water polo was born out of a love for swimming. And while Benning, a senior at Wissahickon High School, was on a couple of swim teams in middle school as well a member of Wissahickon’s team her freshman and sophomore years, her foray into becoming a two-year captain on the most accomplished team in school history happened basically by accident.
“We had a pool at the middle school, and in eighth grade gym class, we would play water polo,” Benning said. “It was completely not following any rules or regulations, and we were just kind of jumping around and throwing the ball. But I was interested enough that it got me excited. I was a big field hockey player too, but running is not my thing, so I decided to try it.
“I remember getting to preseason going into high school and having no idea what to do, but I’ve been in love with it since that first day. Having a background in swimming definitely helped me, but I also have a love-hate relationship with swimming and decided to stop after sophomore year and just stick with polo.”
Benning received a literal crash course her freshman campaign, which was mostly spent with the jayvee squad with a few varsity minutes sprinkled in here and there. She was initially taken aback at just how physically demanding the sport was, as wrestling and grappling for positions while treading in deep water is just the nature of the beast.
Benning’s jayvee coach did not have much background or knowledge of the sport, and the results reflected that fact. Greg Beyer, the Wissahickon varsity polo coach, said he doesn’t think Benning’s team won a single game that season. Benning had similar recollections.
“We were the lowest team in the league,” she recalled. “Everyone crushed us.”
Still, the losing did nothing to diminish Benning’s burgeoning affinity for the sport. Beyer, according to Benning, played polo at Wissahickon as well as collegiately, and the collision between coach and player began a transformation of the program, one in which Benning would stand at the forefront.
Instead of quitting and slinking back to field hockey, Benning took it as a personal challenge to elevate her game. She put in countless hours of one-on-one training with Beyer, spending any and all time she could in the pool, be it by herself or with some teammates.
“I watched as many YouTube videos as I could,” she said. “I wanted to see good water polo so I could play good water polo. Any free time I had, I was in the pool. I remember it being a lot of hard work to get to the point of being a starting varsity player.”
After having not won a Beast of the East Flight Championship in 15 years, Wissahickon won that premier tournament in Benning’s sophomore season and again this past year. It wasn’t easy in arriving at that point, as Benning and the Wissahickon faced logistical challenges in elevating the program back to the upper echelon of Suburban One.
For starters, the pool that the team practiced in was half-deep and half-shallow; not only that, but it had to be split between the boys and girls teams, so Benning and her teammates were often practicing in shallow water even though games are played in deep depths. In a sport where treading water is required, the Wissahickon girls were already behind the eight ball in terms of having weaker legs than players at schools like Souderton and North Penn, where the pools are deep from end to end.
“It was tough at first, to the point where I felt like my legs were going to fall off,” Benning said. “We eventually got an all-deep pool, but not until my senior year. Spending so much time in the shallow end meant we couldn’t build our leg strength, so we were at a competitive disadvantage during competition. But you learn to deal with the pain for the love of the sport.
“When I first started, I would do an hour of treading each day. After awhile, your body gets used to it, to the point where the adrenaline takes over to the point where I don’t even notice it anymore.”
Benning was named a captain her junior year, and while Wissahickon went 6-15 overall, there was confidence in the progress being made. The Trojans only graduated two seniors after that season and returned an experienced, determined group led by a natural leader in Benning.
“My first impressions of Emma were her leadership abilities and work ethic,” Beyer said. “She played like a seasoned veteran from the start. She was so eager to learn, and her unselfishness makes her such a great player for our team regardless of how much it might impact her stats.
“Her knowledge of the game kept her two steps ahead of her opponents a lot this year, she was always in the right place before it became the right time. To get an athlete with the raw talent that Emma possesses is rare; to get someone that wants to work as hard as Emma is even more rare. She is one of the most coachable players I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
That work ethic certainly paid off, as Benning helped lead Wissahickon to a 14-win turnaround, posting a 20-9 record and finishing as runners-up in the Eastern Conference. Benning, an outside wing player on the team’s offensive unit, tallied 42 goals and added 37 assists, earning Second Team All-Conference and Honorable Mention All-League selections.
Not only that, but the Trojans defeated Pennridge in double overtime sudden death in the postseason conference tournament, qualifying the team for the state tournament, where Benning and company placed seventh.
“We had tunnel vision for states and we pushed that through the season,” she said. “Although we weren’t really ready for the level of competition we saw in states, Coach Greg told us it was the most historic season for Wissahickon girls water polo. We did things that hadn’t been done before.”
Given Benning’s fierce work ethic, it’s no surprise to discover that she’s also an all-star student. She’s found herself on the distinguished honor roll all four years, was a National Honor Society member the last two years and in the National French Honor Society junior year. Drawn to the sciences and medicine, she’s taken AP Biology, Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry courses and has aspirations to become a pediatric nurse practitioner in the future.
Benning’s interest in pediatrics is rooted in her love of working with kids. She’s a swim coach to kids age eight and under at the Wissahickon Community Aquatic Club, and Benning also ran a volunteer-based girls water polo clinic this past summer as her Girl Scout Gold Award project, as well as her senior project at Wissahickon. At this clinic, which Benning completely organized, she taught water polo to 20 girls, an experience that turned out to be incredibly rewarding.
“For me it was full circle,” she said. “I played field hockey and softball growing up and I wasn’t getting that physical aspect of sport that I found with water polo. So many girls out there have that same feeling and aren’t getting that competitive edge from sports. I wish I had an opportunity to play water polo at a younger age, so the project was 80 hours of community service that turned into a four-week camp, three times a week.
“My goal was to create an environment where girls could learn the sport and also learn about themselves. Even if they don’t end up playing water polo, they can apply lessons to other sports to become more involved and be the best athlete they can be. Overall it was an amazing experience.”
Benning is still waiting to hear back from her top collegiate choice of Clemson University in South Carolina. She wants to go to school down south, and since water polo is mainly an east coast-west coast kind of sport, her days of competitive polo are likely over unless she latches onto a school with a club program.
Even if she never plays again, Benning is so thankful that what started out as horsing around in the pool in gym class turned into a journey of immense self-improvement. And although her career is likely finished, Benning’s younger sister, Paige, is a goalie for the Trojans, so you better believe Emma will be following along from afar, wherever she ends up in college.
“As much as I sometimes hated it in the moment, I always loved the excitement that games brought,” Benning said. “It’s such a strong community of girls. I’ll miss the adrenaline and excitement and butterflies going into playing in a big game. It was just an indescribable feeling I got beforehand every time, to the point where I’d tell Coach Greg I felt like I was going to throw up or maybe start crying because I was so nervous.
“Water polo just put so much excitement inside of me, and I’ll miss that feeling most of all.”
