I was at Fenwick for 18 hours last weekend. The place is hot and humid, you can barely get cell phone reception, and it was the official start of my Spring Break (at Bolingbrook HS we start break on April 9 for some insane reason).

While I was there, I also tried to cover and update 14 other tournaments going on across the state while getting a chance to see eight of the Top 10 girls' teams go head-to-head at one of the elite tournaments each year.

I found a way to get a signal with my cell hotspot while sitting awkwardly on a random stairwell as every team in attendance played four water polo games. You tend to get a headache pretty easily hearing whistles and people yelling for 18 hours, so I wear headphones and listen to Kodak Black, Gucci Mane, Wiz Khalifa and any other mixtape that just came out to keep my sanity.

Here's the thing. From my random angle in the corner of the Fenwick pool, it is absolutely amazing to see how hard water polo players work not only during the games, but also in preparation for some of the toughest games they will play all season.

Speaking as someone who is simply a fan and volunteer that has been around the sport of water polo for a little while, it is always amazing to see how hard the players work and how much effort they put in to play this great sport. You can probably say the same thing about the coaches, officials and parents in attendance.

The same thing was going on at more than 14 different sites/pools when you count all of the other JV events going on over the weekend. I wish I had the time to cover those JV events too, but I only have so much time in the day, a full time job, and a Sprint Hotspot that has only so much data for me to use on the road.

I wanted to use this opportunity to thank everyone for their efforts and for working as hard as they do grinding for the sport of water polo. I wouldn't volunteer to do this every year if it wasn't worth it.

Good luck to everyone for the rest of the 2018 season. I wish you all the best.

P.S. I might be taking a break from covering the sport. Might just be for tonight. Haven't taken a day off before so I'll probably be back to update scores by the end of the night out of guilt. In the meantime, if you wish to help support the coverage, here is the donation link to help out: illpolo.com/donations18.htm.