Jackson Donaldson ’15: When Episcopal Boy’s water polo co-captain Korey Leidheiser ‘14 was asked about what the team and his teammates mean to him, he quickly responded “The team to me is a family. We don’t have too many kids on the team but that actually brings us closer together. Long bus rides to tournaments give us a lot of time to bond as a team and I want the underclassmen to care as much about the team as I do. Everyone is an essential part of the team. It’s great to see so many underclassmen step up and fill roles that upperclassmen normally do.” This positive attitude and outgoing perspective can be seen throughout Korey in and out of the pool, and makes him a qualified choice for EA’s male athlete of the month.
His leadership is a key component to the 12-11 team and many of his teammates will agree that he is an essential component to the teams success. Korey’s teammate and co-captain Jake Phillips ‘15 says “He’s good at keeping practices fun and the guys united.” Phillips also added in the interview that Korey is “funny as heck, has good awareness of what’s going on, and the undisputed master of the lob shot.” Watching the team’s games, makes it apparent he is the leader of the team, and his leadership makes his teammates play better and work harder.
Korey has played water polo ever since his freshman year. When asked about the drive to begin playing a sport that is only found on television during the summer olympics, he simply put it “my brother joined the team his freshman year so I felt obligated to give it a shot.” All his hard work after all his years of play, head coach Max Kelly and the team made him the co-captain of the team. When questioned about what it means to him to be captain, he responded “since I’m the only senior on the team, I have a lot of responsibility to lead the underclassmen to a successful season as well as develop the program for the future. It’s a tough and rewarding experience.”
The water polo team has a few more games left, finishing off their season with what all members of the team can agree is one of the biggest games of the year. Phillips ‘15 stated “the hype preceding it with headshaving, the rivalry, the atmosphere come game time, and the fact that its the last game of the season is unreal.” If you’re able to make it out to one of the games this year you can catch Korey playing many positions calling himself a “utility player.” Later in the year you will see Korey playing squash in the winter and him on the baseball diamond in the spring.