Before we do a deep dive into Griffin Patel’s incredible career as the goalie for the Dexter varsity water polo team, let’s splash on over and check out all of his other amazing accomplishments and interests.
It’s quite the list.
He is the president of both the National Honor Society and the Green Schools Club. He also is a student representative with the Board of Education.
And now it gets fun.
Patel also plays the tuba, is the captain of the Croquet Club, is a debater and a Diploma candidate. He also enjoys cooking.
So what exactly sent this young man off to play polo in the pool?
“I already knew some of the players when I went into high school as a freshman so it was the only fall sport where I thought I’d fit in,” he says.
And he certainly did more than fit in. He also found a good fit in goal.
“When I joined the team as a freshman, I was the only freshman and there was nobody else playing JV goalie at the time,” he says as one of his reasons how he ended up in goal. “But I think the biggest reason was the previous DHS goalie, Tony Golin. Tony was the best goalie in Michigan and he played on a club team in California, so he’s really the reason I was able to be a goalie in the first place. Because of the standards he held for himself, it was a challenge for me to keep up, but it made being a goalie a very rewarding experience.”
Rewarding and awarding.
Patel, 17, the senior captain on Dexter’s water polo team, was honored by the Michigan Water Polo Association (MWPA) and chosen as the goaltender for the 2022 All East Region – First Team. He got to play in this year’s East vs. West All Star Game.
While the honors and accomplishments are nice, Patel says what kept him in goal for the Dreadnaughts was how much fun you could have in the cage. And how precious seconds can become memorable moments in time that he will never forget.
“When you block a crazy shot from a good shooter there is this fraction of a second where the entire pool and audience go silent,” he explains. “For a millisecond, nobody but you knows if that ball went in or not because it all happens so fast. Time slows down in those moments and you can really revel in the block, feel the sting of the ball on your skin. Those little moments last less than a second but many of my best memories in the cage take place during them. It’s a very calming moment; like being in the eye of a storm almost.”
That storm can sometimes be challenging to navigate. The goalie in water polo has responsibilities other than keeping the ball out of the net. For example, the goalie does most of the talking, and most of the strategizing on defense.
“The cage is designed so that a really strong shooter should be able to score on an equally strong goalie almost every time,” says Patel. “For most goalies, the cage is just too big to be everywhere so you need to position your defense to make that cage smaller. As a goalie you need to block balls of course, but you can’t get to that point if you aren’t properly utilizing and commanding your defense. Being a goalie is a lot about making educated guesses rather than reacting. It takes a very long time and getting scored on a lot to get to a point where you really start having fun playing goalie.”
This past season was a mixed bag for a Dexter team with new coaches and many new players. They lost to Saline in Districts but had plenty of good moments during the season. “This year’s team was a fun group of guys,” Patel says. “By the end of the season I could tell that they did enjoy playing water polo, and that’s really all I could ask for. Wanting to be in that pool and play is the first step to becoming good. To be good, you can’t only want to win, but really have to hate losing and I think that’s the only thing our team was missing this year.
“I wouldn’t say anyone is proud of the loss to Saline in Districts, but I think a crushing defeat like that was what the team needed to light a fire under them for next year.”
As for Patel’s next year – he plans on going to college, but his water polo days may be left behind in Dexter.
“As of right now I’m interested in biology with a focus on ecology,” says Griffin, the son of Heidi Patel and Ben Patel. “I’m open to keep playing polo in college, but I think it all depends on where I go and what the guys on the team are like. I’d like to eventually go to culinary school, but I don’t think many of them have polo teams for me to play on.”
