Courtesy of Connecticut College
Camel of the Edition is a continuous series which seeks to highlight Connecticut College athletes who have stood out from the herd due to their recent performances or as a leader on campus or on their team.
Jonathan Rojas ‘25 is an attacker on the men’s water polo team who has served as a captain for the past two years as the team expanded from nine players to 19. The senior from Houston, Texas has served as an important team leader since the beginning of his time at Conn.
Recently, The College Voice caught up with Rojas to learn why he chose Conn, how collegiate water polo works, and some of his favorite memories as a member of the team.
Could you please introduce yourself? (class year, pronouns, majors/minors, clubs + other involvements)
My name is Jonathan Rojas and I am a senior. I am a double major in Psychology and Economics. I use he/him pronouns, partake on the club squash team, and I have been captain of the water polo team during my junior and senior year.
Talk me through your journey in sports and how and when did you decide to focus on water polo?
I started to focus on water polo in high school. I got into the sport because my older brother played it. After sophomore year, I felt that I should keep [playing water polo] because it became a big part of my life so I wanted to buckle down on it. I kind of was a jack of all trades before [water polo]. I played baseball, soccer, swam, and really picked up anything and everything.
What was your recruitment process and how did you end up choosing Conn?
The recruitment process was different because I came here during the COVID year so it wasn’t a guarantee I would get to play or even have a season. When I was connecting with the coach, he couldn’t guarantee anything because [he] had to follow the [COVID] guidelines. Even so, he was still very helpful, connecting with me, giving me calls throughout the summer, really going back and forth, making sure I was doing good, and sharing updates. I picked Conn because especially for the water polo program. In our division we end up playing every division you can think of from top [NCAA] DI programs to strong [NCAA] DIII programs. I don’t know many other schools that have that sort of caliber of a strong education and strong water polo. I also like the cold here because I was like, “I gotta get out of this Texas heat.”
How would you describe water polo for people who are unfamiliar with it?
For starters, it’s a seven on seven sport [with] six field players and one goalie played in a deep pool. Many people think you get to touch the floor [of the pool], but you actually don’t get to touch the floor and it’s all treading [water]. I will say water polo is a little like basketball. In basketball, there’s a center and in water polo we have a set. This tends to be the biggest player on the team, someone who has length. Our set player is Cormac [Stevens ‘27], who is a big and fundamental piece of our team. Games are four quarters and eight minutes long with a halftime. There are also two full timeouts and one 30 second timeout where your team gets to set up on offense but can’t meet with the coach. Max score wins depending on the end of the time. Sometimes you can go into overtime or a shootout it just depends on if it’s a conference game or a friendly.
How does collegiate water polo work?
So we have the USA Water Polo [organization] which makes and controls rules and regulations. It works in many different ways with a bunch of different conferences. There’s the MPSF (Mountain Pacific Division) in California and the division we play in which is sort of like the Ivy League conference because it has Princeton, Brown, Harvard and it’s called the NWPC [Northeast Water Polo Conference]. [Collegiate] water polo is all spread out through the country so it’s hard to make conferences for DIII. For example, the closest team to us is MIT and the next closest is Johns Hopkins, which is a nine hour drive. So it’s hard to get all the DIII teams together which is why it’s all mixed [among divisions]. The two conferences that I mentioned are the big conferences. Additionally from our conference, we play a CWPA Eastern championship with Austin, Johns Hopkins, Wheaton, MIT and the top two teams of that go on and play one of the [MPSF’s] top two teams. A lot of our games are tournaments because when we play teams from farther away it makes more sense to play more teams for transportation. We do also play some friendlies against local teams such as Iona or MIT which are closer.
Your team went to Germany last summer; what was this experience like and what other travel experiences have you had?
One of the reasons I picked Conn is because we get the opportunity to go travel and this year we get the opportunity to go to California. We get the opportunity to fly out, drive out and play a bunch of other teams, such as teams from Texas, Princeton, Harvard, and Navy. It’s such a cool ability to be able to say in my college days that I played against Princeton, Fordham, Iona and all these big name schools. Every four years we get to go abroad. This past summer we got to travel and go to Germany and play one of the top programs in Germany. This was really cool and unique because in Germany, water polo is such a bigger thing than it is in the states. We were also able to explore multiple cities which is an opportunity you don’t often get from a school-funded trip.
I’ve seen highlights shared on social media where some of your teammates are on ESPN. Could you explain how this happens?
That’s another cool thing, when we play Ivy League teams like Harvard and Brown. They have ESPN+ streaming [broadcast] for all their games. So when we get to play them, our games are streamed on ESPN+. Being on ESPN+ is kind of a cool little gig we get and they have announcers and replays. It is cool when we get to watch ourselves and all our family and friends can watch us on TV.
You are one of the captains of the water polo team; how would you describe the experience of being a team captain?
Being a team captain is definitely a challenge. During my freshman year, the team had nine players. I looked up to the captains back then and saw how they were able to keep the program going with just nine guys. Now that I’m in their shoes, I’ve seen the team grow a lot. We have a bunch of good guys and we all love each other and hang out with each other in and outside the pool. It makes it easier when your teammates are your best friends and that we spend a lot of time together because I don’t have to say things twice.
How has this season been for your team so far?
So far, it’s been really good. We’ve had two games so far and won one and lost one. Even after the game we lost we came out feeling really static because of how we played and how we felt. We lost 13-15 against Austin College who has dominated us in the past. Being able to go goal for goal with them made everyone realize that “Whoah, we’re a team to be reckoned with this year.” Everyone’s coming out swinging, we have many talented freshmen who have made a big impact on the team.
As a senior in the water polo program at Conn, how has the team changed over the years and what are some of your favorite memories?
The team has changed significantly. We had only nine guys my freshman year which was really tough because you need seven guys to play. It’s like playing football with only an [offensive] line. I’d say the team has really turned around, we’ve gotten a lot of guys to come here, and culture-wise we’re a little more known on the campus now. Now, I feel like more people know our sport and want to come to our games.
Any special team bonding activities, traditions, or pre-game rituals?
One of our pre-game rituals is before the start of every game we do a countoff. We put our hands together and say hump. It’s one of the team chants we say and it’s one of our team shirts we have. On our days off we tend to get the guys together and watch some game footage from a past game or teams we’re going to play soon. Being able to watch them, kick back, get some food going, and hang out to watch the sport [is really fun]. We have a pumpkin carving contest every year. Instead of having a practice one day, we get together and carve pumpkins before we see which pumpkin is the best. Another fun tradition we do is we have a practice where the Coast Guard joins because they don’t have a coach so we let them come practice and hang out with us. It’s a fun thing to do and I get to meet some coast guard guys. We also do a Secret Santa [gift exchange] amongst the team.
What are your plans going forward after college?
It’s up in the air; I’ve considered going to grad school for psychology or getting a job in investment banking so I’ve kinda got to flip a coin and pick. I’ve also been considering getting a job for a year or two and then going back to grad school. I think out of college I’m going to take a little month or two break just to get myself together and finally have some downtime to not worry about doing schoolwork. I think everyone should take some time for themselves after they graduate because it’s a big accomplishment and you only graduate once out of undergraduate school. I’ll probably stay [playing water polo] with some masters programs, which is made up of a bunch of old guys throwing the ball around and playing. I think I will probably still play it though because it’s such a big stress reliever for me getting in the water and throwing the ball around.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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