The men’s water polo team will open the season Saturday at 10 a.m., at the Navy Invitational against the University of Puerto Rico. While GW Head Coach Scott Reed knows little about the Puerto Rican team is a team, it’s his own that he’s most curious about.

I don’t know what we’re capable of, Reed said. I don’t know what the seven new players can do.

That’s because Reed has five freshmen on the team – Chris Blick, Patrick Dodge, Gabe Miller, Jason Grimes and Nicholas Garcia – and no longer has the services of Rush Taylor. Offensively, GW will look for increased production from seniors Josh Gimpleson (25 goals last season), Brad Oliver (13 goals) and sophomore Chris Greene (15 goals). Last season, Taylor scored 66 goals, three more than Gimpleson, Oliver and Greene combined.

In preparation for the 16-team Navy Invitational, Reed said the team has been doing basic conditioning in practice to get them in the best possible shape. But even if the team struggles this time like they did last year (1-4 in the Navy Invitational), Reed said it wouldn’t be an indication of how they’ll wind up at the end of the season.

GW’s second-year head coach said that this just isn’t a weighty tournament. The biggest one’s are the Southern and Eastern Championships played in November. Those are the tourney’s that steer teams towards or away from the biggest tournament of them all, the NCAA Tournament.