The water polo club team had dwindled down to three members and appeared to be on its way out.

Only a semester before Ryan Everett, now a senior in history, joined the team during the spring semester of his freshman year, N.C. State finished second in its conference.

But after the seniors on the team failed to recruit and attract new members, the Wolfpack was left with very little, and Everett, who is now the president of the club, wanted to rebuild the team.

“Ryan pulled the team back from nothing,” Stacy Fields, a senior in chemical engineering and treasurer and member of the team, said. “We were down to nothing, and he recruited people and got this thing going again.”

Shortly thereafter, State’s only option was to join up with East Carolina and form a team through the two universities. Everett said it was a great experience for both, but eventually the Pack started getting more members and the Pirates’ number of team members sharply declined.

Now, according to Everett, State has “15 active members” with “30 people who have signed up for information about the team” since the beginning of the year. The team has decided to take a different approach to recruiting, according to Everett.

“Everybody is recruiting– we’ve been to freshman orientation, and we are going to paint the [Free Expression] Tunnel,” Everett said. “We don’t want it like it was before.”

And even though the team is at 15 members, which is more than the team has had since the fall semester of 2003, Everett, who is a member of the club sports council, insisted the team would love to have more people come play.

He said anyone can play, including faculty, men and women, and the club welcomes interested students to stop by practice– which takes place Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9 p.m. at Carmichael Gymnasium.

Everett said the last two seasons have been a rebuilding process, but the people involved have already seen an improvement from the previous years.

During last season’s Collegiate Water Polo Association tournament, the team finished last. Everett said it was tough for the team because it was riddled with injuries and the goalie couldn’t make it to the tournament.

However, during the spring, the Pack bounced back with two second-place finishes– one in a tournament at Virginia Tech and the other at the Richmond Invitational, according to Everett.

And for the first time, State will host a CWPA southern region tournament the weekend of Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

Everett said this opportunity could do great things for the program.

“It’s a huge boost just for visibility on campus — hopefully it could become an annual thing,” Everett said. “If we could do stuff locally, it could help retain members. And it only helps with the costs.”

Not only does the team have to recruit members to stay active, but it also needs to get enough money to participate in tournaments and be a part of the CWPA, which costs more than $1,500.

Adam Gerken, a junior in sports management, said putting together the money necessary isn’t easy, but help from club sports gives the team a boost.

“We pay our own way for pretty much everything,” Gerken said. “Most of it is out of our pockets, but having clubs sports’ help is really great.”

As far as how the sport is played, there are four seven-minute quarters and the game is played in a 10-foot deep pool — something Everett said can test one’s endurance.

“Swimming in a 10-foot pool for that long is tough. So when I say we can use more people, I’m not kidding,” Everett said.

He added the team has unlimited substitutions during the game.

As for whether the water polo team could ever become varsity, Gerken quickly said there was close to no chance.

“I don’t think we will ever be varsity,” Gerken said. “The school would need to have more women’s varsity sports before we could even try. And there are a couple other club sports that I think would get the chance before us.”

However, Josh Duckett, a senior in aerospace engineering who was president of the club the two seasons before Everett, said he is happy just being able to have a team, especially considering it was non-existent nearly three seasons ago.

“I’m so excited about being able to have a competitive team,” Duckett said. “For a little bit, after the spring of 2003, we were really worried the team would no longer exist, but it’s great to have what we have now.”