Jeremy Boglecq brings exceptional quickness, anticipation, and athleticism to the pool as a center on the men’s water polo team at MIT. His 12 goals through 16 matches were the sixth-highest total for the Engineers, who are ranked seventh nationally in Division 3 by the Collegiate Water Polo Association.
The 19-year-old sophomore from Weston has the distinction of being the only player from Massachusetts on a 23-player roster dominated by Californians.
“Jeremy embraces the sport with the healthiest attitude I have ever seen,’’ said MIT coach Dave Andriole, who has been impressed with Bogle’s team-first attitude and desire to improve. “And he’s risen to the challenge of playing the sport at a high level.’’
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The 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound Bogle also competes for MIT’s swimming and diving team, earning All-American honors last March as part of the fifth-place 200-yard freestyle medley relay squad at the NCAA Division 3 championships. An electrical engineering and computer science major with a concentration in economics, he was class president and a multisport athlete at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn.
His brother, Will, (cq) who also attended Loomis Chaffee, is a senior water polo player at Connecticut College. Their mother, Gail, (cq) played varsity tennis and squash at Smith College.
Q. What was your first impression of water polo?
A. I didn’t understand the rules, and there were a lot of whistles. But as a swimmer, I knew I could play a team sport and use those talents in water polo. The hardest part at first was learning the rules and the flow of the game.
Q. How hard is it to tread water, maintain balance, and keep pace?
A. It’s very hard, especially when sprinting back on the counterattack. I usually sub out three or four minutes at a time (quarters are eight minutes). You also do a lot of wrestling for the ball underwater, which is physically demanding.
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Q. With such a narrow net (3 meters wide, .9 cq) meters high), what is the best strategy to score?
A. It’s hard for the goalie to move across the cage, so a cross pass, from one side of the pool to the other, is one of the best ways to score. As a center, I try to get very close to the goal and post up, like in basketball.
Q. You started playing water polo as a sophomore in prep school. How do you make up for being relatively new to the sport?
A. It’s been difficult at times, but the more I play, the more I learn. While I was at Loomis Chaffee, I attended summer water polo camps at Princeton, Brown, and Harvard to experience a higher level of play
Q. What has been your most challenging class at MIT?
A. Differential Equations my freshman year. The course focused on branching together topics including linear algebra and single- and multi-variable calculus. You need a solid base of understanding in all of those subjects.
Q. Can you discuss Up Photography, (cq), the startup you created in 2014 with your friend, Henry Dixon, from Weston?
A. We specialize in video and photo production using a drone and took a loan out from our parents to get it. We flew it over houses in the suburbs West of Boston and took photos for real estate companies to advertise those properties. I’ve also helped my water polo and swim team teammates create a promotional video for their own startup called Spyte, a device that cooks full meals on its own.
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Q. Did you intend to go out for MIT’s swimming and diving team last year?
A. I really liked swimming in prep school. However, I felt I wasn’t fast enough to contribute to MIT’s team. But at the New England (Prep) Championships my senior year, I finished third in the 100-yard freestyle in 46.02, which gave me the confidence to try out.
Q What has contributed to surpassing your own goal total from last season?
A. Training over the summer with my MIT teammates and with the Bernal’s Gator Swim Club. Having a season under my belt has given me more confidence in big games.
Q. What is like to compete against Will’s team at Connecticut College? (MIT has won both meetings this season, 14-6 and 17-4.)
A. It’s always fun to see him and compete against him and the whole Connecticut College team. I know them all pretty well and actually played on the same team as my brother a little bit in high school and trained with him over the past couple of summers. We have actually only guarded each other for a few possessions and I think we used to sort of ignore the fact that it happened. But now we seem to acknowledge it, give a little laugh, have fun, and maybe even play a little rougher defense.
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Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.