(Above) Zavior Ward is always ready for the competition. Photograph by Colton GallonO (’26)
Standing at six-foot one, one hundred and eighty pounds, Zavior Ward, is a problem in the water. Just last year, the senior center forward was named the ILH Player of the Year for the Le Jardin water polo team. (Ward played with the Bulldogs as HBA does not have its own water polo team.) This past May, his hard work and training in and outside the water paid off, as he and his team attended and thrived at the 2025 Boys ODP National Championships in California.
Water polo wasn’t always Ward’s passion, as surfing and his love for the ukulele took precedence in his childhood years. When he turned six, however, his focus changed. “When my mom was younger, she had a lot of friends that played water polo. I’ve been a pretty strong swimmer most of my life, so she said I should try it. To this day it’s been a passion of mine,” Ward recalled. Ever since he took his mom’s encouragement to heart, water polo has taken on a central role in his life.
Water polo has taken Ward to places he would have never gone if not for the sport. Most recently, Ward and his team, the Oahu Water Polo Club, attended the 2025 ODP National Championship in Tri-Valley, CA. In this tournament, Ward’s training regiment and commitment was demonstrated in his performance on this trip. “I did pretty good. My coach said I was a team player, like putting the team before my own goals. I think a lot of the other guys on the team had the same mindset, which is why we did as well as we did. There were a lot of individual guys on other teams that maybe were better than us, but us as a team we played better for sure,” explained Ward.
To put Ward and his team’s success into perspective, there are five-hundred teams nationally registered for USA Water Polo. Of those teams, only a hundred of those teams were selected for the ODP National Team Championships. Ward and his team were ranked as the 44th best team in the United States, the third best in the state of Hawai’i. Besides his team’s success, Ward also garnered individual accolades. He received the Nick Johnson Inspiration Award for his outstanding sportsmanship. Out of nearly a thousand participants, Ward, along with two other athletes from Hawaii, received this honor. Aka Peich, Ward’s teammate from Le Jardin, said, “Yeah, he did really well for our team. He was pretty much the one to help lead us and keep us as one team in heated moments, and I would probably say that that’s his thing for us.”
As he heads towards the end of his senior year at HBA, Ward’s water polo goals lie outside the state. “I think I’m definitely excited to hopefully play in Spain for a few years. Then come back and play for the US and then hopefully make a pro team. I feel like I could definitely make an impact for whoever it is that I end up playing for in the future. Playing for a pro team in the US is like a dream for me, so overall I guess that would be the ultimate goal,” he said. For this final season in high school, Ward, who will again play for Le Jardin in the Spring, has set his sights on receiving the first team or player of the year honors for the ILH season.
