Seminole girls water polo wins state title, completes perfect season again

Seminole High’s girls water polo team turned another perfect season into another state championship, beating West Orange 8-4 at the Gian Zumpano Aquatic Center in Miami to finish 31-0 and claim its second state title in three years.

The victory carried more weight than one more trophy for the Seminole County program. West Orange arrived seeking its first girls water polo state championship, but Seminole handled the moment with the same poise that carried it through the regular season and the playoffs. The Fighting Seminoles had already built a national profile, entering the tournament ranked No. 1 by MaxPreps, and they finished the job by closing out a title run that never included a loss.

For Seminole, the 2026 championship was another marker in a sustained rise under coach Ryan Ackerson. The school won its first-ever water polo state championship in 2024, then added this title to become a program that now expects to be playing for hardware in Miami every spring. Seminole also became the first school in FHSAA history to have both water polo teams advance to the state Final Four three years in a row, a sign that the success is not tied to one standout class but to a broader pipeline inside the Sanford program.

That depth showed throughout the season and again in the postseason. Seminole’s girls went 27-1 in 2025, reached the state Final Four for the third straight season and the fourth time in five years, and then pushed even further in 2026. The school’s regional championship run featured goalkeeper Julia Pando, Vivian Swain’s work setting up the offense, and contributions from Halle Zimlich, Gabby Pierson, Raelynn Bouley and Darian West. The result was a roster that kept producing in different ways, even as opponents tried to slow it down.

Seminole was one of only two schools to send both boys and girls teams to the 2026 championship event, underscoring how deep the school’s water polo culture has become. For a program that has gone from its first title in 2024 to a second perfect season in three years, the bigger story is no longer the breakthrough. It is the expectation.