No one has put in the work that Cash has since joining us a short time ago. One of the most eager to train, including attending extra practices, he’s shown huge improvement in his limited time with the team. Plus he’s one of very few who were selected to play on an ODP Southwest Zone roster at the recent Super Regionals. We’re super proud and excited to have him as a young leader on AquaTex.
Congratulations, Cash!
#BeYourBest
We did it. The biggest hosting effort AquaTex Waterpolo has ever done. The Spin Lob Classic is over and after 38 games our people received big compliments from visiting teams, referees, parents of younger players, and USA Water Polo. I personally want to thank everyone who spent time at one of the desks, helped with hospitality, cleaned up, learned something new, took some of your weekend time to do a good deed. Thank you, AquaTexans! You stepped up when the club needed you and for that I’m grateful.
Our gratitude and thanks to Mark Stohrer and all those who work so hard at the RRISD Aquatic Center (the “RRAC” as far as we’re concerned). They set us up for success and were always there to support our efforts not to mention, were willing to host two days worth of masters water polo. That was the first USA Water Polo event in those pools, and we hope there will be many more, and soon.
My friend and colleague Joe Linehan deserves mention for organizing the entire event and reaching out to AquaTex when he needed another local host. USA Water Polo entrusted us with overseeing the event and we performed well, so can expect similar requests in the future. Plus, the cash money and new water polo balls never hurt.
Yes, we’re planning on going to the Texas Challenge Cup in North Texas on March 4-5. Families can register their interest in playing via our TeamUnify site. Find the event and then either attend/decline or “Edit Commitment.” The deadline is early for this tourney, February 17, so let us know your plans as soon as possible.
As we just emailed to all our active members our training schedule is changing immediately. A quick note to our Novice and Age Group families. We’d like you to begin your Tuesday/Thursday schedule right away so plan on coming tomorrow and not tonight, Monday.
Given the sheer number of athletes we now have we’re running out of pool space. So we’re changing the schedule to accommodate more bodies and give each group the attention it deserves. This includes the addition of a Tuesday practice and staggered start times on the weekends. (I haven’t yet updated it on the calendar but will).
Speaking of growth, welcome to all the athletes – and their families – we’ve added in the last few weeks: Rein, William, Parker, Colton, Noelle, Elliot, Alyssa, Erica, Keegan, Remy, and Emeric. Did I miss anyone?!
There’s a serious effort by parents, athletes, supporters, and coaches to convince the Leander ISD to reverse it’s decision to drop varsity water polo after just one season. Anyone who’s interested in supporting that cause can start by visiting saveleanderwaterpolo.org.
My opinion:
I have on- and 0ff-the-record opinions of their decision. I’ll reserve the pithier, more annoyed off-the-record one for more personal discussions. Regardless, the LISD decision is short-sighted. And anyone involved in the sport locally knows there are solutions to the problems sited by the District in their decision.
Yes, you can find coaches (they don’t need to be swim coaches).
Yes, you may need to be creative but there is pool time.
Yes, we understand that it would be optimal for every school in your district to support water polo programs, but that simply doesn’t exist in ANY other district in Texas.
We all know these things (and more) to be true.
I admire those who are putting together plans for how parents and students can address these issues positively, offering actual solutions rather than simply bemoaning the decision. Well done. You have my support.
I also have faith that there will come a change of plans by the District. We may not yet be close to that but there appear to be positive forces working toward that end.
And I have strong opinions about what’s going on but feel that as a club coach I need to lend my voice sparingly. Of course I support maintaining UIL water polo, especially at our local schools, for all kinds of reasons. But I could also see how my input might be counterproductive, so I will defer to those of you leading this effort and contribute just about any way you think will help.
The rosters are set for this weekend’s Dare to Dream tournament in College Station. AquaTex has entered its first ever 10u team to be led by Coach Babs. It includes Ryan, Grey, Neel, Ilay, Emeric, and a youngster from San Antonio we’ll meet when we’re there. Meanwhile, Clayton and William will play for Longhorn’s 12u team. Such an exciting start for so many of our new players. Make sure you have fun and learn something! We have lots of newcomers so please be sure to join our GroupMe if you haven’t already so Babs can communicate with all our Dare to Dream families. Good luck!
It’s a one-day championship bonanza in San Antonio on Sunday, Feb 5 for all ages and featuring teams exclusively from Central Texas. AquaTex intends to enter 18u boys, 18u girls, 16u boys, 14u boys, 10u mixed. If you haven’t already indicated your commitment go here and click on the “attend/decline” button. Each roster will play two games but anyone who qualifies for two rosters (those who play on 16u and 18u, for example) can expect four games. Then you can go to Cabo Bobs.
See you on the deck,
Here’s wishing all our families, athletes, coaches, and supporters a prosperous 2023. We’ve been dormant for only a couple weeks but it seems like a lifetime so we’re excited to resume activities in the coming days.
We return in full force on Saturday, January 7, 10:00 AM. Then on Sunday the 8th we’ll host a controlled scrimmage day with Longhorn. The schedule will resemble our game days but we will be a bit flexible. Controlled scrimmage means that coaches will manage the scrimmage with specific goals in mind and likely have an agenda (press vs. Zone defense and 6 on 5 come to mind).
Updated, 2 January 2023
We’re not attending the Cowtown Stampede the weekend of January 7-8 but there’s the Dare to Dream tournament, which takes place on January 28-29, already on our calendar. This tournament is geared entirely toward 12u and 10u athletes. So we want as many of our Novices and Swim2Score athletes taking part. And this season it is being held at Texas A&M.
Also, I have good info that there should be a one-day event in San Antonio for all ages before the end of January. Stay tuned.
To say thanks for your support of the club and to boost our gear wearage (?) we’re having a sale! Use the coupon code NYear23 for a 23% discount on any purchase of Printful gear from the AquaTex Waterpolo Shop. The discount does not apply to RYTE suits. The sale ends on January 16 so order soon.
I’m way behind on tournament finances (someone kindly gave me a kick in the pants about it.) I’ll have specific charges for families who still owe me for participating at one of the three tournaments below soon. But if you notice via your Venmo records that you haven’t paid me for any or all of these, feel free! My Venmo handle is @sadhuminstrels. And for those who may be newer to our program, I do pay for tournaments myself (entry fees, coaches’ lodging, fuel per diem), thus the request for Venmo payments to directly reimburse me. Please remember, the charge is per roster, meaning that if your athlete played both 16u and 18u games they owe the fee below times two.
That’s right. The start of 2023 means we have to start planning for JOs. On January 10 at 7:00 PM I’ll be hosting an online meeting where I’ll share our current plans for Junior Olympics in the summer of 2023 and ask for you feedback about expectations. The biggest question for each team: do we want to qualify to go to California or do we want to play in North Texas? Our friends from Longhorn will be having a similar discussion and our coaching staffs will coordinate as much as necessary. Look for a link to the meeting via GroupMe as that date approaches.
Given the very serious and fantastic international flavor of our club we’re making a multi-lingual tee-shirt on which we’ll print “waterpolo” in as many languages that are spoken within our families. That includes, but is not at all limited to: Spanish, Italian, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Nepali, Hindi, Cantonese, Vietnamese, French, English… Surely there are more so please contact me if your family actively speaks a language at home that’s missing from this list.
Happy New Year.
Since joining us just a few month ago no one has been better at attendance – and it shows!
Darby is one of our most improved and attentive players and a key member of our girls’ training group. AquaTex coaches have selected her as the club’s player of the month.
Congratulations, Darby!
#BeYourBest
Aaron Gordon has earned 2022 UIL Second-Team All Region 3 water polo honors as voted on by high school coaches.
As a sophomore, Aaron led Vandegrift HS to its first ever UIL water polo playoff spot where it reached the area finals before falling to regional champions, Austin High.
The news comes a week after 14 AquaTex athletes received All-Region 21 honors as the first ever UIL water polo season came to a close.
All of AquaTex’s coaches congratulate Aaron on his well-deserved selection. Well done, Aaron!
Coaches from the UIL’s District 21 have selected their inaugural All-Region High School Water Polo teams. We’re exceptionally proud to announce the following AquaTex athletes who were honored by the district.
The entire coaching staff congratulates all our athletes on a spectacular first year of UIL water polo capped by this tremendous list of honorees. We expect to see more in the future as the sport grows. You have done your club proud along with your high school!
You can view the entire list of outstanding local athletes here: Water Polo District 21 All-District
#proudcoach
There are several things to cover as we head toward the much slower final two weeks of the calendar year and to the holidays. So let’s get in to it.
It was a good day of games on Sunday with our friends from Longhorn, and a bittersweet Partenza Partita for our Italian exchange student, Stefano. Thanks to all of you for attending, supporting all our athletes, bringing food and drinks, and overall being great AquaTex parents. We plan on doing similar days when the tournament schedule is a little slower.
Speaking of tournaments…
The Jingle Bells Festival schedule is out and rosters are final. Coach Smiley will be coaching all three teams (14u, 16u, 18u mixed) with the help of Longhorn coaches Tom, Steve, Molly, and Magaly. There are three AquaTex teams and four Longhorn teams playing at the tournament, which presented us with a challenge since our coaches are largely occupied that weekend. So our thanks to Coach Smiley for taking the lead, and Coach Tom for stepping up to help us.
As usual, families, plan on meeting coach Matt one hour before your first game of the day. After the first game it is the coaches’ decision about when to meet next. And don’t be surprised if you’re coached by one of the Longhorns! It’s gonna be a busy weekend.
It’s back on the calendar on a less-than-optimal weekend, January 7-8. We will take the lead on sending teams up to the LISD East Side Aquatic Center in The Colony. Longhorn will not be organizing any teams, so their athletes will play for AquaTex. The event is now live on TeamUnify so if you are interested in playing, commit as soon as possible. All age groups are open so plenty of chances to play.
This week is the final one of the year with a normal practice schedule, including Thursday girls’ training. On Saturday we will have normal 10 AM practice (more of a shoot-around really) and Swim2Score. But we’ll cancel Sunday practice and then we’ll be dormant until the new year.
By dormant we mean that it is our coaches discretion to have some in-water shooting sessions and games or not! So keep an eye open in GroupMe for an ad hoc, fun training schedule, especially on the weekends.
My heartfelt thanks to all our families for making this the biggest, most successful year in AquaTex Waterpolo’s history. Yes, we plan on more in 2023 but it’s important to reflect on the growth we’ve encountered this year, based on your trust in us to help your athletes get better. Thank you for that and we can’t wait for the new year.
And a particular note of thanks to our tremendous coaches. We added Babs and Matt this season, which has been an enormous help to our program. They, Smiley, Kendall, and Alon have committed many hours of their time sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for this crazy European sport with your athletes. For that I’m enormously grateful. Thank you, Coaches! And don’t be surprised if that roster of coaches grows in 2023.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to everyone.
An overdue update after my return from the UK and hopefully a recovery from a respiratory thing (man, does that linger).
We end 2022 with our largest number of athletes ever, new training opportunities for our girls, more great coaches, and more competition for our athletes. We are now at a point where we have to decide about such things as separating high school training from Age Group, a great problem to have. But stay tuned as we consider changes.
It’s our final tournament of the season, the Jingle Bells Festival at Cy-Fair Natatorium in North Houston. As of today we are entering 14u mixed, 16u boys, 18u boys. For 18u boys we need 2 more athletes to make me comfortable (a couple players can only attend on Saturday). We’re still very short on the numbers of 18u girls we would need to enter that team, which we want to do.
Coach Smiley will be the head coach for all the teams we send to this tournament and will be assisted by Tom Andrew and/or Evan Sayer of Longhorn. If there are any conflicts between teams at the tournament we’ll definitely have a coach to cover it.
Our friend Stefano is returning to Italy as his (blazing fast) semester in Round Rock comes to an end. So we’ll combine a game day with his departure, which will not include any Central Texas version of Italian food (sorry Niki’s) but a small smorgasbord of local delights such as Round Rock Doughnuts, Arandinas breakfast tacos, and whatever you suggest! We’re looking for ideas and/or goodies you could bring to celebrate the end of the year and as a farewell to our amico italiano.
Let’s have some grub ready for all the kiddos as they finish their games. Perhaps a volunteer or two to supervise a goodies table?
The game day schedule looks like this
The tentative schedule is:
We’ve started our Thursday evening girls-only training sessions. Coach Babs is taking the lead but other AquaTex coaches will be there too or in her place when she can’t make it (she has a career!). Age group girls are encouraged to attend as well, not just high schoolers. We will take time to do chalk talks on Thursdays so all athletes are expected to take notes during meetings (no handouts) so have a notepad ready to go.
We have several families new to the program so I thought it would be useful to share some info about the tools we use to organize stuff, including communications. It’s a bit long winded but in the spirit of keeping our families informed about how club administration works I thought it would be useful.
First, AquaTex Waterpolo is most definitely part of AquaTex Swim Team. Without the support of club owner Mark Parshall there would be no autonomous water polo club at Micki Krebsbach pool.
Coach Mark several years ago began using the online swim team management tool, TeamUnify (also called SportsEngine). TeamUnify is, in my opinion, very good at only one thing: finances. It is apparently pretty good at registering athletes for swim meets, but that’s a very different process than organizing water polo events. But, most importantly, it is the tool Coach Mark has chosen. So all AquaTex families are required to register via TeamUnify in order to be considered a member of the team.
I have avoided using TeamUnify in past years for admin and comms because I find it very clumsy and not super waterpolo friendly. Plus, I do not have access to all the tools that Mark has: I cannot update your profile, change your membership status, or charge you. Only Mark can, and he’s a busy guy.
But I do have access to its communications tools and as our club has grown I’ve found it easier to communicate with everyone using it. So we recently began asking asking all our families to use TeamUnify more actively. Given all that, a few things for our families in no particular order.
This site I built to make up for the many shortcomings of TeamUnify. But it is almost entirely meant to share information and news about the club. There is very little if any admin taking place on AquaTexWaterpolo.com. So, again, we appreciate you getting accustomed to using TeamUnify more often.
The 18u boys went 4-0 and the 16u boys, featuring several very new 14u athletes, played three very close games versus good opponents this past weekend. I call that a success.
Congratulations to all those who participated and to Coaches Alon and Matt (first timer!) for leading the team to such a positive outcome. And, as always, thanks to our great parents for repping, cheering, and helping the athletes get ready for a weekend of a lot of water polo
Find final results here and ping me if you want a link to a gallery of great photos from the event.
Thank you to all of you who attended and participated in my online parent meeting last Thursday. Much of what follows here will be related to the things we talked about in the meeting. We’ll plan on re-convening likely in January or February to start laying down dates for Junior Olympics 2023.
We’ve arrived at a point where our training is often too crowded. This is a problem we’ve been hoping to have ever since the club started. So, we are working on new weeknight arrangements so we can keep our training manageable.
First, our aim is to start girls-only practices on Thursdays starting December 1. Coach Babs is taking the lead in training all our girls (we expect y’all back, you know who I’m talking about!) with help from the other coaches when necessary. You can expect to participate at the Cowtown Stampede under Coach Babs, and then start getting prepared for 2023.
If Monday/Wednesday numbers remain high you can expect us to add training on Tuesdays, perhaps for high school athletes only. We’re still working on that.
Weekend practices will remain the same. Since we can use the entire pool on weekends then we can still effectively keep training groups separate if necessary.
And, a reminder that all HS athletes should have a notebook at practice. Plans are to have chalk talks and video review session on Mondays. BUT those sessions could get postponed or changed so have your notebook with you regardless of day.
We only just formed our new Novice Waterpolo group and already one of our superstars has earned the coaches’ attention. Ilay Lev is the AquaTex Waterpolo October Player of the Month! Congratulations to him.
I’ve been contacting some of you about making sure your TeamUnify profile is up to date, that you’re registered for the correct group, that your contact info is correct, etc. As I increasingly use TeamUnify for email and SMS communications it’s important we have all those things up to date. As our numbers have grown (happily) it has become easier to use the TeamUnify platform for these purposes.
Right now it appears that nearly everyone is registered for “Waterpolo,” “Novice Waterpolo,” “Swim2Score,” “Masters Waterpolo,” or “Swim/Polo.” If not, let me know and we’ll ask Coach Mark to switch you to the correct billing/roster group. It definitely matters for communications, billing, and rostering.
Please also check that the email addresses you have added to your TeamUnify accounts are “Verified.” It appears that if they are not verified you may not receive communications from me. Here are instructions.
You keeping your profile up to date is extremely helpful so I appreciate you taking the time to do so.
As I’ve been harping, it’s required for all members to have a team suit. For any of our boys who need to buy a suit I have a fitting kit with me at practice. Make sure you try on one (or more) of the sample briefs to find your proper size. (We don’t ask for fitting kits for jammers because they are so much more forgiving with stretch).
For girls, we are soon going to discontinue the “old” design in favor of the new suit, which is a brand new RYTE product. The suit, I’ve heard, better resembles the fit and stretch of other water polo suits. I’ve heard that’s a good thing.
The suit is so new that RYTE does not have a fitting kit for us. So, you can order one (or more) of the new suits, try it on, and return it if it’s not the right fit. I encourage you to do that prior to Cowtown.
