Announcement

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SOGO Roster Call, Shop’s Open, SWZ Fest Fees

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I’m back from overseas and we’re just a few weeks out from Junior Olympics. Our final chance to compete before the big tournament is July 9-10 in Pearland and we expect all our Junior Olympic athletes to play. So read on about SOGO, TeamUnify, our new Shop and more.

Team Unify

Two requests/requirements of our AquaTex families with regard to our TeamUnify platform. We are experiencing a good problem: the addition of many new athletes. That has made managing information about our athletes and families more complicated. So to simplify that work we’re asking all our families to get used to using the TeamUnify platform more.

Tournament Commitment

Starting with the Sun’s Out Guns Out tournament we want our families to use the “Attend/Decline” feature on TeamUnify to indicate intent to play in a tournament. If you are not logged in to your account it should appear like this.

If you are logged in, it should look something like this. Then proceed to edit your commitment. All the athletes in your family should be listed.

Make sure to note the roster deadline, which is typically 7-10 days before the event, and commit as early as possible so we can plan for the tourney.

For our friends from Longhorn or outside the AQTX sphere, for any particular tournament please let Coach James or Coach Tom know you want to attend so we can put you on our working roster.

USAWP Member Number

While you’re in your AquaTex TeamyUnify account please update your athletes’ USA Water Polo membership number if you have not already. This will be enormously helpful for future tournaments and will take just a couple minutes. AQTX Waterpolo coaches cannot edit this information for you so we’re asking for your help. Thank you all in advance.

SWZ Festival Fees

AquaTex families should have been charged via TeamUnify for participating at the Southwest Zone Festival on June 11-12. Our friends from Longhorn, if you have not already, please use Venmo to pay @aquatex (Mark Parshall) $95 for taking part and note that it for the “SWZ Festival.” I’ll be emailing those families again to follow up. You can expect to do the same for Junior Olympics.

The Shop

We’ve had several orders fulfilled already and our new AquaTex Waterpolo Shop is open for business. There you can find a good and growing assortment of shirts, hats, bags, stickers, and other AQTX branded stuff. And, if you have a request for a new product just let me know (check out the Printful catalog). Tell friends and family too.

Junior Olympics Tee Shirt

Speaking of which, our 2022 JOs t-shirt is now in the store. The vendor says the price will reduce on July 6 so if you want to save a buck you can wait until then. The shirts are optional but our athletes are expected to wear team gear at JOs so show your support!

AquaTex Waterpolo 2022 National Junior Olympics T-Shirt

Training Schedule

Practice on Tuesday, Jun 28 is cancelled due to a swim meet. Practices the weekend of July 9-10 are cancelled due to swim meets as well. We will look for times to make up and may have either online chalk talks or conditioning work in the small pool at Micki. Stay tuned.

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Gavin Hantelman, May Player of the Month

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Gavin Hantleman is AquaTex coaches’ choice for May Player of the Month.

By training hard (and often!) Gavin has drawn the attention of his coaches, who overwhelmingly voted for him as AquaTex’s May POM. And his efforts have paid off in the competition pool where he has become a genuine offensive threat with his speed and willingness to mix it up with defenders. We can’t wait to see him at Junior Olympics with just a few more weeks of experience and training. Keep it up, Gavin!

He is our May 2022 Player of the Month. Congratulations!

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JOs Quals, SWZ Fest, and WTTS Results

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It’s already here: qualifying for Junior Olympics and the Southwest Zone Festival kick off this weekend. Some more details on that, plus some really excellent results from the Welcome to Texas Shootout.

SWZ Festival and JOs Quals

We are updating our event page quite often and just added Friday’s schedule so take a look again if you haven’t recently. There’s also a bit of an explainer about the difference between quals and the festival for Longhorn/AquaTex teams (not a whole lot, it turns out). Only Longhorn 14u boys and 18u boys will be playing on Friday – that’s one thing we’re certain about.

For our two AquaTex teams – 18u girls, 16u boys – as always meet your team one hour before game time. 18u girls are working with Coach Kendall and 16u boys with me (Coach James). Use the GroupMe groups if you have any questions or issues. Don’t be late!

Welcome to Texas Shootout

It was so gratifying to observe from a distance how we performed at WTTS. In the end, our 16u boys finished third after a very interesting tie-breaker decision that decided the championship matchup (I guess next time we’ll run up the score when we can… or not). The 18u boys finished fifth with a very close game against that good team from Southside. 14u mixed earned a very good fourth place finish and the 12u mixed team got fifth. Congratulations to all our athletes who participated, and to our coaches: Matthew, Kendall, Cole and Tomas. And if you have any more photos from the weekend just let me know and I’ll share a Google Photos link with you where you can upload them.

Upcoming Competition Schedule

Coach Tom and I have discussed our July tournament plans and have decided to skip the Endless Summer Classic and instead focus on the Suns Out Guns Out tournament in Pearland AND North Texas on July 9-10. That’ll serve as our final official competition prior to Junior Olympics.

Training Schedule

A reminder that AquaTex middle school and high school practices will be on Tuesday and Friday only this week. There is no practice for those age groups on Saturday or Sunday, June 11-12. Masters is ON this Sunday from 9:30 to 11:00 AM. Thanks for the big turnout on June 5! And we had a huge turnout for Swim2Score last Thursday. It is ON again this Thursday at 10:00 AM. Check the calendar for the latest on our training schedule.

Coaches News

Summer travel issues have an effect on coaches too, you know. Notice that Coach Alon is traveling in Italy and, surely, elsewhere in Europe until July. And Coach James will be in France for 10 days beginning on June 13. Middle school and high school athletes will be delighted to know that they’ll be in the good hands of Coaches Kendall, Matthew, and Babs throughout that period. Just remember to bring a water bottle!

That’s all for now. See you on the deck.

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Welcome to Texas Shootout, Summer Schedule

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A quick update as many of us head down to San Antonio this weekend. Good luck to everyone representing AquaTex at this weekend’s Welcome to Texas Shootout!

Schedule Update

Our summer schedule is now firmer though not set in stone. We are attempting to maximize the amount of time we get in the deep pool as the number of available hours decreases due to the impacted summer schedule. As always we attempt to keep all training updates current on our calendar.

Working Summer Training Schedule (subject to update)

May 30 – July 8

High school and middle school

  • Tuesdays 6-8 PM (subject to swim meet schedule. Select Tuesdays we plan to host game days, dates TBD)
  • Fridays 7:15 PM – 9 PM or earlier start if available. We may add Monday practices at the same time. Stay tuned.
  • Saturdays 9-11 AM (subject to swim meet schedule)
  • Sundays 8-10 AM

Swim2Score

  • Thursdays at 10:00 AM, piggybacking on AquaTex Swim Team’s Novice practices. We are considering an additional session on Sundays from 10-11 AM. Again, stay tuned.

Masters Waterpolo

  • Sundays, 10-11 AM, 9:30 AM warmup pool

National Junior Olympics

If you are playing for an AquaTex or Longhorn team at Junior Olympics this summer there are steps that you need to take as soon as possible if they haven’t been already. Club affiliation and Gold membership are the priority:

Have a great weekend, everyone.

See you on the deck,

James

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Parent Meeting, JOs, WTTS, Summer Schedule

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The high school season is over which means it is essentially summer. We have ambitious plans for the next few months and, as always, have to adjust our training schedule to fit the city’s summer needs. There is a lot here so, AquaTex families, please read it all.

Schedule Update

In order to maximize the amount of time we get in the deep pool we are doing our annual schedule changes. As always we attempt to keep all training updates current on our calendar.

May Training Schedule

Ends May 29

  • Mondays 7-9 PM, middle school & high school
  • Fridays 7-9 PM, middle school & high school
  • Saturdays 10 AM-noon, middle school & high school
  • Sundays 10 AM-noon, middle school & high school
  • Sundays 10:30-11:30 AM, Swim2Score
  • Sundays 11:30-1 PM, masters

Note that on Sunday the 29th, if we don’t cancel practice because we’ll be competing at WTTS, we will begin at 9:00 AM instead of 10:00 AM.

Tentative Summer Training Schedule

May 30 – July 8

High school and middle school

  • Mondays and Fridays 7:15 – 9 PM or earlier start if available.
  • Sundays 9-11 AM
  • Tuesdays 6-8 PM (subject to swim meet schedule)
  • Saturdays 9-11 AM (select Saturdays, when available)

Swim2Score

  • TBD but likely Fridays at 10:00 AM or Sundays at 9:00 AM

Masters Waterpolo

  • TBD but likely Tuesdays at 8 PM or Sundays at 8 AM

Summer Parent Meeting

Parents are asked to join us in a mandatory Zoom meeting with coaches on Tuesday, May 17 at 7:00 PM. We will cover details from both coaches and parents about our plans for Junior Olympics this summer, but also other stuff:

  • What are Junior Olympics and why should athletes participate?
  • What are the deadlines for committing, etc.?
  • Which of our teams are trying to qualify for Sessions 1 and 2 in NorCal, and which will register for Session 3 in North Texas?
  • Does my athlete’s team need to qualify for JOs
  • Which club, Longhorn or AquaTex, is fielding each team and who’s coaching?
  • How does travel work for AquaTex families going to JOs (or any other tournament)?
  • Which other tournaments, including Welcome to Texas Shootout, are we planning on registering for this summer?
  • What do we know about collegiate coaches scouting at JOs?
  • How are we preparing for the first UIL fall high school season?

We’ll share Zoom invites via GroupMe and email so if you’re new to the program please be sure to join the GroupMe and that we have a current, working email address. Contact me for a link to GroupMe and/or any email address updates, or if you have any topics you’d like us to cover.

Junior Olympics Qualifier & Festival

It’s confirmed that those teams that plan to register directly for JOs Session 3 in North Texas are invited to the Southwest Zone Festival, which takes place simultaneously with the Junior Olympic Qualifier Tournament June 10-12 at CyFair and other local pools. This tournament will help the Zone seed teams for JOs Session 3 so it is NOT considered optional. We will send our best rosters and try to get the highest seeds possible.

Roster Calls

Welcome to Texas Shootout

The deadline for us to register is Friday, May 20. Spaces are filling up so please go to the Tournament Commitment Google Sheet to make any updates. You can find tournament info, including current rosters, on the tournament event page.

National Junior Olympics

Again, filling up quickly. In particular we’re looking to add to the AquaTex 16u boys and 18u girls teams, and the Longhorn 10u team, headed to Session 3 in North Texas (breaking news). More info on the JOs Qualifiers page. The form for committing to play at JOs is different than our Tournament Commitment Sheet so please let me know if you need the link.

Other Stuff

Welcome Coach Tom

Not only did Cammi earn MVP honors from West Region Coaches for her high school season, we also now have in our presence the West Region’s Coach of the Year from Round Rock High School! I’m delighted that Tom Arredondo will be helping us coach this summer and hopefully beyond. He’s been the very successful swim coach at Round Rock HS for well over a decade and has coached the water polo teams on and off since it was created in (around) 2011. Welcome aboard, Coach Tom.

Speaking of Swimming…

I have been speaking with some of our athletes, especially our middle school-aged ones, about joining a swim team. I’d like to make that case more strongly to our parents whose athletes are not already part of a swim program.

Obviously our game depends on mobility, which means efficient swimming. As you can tell from our training schedule we have limited time to strictly develop swimming skills. And our coaching staff has been assembled not for teaching swim technique (though we all have some skills in that regard) but in technical and tactical water polo skills. That is our focus.

To put it directly, we need to improve our swimming skills and speed, especially among our younger athletes. So if your athlete is not already signed up for a team we suggest as strongly as possible that you do so. Of course, we want all our athletes to swim for AquaTex. But a summer league team can be a huge help, and we have athletes who swim for other programs as well. The point is simply that, we need to get faster and have more stamina. And it takes specific swim training to do so.

To be clear: swim lessons and recreational swimming on your own are not substitutes for training with a team with qualified coaches. If you are interested in playing water polo in college, for example, it’s a rare thing for someone to do so without some swimming background. Take a listen to my conversation with three-time Olympian and NCAA Champion coach at UCLA, Adam Wright, who makes specific reference to swimming skills as a requirement for water polo success (that discussion starts around the 24:00 mark, but do listen to it all!).

Contact me if you have questions but I hope you’ll take my point seriously and help our team get better more quickly. And, as always, thanks for your support.

Austin High School Rumors

It’s been mentioned by a few people that AISD schools are poised to drop water polo prior to the first UIL season this fall due to a lack of training facilities. That would eliminate programs for many of our friends at schools such as Austin, Anderson, McCallum, and LASA. My understanding is that at least a couple of those schools have already come to an agreement to use Austin city pools during the UIL season. We’ll share the news when those plans are final but I think the concern for those programs is premature… thankfully.

RRISD Natatorium

Travis Benson, one of our masters players and father to two of our awesome Swim2Score athletes, plays a key role in the construction of the new Round Rock ISD Natatorium. So here are a couple photos of what it looked like on April 28. Rumors are that it may open pretty soon.

See you on the deck,

James

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Cammi Schaufelberger, April Player of the Month

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Cammi Schaufelberger is AquaTex coaches’ choice for April Player of the Month.

She (regrettably) approaches the end of her AquaTex career after earning Most Valuable Player honors from TISCA HS Water Polo West Region coaches on April 23. She and her Round Rock HS teammates went on to win the program’s first ever match at Texas’ high school water polo championships on Saturday, a 10-8 win over Clear Creek after a two goal loss to Marcus in the opening round. She finished the tournament with five goals.

Cammi joined us in September of 2019 and, based on her own hard work, has become one of the most accomplished athletes we’ve had the pleasure to coach.

We will miss her as she heads off to the Coast Guard Academy in just a few weeks.

Well done, Cammi! She is our April 2022 Player of the Month. Congratulations!

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AquaTex Poloists Excel, Earn High School Regional Honors

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Cammi Schaufelberger was selected by TISCA High School Water Polo West Region coaches as 2022 regional co-Most Valuable Player on Thursday highlighting a hugely successful championship tournament for AquaTex athletes in which seven received all-region honors.

Schaufelberger’s Round Rock High School teammates Kendall Strauss and Morgan Spooner received first- and second-team honors while Vandegrift freshman Aaron Gordon was named to the second team on the boys side.

Round Rock HS 10th and 11th graders Luca de Araujo and Riley Dixon are joined by Nell Yao of Westwood on the honorable mention list. You can find the entire list of regional honorees here.

Round Rock HS Girls, 2022 West Region Champions

The Round Rock girls will face the North Region’s fourth place team, Marcus, in their state championship opener at 11:50 AM on Friday the 6th at the University of Houston. The Westwood girls take on Flower Mound at 12:40 PM.

Congratulations to our honorees and to all our athletes, past and present, who stood out at West Region Championships, and good luck to all of them taking part in the State Championship on May 6-7.

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A Weekend to Remember

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An amazing weekend for the club. It’s hard to know which news is most prominent but I’ll do my best. Here we go.

South Texas Spring Champs

Our middle school athletes showed some serious resilience playing back-to-back games with very few subs. The Longhorn 8th grade team, featuring Tomas and Ryan, won it all with a 12-6 win over Zilla. Afterwards, our Longhorn White (AquaHorns) 6th grade team finished third after playing its first game with no substitutes, then defeated a (big!) team from Alamo Area for the bronze. Our friends from Longhorn Orange won the 6th grade u championship over AAAA. Congratulations to our medalists Tomas, Ryan, Izzy, Wes, and Aaron for a great Sunday of water polo.

High School West Region Finals

Our athletes shone at the TISCA High School Water Polo West Region Championships on Friday and Saturday. AquaTex girls featured prominently on the Round Rock HS team that upset Cedar Ridge to win the tournament championship in overtime (!). They will be the region’s top seed at state championships in two weeks time.

Meanwhile our numerous boys playing for Round Rock HS beat Cedar Park in their opener but fell to eventual regional champs Austin HS in a tough quarterfinal match. They finished seventh along with Vandegrift, led by our super freshman, Aaron, whose Vipers won big over Waco Midway in the opener and then hung tough with top-seeded McCallum in the quarters losing 16-11.

His was not the only standout individual performance by an AquaTexan, and we are still waiting for all-Region announcements, which we’ll share as soon as we get them. But it was clear (and noticed by high school coaches with whom I spoke) that our athletes stood out as many of the most accomplished in the entire tournament.

A small personal note: I felt it was a good idea to help referee high school matches this season, which forced me to remain as impartial as reasonable over the course of the season. And so I thought it would be a very poor idea to display any emotion about how well our players did and how excited I am about our Round Rock girls’ championship in particular. But I could not be more proud of every one of our athletes and how they performed this past weekend. I just couldn’t show it! Congratulations to EVERY AquaTexan who took part in the tournament. #ProudCoach

Strauss Commits to Macalester

Coach Scott Reed and the Varsity Women of Macalester College

We’re immensely proud of Kendall Strauss who has committed to Macalester College to play varsity water polo for the Scots beginning this fall. She will be the fifth AquaTex athlete to play collegiate water polo following Joel Gibson, Braden Sullivan, Kendall Katusak, and Shannon Berry (more on them below).

Kendall joined us in 2019 and has consistently been one of our hardest workers and, coaches agree, has improved over that short period of time as much as any of our athletes. She was a First Team All West Region selection in 2021 for Round Rock High School and was selected to the USA Water Polo Southwest Zone ODP Youth team in 2022. And she has been a Swim2Score coach at AquaTex since last fall.

Congratulations to her and her family. #GoScots!

‘Roos Headed to DIII National Championships

Austin College won their second consecutive CWPA Division III Championship last weekend and are headed to California to compete in a four-team national championship tournament on May 7-8. The ‘Roos beat Augustana College convincingly in the final match and now have two weeks to prepare for Whittier College in their tournament opener. Congratulations to Coaches Kendall and Shannon, and the entire team!

Roster Calls

TAGS

The rosters are set for TAGS in Angleton this coming weekend but we (Longhorn) still have until Wednesday to make any additions. Let me know directly if you want to add your athlete to a TAGS roster if you haven’t already. You can view them and more info on the tournament on the TAGS event page.

That’s all for now. See you on the deck.

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South Texas Champs, High School Regionals, Weekend Schedule

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Another big weekend so here are some updates for our families for this week and beyond.

South Texas Spring Champs

The schedule and rosters are all ready to go for the South Texas Spring Championships in San Antonio on Sunday, April 24. Participating families can find all that information on the event page. Our 4th grade athletes will play an exhibition game in which players will be distributed between two teams regardless of the club they came from. We are fortunate to have two 6th grade u teams, one of which will be coached by me and features our AquaTexans plus some of our friends from Longhorn. (Note that that team is listed as “Longhorn White” on the schedule.) And our 8th grade u athletes will be playing for Longhorn under Coach Tom. Be sure to see where your athlete is listed. The rosters are correct! Be prepared to get in the pool 30 minutes before game time and wear your AquaTex gear. See you there.

Weekend Training

Our training schedule for this coming weekend remains as usual. Saturday at 10:00 AM will be (almost exclusively) middle school given that our high school athletes will be in San Antonio for West Region Champs. Coaches Alon and Babs will be there.

On Sunday we’ll start ALL youth training at 10:30 AM: middle school and Swim2Score. High school athletes can jump in at 10:30 but are more strongly encouraged to participate in masters scrimmaging beginning at 11:30 AM. Coaches Alon, Babs, and Dom will be there.

Roster Calls

TAGS

We’ve seen lots of interest in participating in TAGS on April 30-May 1 but still need commitments (or not) from our middle school families. Again, contact me if you need the link to our commitment worksheet.

JOs

More on that below but a reminder that we have a separate form for anyone interested in playing at Junior Olympics this summer. Will share in our GroupMe but you can contact me as well.

High School Regionals & Champs

The lightning-quick high school season is at an end with West Region Championships taking place at (where else?) Alamo Heights ISD Natatorium on Friday and Saturday. Coach Matt and I are refereeing again all weekend and will be (quietly) supporting all our athletes.

Good luck to all our athletes. Have faith in your teammates and your training, and take this #BeYourBest advice as well:

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” John Wooden

CWPA DIII Championships

This weekend Austin College is the number one seed at the Collegiate Water Polo Association Division III Championships in Pennsylvania. A top-two finish will put Coaches Shannon and Kendall along with their ‘Roos teammates in the school’s first ever USAWP Division III Championship in California. Amidst all the other events taking place this weekend take a moment to root for our coaches and the only NCAA program in the state of Texas.

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Easter, Alamo Game Day, More on JOs

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Lots to share so we’ll keep it short.

Easter Weekend

On Saturday, April 16 we will have our typical Sunday schedule, which is:

  • 10:00 AM, Middle School and High School together
  • 10:30 AM, Swim2Score, this Saturday featuring both Coach Dom and Coach Babs! Come check out our Swim2Score program for ages 5-11 if you haven’t already.
  • 11:30 AM, Masters waterpolo

All training on Easter Sunday, April 17 is cancelled.

Swim2Score for AQTX Swim Team

A reminder that all Novice-level swimmers with AquaTex Swim Team can attend Swim2Score at no additional cost. Get 30 minutes of swim technique training followed by 30 minutes of fun water polo-ish games. Contact us for more info.

Roster Calls

Alamo April Game Day

Our friends at Quad A are planning to host a game day for all middle school-age athletes and younger on Sunday, April 24 at the Alamo Heights ISD Natatorium. More details here. The event has been added to our commitment sheet so please indicate on it whether your young athlete plans to attend. If you need the link to our commitment sheet let me know.

TAGS

We’ve seen lots of interest in participating in TAGS on April 30-May 1 but still need commitments (or not) from our middle school families. Again, contact me if you need the link to our commitment worksheet.

JOs

More on that below but a reminder that we have a separate form for anyone interested in playing at Junior Olympics this summer. Will share in our GroupMe but you can contact me as well.

Junior Olympics Update

We’ve received feedback from families regarding the costs associated with traveling to California for Junior Olympics this summer. It is proving to be more expensive than expected. That, plus some pretty surprising news from Viper Pigeons in Houston which has decided to field teams only at Session 3 of Junior Olympics in North Texas rather than send teams to California. VP typically sends many teams to JOs in California each summer.

We’ve heard your concerns and will be contacting all our families about their preferences. But it appears that we are more likely to send several teams directly to Session 3 in Dallas (no qualifying is necessary) rather than attempting to qualify all our teams for Sessions 1 and 2 in California. Coach Tom and I are still working on which teams and their families want to travel to California, and those that wish to stay exclusively in Texas for JOs.

Although our understanding is that no athlete may play both in California and in North Texas (a 16u athlete also playing up with an 18u team, for example) there appears to be no such limitation for coaches, so it is possible we will still enter all our teams under the Longhorn name so we have maximum flexibility with our coaches. But if it works best for both clubs and our coaches then we will plan to enter teams for Session 3 in Dallas under the AquaTex name (for the first time ever!).

Please reach out to me for a link to our JOs interest form. Even if you have already submitted you can update your choices so we have the most accurate reflection of what you’re thinking about this summer.

April Training Schedule

We’re back at Micki and continue our special high-school season schedule until May 4 after which we’ll have some revisions.

  • Middle and High School training, Mondays and Wednesdays from 7-9 PM; Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 AM to noon.
  • Masters on Sundays at 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (subject to change, as usual)
  • Swim2Score on Sundays from 10:30 to 11:30 AM
  • And up until Wednesday, May 4, special morning high school sessions, Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 AM. They will end after TISCA State Water Polo Championships.

High School Polo

Kudos to all our high school athletes, many of whom competed this past weekend at Alamo Heights. We’ll look forward to seeing all our players making their mark at West Region Championships in a couple weekends.

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