Schedule/Results

2023TCC14uSilverMedalists

New Seasons, TCC Recap, Middle School Games

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Welcome back to school, everyone. I’m sure there are quite mixed feelings about that! But with that, we turn the page with some news regarding our programming, upcoming competition, and more.

New Seasonal Training Plan

Some years ago we ceased using seasons as a way of organizing training and competition. The main reason was for billing and to manage expectations: some would be under the impression that our sport was seasonal (Spring only, for example) instead of year-around. And billing for AquaTex is monthly whereas with other clubs it is often seasonal.

But we’re changing things up beginning today. Billing remains EXACTLY the same as it is now: monthly fees. But, training will now roughly follow this seasonal pattern:

  • Winter: 1 December to 10 March
  • Spring: 21 March to 25 May
  • Summer: 29 May to 30 July
  • Fall: 8 August to 18 November

Each of those seasons is punctuated by a tournament. Our work for that season will be aimed so that we peak for that final competition. Junior Olympics at the end of July of each year will feature most prominently. At the beginning of each season we start with conditioning and fundamentals and end the season with more tactical skills: from basic to more sophisticated.

We will also strongly encourage new athletes to join us at the beginning of each season so they can learn the fundamentals (other teams require it).

So, welcome to the new Spring season of 2023. Athletes should bring workout clothing every practice for the first three weeks of the season (shoes not slides!) and have goggles ready for any swim sets. Our aim is to peak for the The Welcome to Texas Tournament in San Antonio on May 27-28. All other competition before that is important but more focused on individual and team development.

TCC Recap

Hardware! We had a very successful Texas Challenge Cup just prior to Spring Break. Check out photos from our experience here (add any you might have.)

Both the boys 18u and 14u teams placed second in the Silver bracket of their tournaments, two rosters full of brand new players. Meanwhile, Our 10u players placed third overall with the Longhorns, Ilay and his Longhorn 12u teammates earned second place, and our 18u girls were (in this coach’s opinion) the standouts on Longhorn’s 18u girls roster, which went 2-2. We finished the winter season with a nice collection of hardware, some great experience for our newest athletes in particular, and momentum toward a successful spring. Well done to everyone who participated, and huge thanks to our families for supporting us from the stands and, especially, for working the desks.

Spring Middle School Games

Longhorn Coach Tom has invited our middle schoolers to compete against the team he coaches at St. Stephen’s in Austin. We’ll be consulting with Age Group parents in the coming days but want to play at at least two of the following four available dates at St. Stephens’ pool beginning at 4pm until 5:30: March 29, April 6, April 26, May 3. Plus, Longhorn wants to have a middle school game day at UT on April 13 from 7-9pm. You can plan on us going to that one for sure. This is an exciting time for Central Texas as it’s the first time we’ve ever had specific competition for middle schools.

Roster Calls

Houston Spring Jam

We still have some time but check out the current sign-ups for the Houston Spring Jam, April 1-2. Our 1ou mixed, 12u mixed, and 18u girls athletes will likely be playing for Longhorn unless (of course!) we get enough of our own to sign up.

SW Zone Spring Champs

Played as two separate tournaments – one for 16s and 18s in Lewisville, the other for all other ages at the CyFair Natatorium in Houston – this should be one of the biggest tournaments of the spring if not the whole year.

Program Changes Coming in August

A brief note on some changes that will take place beginning in August. We’ve gotten feedback from athletes and parents about the structure of our program and are going to make some adjustments that all families will be required to acknowledge and agree to prior to re-registering in August, as all families must. The details are in the works but some of the tentative changes include an agreement to be signed by each family acknowledging the club’s expectations regarding training, competing, playing time, uniforms, discipline, communications, and more. Plus, more clarity from the club on our philosophy, which directly affects expectations for our athletes and families. It’s a work in progress so if you have feedback let Coach James know.

JOs Meeting

We’ve scheduled an online meeting regarding Junior Olympics for Friday, March 24 beginning at 7:00 PM. There will be two Zoom links for calls beginning at 7:00 PM and 7:40 PM. My account is limited to 40 minutes so I just set up two meetings, both of which will be recorded so we can share them with you. Keep an eye out for an email and/or GroupMe message with the links.

See you on the deck.

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TX Challenge Cup Preview, LISD Story, and More

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Catching up after quite a few weeks. We have a big tourney this weekend so let’s cover that and more.

Texas Challenge Cup

First, we’ll cancel all training this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, since such a huge crowd of us will be competing in North Texas.

As always we’ll try to share all the details regarding the tourney on the Event Page. When in doubt, bookmark that page and check it out. On it includes the schedule, rosters, notes on travel, entry fees, and much more.

Notes on Rosters

  • AQTX 10u will be coached by Longhorn Coach Magaly and maybe our new coach Savvy. Make sure you are meeting with Coach Magaly 30 minutes before your games. (Coach James will be there too if not coaching the 14s.)
  • Longhorn 12u: Ilay can choose to play with the Longhorn 12u team if he wishes.
  • AQTX 14u mixed will be with Coach James. Meet him one hour before your first game each day.
  • AQTX 18u mixed will be with Coach Alon. Same thing: meet him one hour before your first game. Corina and Noelle, your priority is with your 18u girls team; Cash and Rocco, you will focus on the 14u boys team. If and only if you want more playing time then you can play on the 18u boys team; you are not expected to.
  • Longhorn 18u girls will be with Coach Sydney (I believe). Meet 45 minutes before game time, Corina and Noelle. As Thunder has pointed out, please notice that some 18u girls games are at Northwest ISD in Justin each day. Check the schedule!

Requests of our Families

Desk Workers

According to Thunder, the hosts, the tournament has gotten so big they are going to require one worker assigned by each participating team to work the desk. Luckily we have plenty who helped at Spin Lob, whether an athlete who’s not playing in that game or a parent, so we should be covered. We may send out a signup sheet like with did for Spin Lob so please keep your eyes open for that.

Videographers

Starting with this tournament we’d also like every AquaTex game recorded on video so we can review them during Monday training sessions. So if you’d like to give it a try, or have experience doing it, please let Coach James know. For those who might help us with video recording, a couple notes:

Get your zoom in and out ready. What we want to see (and hear) as coaches is:

  • A view of the front court offense in its entirety as tightly viewed as possible while still containing all (or nearly all) of the players. The view should be of one-half of the pool. Close-ups on individual players or pairs are rarely helpful.
  • A view of the entire pool as a team counterattacks. Upon the turnover, zoom out to show the entire pool as both offense and defense convert to the counterattack. You may be tempted to focus on the goalkeeper as he/she holds the ball prior to passing it. Please don’t! It’s exponentially more important that we see what’s happening on the counterattack than what the goalie is doing with the ball.
  • A view of the front court defense in its entirety viewed as tightly as possible while still containing all the defenders.
  • Optional but very helpful: call out the goals and exclusions by cap number kind of as you would if working the scoresheets at the desk. It should be as simple as “Dark 9 goal,” “11 white exclusion,” “2 Dark penalty.”

AQTX, LISD Athletes on KXAN

Check out this KXAN story that features Cash Brown and many of his LISD compatriots who are, along with their parents, working hard to re-instate UIL water polo at Vista Ridge, Cedar Park, and Vandegrift in 2023. Since we have several athletes already or soon-t0-be competing for one of these three schools, we support completely every effort to reverse this silly decision.

You already know AquaTex’s position on the issue: cancelling water polo is as short-sighted a decision a district could make especially after a season in which three schools fielded teams for the first time. What an amazing letdown! I’ll be writing about it more on TXWaterpolo.com in the coming days. Until then, check out these cheerful faces and, if you’re a resident of the LISD, perhaps you could let the administration know you want your UIL Polo back!

Spring Break

We’re consulting as coaches about training during Spring Break, between 11 and 18 March. It is likely that if we have training it will include all groups simultaneously or something like that. Stay tuned.

Lake Creek

Mainly for our newer members, April is approaching which means that the Round Rock ISD will shut down Micky Krebsbach for 2-4 weeks so they can clean the pool, paint the locker room floors, and some other stuff that never seems to include replacing old poorly functioning electrical outlets, installing more storage space, or much at all that directly helps us as an aquatics program (one can be grateful and annoyed at the same time!). But, as usual, we’re not entirely certain when our eviction will take place let alone how long the repairs will take. Just get ready for the jaunt to the East Side: Lake Creek Pool! (And yes, of course we’re hoping the RRAC might be available).

JOs Meeting part Deux

We need to have another online meeting about JOs this summer. I’m going to pencil in on the calendar Friday, March 24 at 7:00 PM online. Let me know what you think. By the way, I created this cool flowchart to help anyone understand how we decide to go to California or Dallas. More links and details forthcoming.

Milestones

Welcome

It’s been a while since we updated the list of our newest members. Thanks to all of you for coming to us and welcome to AquaTex, Rein, Melia, Keegan, Remy, Noelle, Colton, Jake, Emeric, and Ethan, let alone the several who have given us a try but haven’t signed up yet. We hope they will.

Birthdays

And finally, some belated and some forthcoming birthday best wishes. Happy Birthday!

  • Remy, 2/21
  • Aaron B, 2/24
  • Ilay, 2/28
  • Elliott, 3/10
  • JP, 3/24
  • Molly, 3/28

See you on the deck.

2023SpinLobPreTourneyCalm

Spin Lob Success, Roster Call

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Spin Lob Thank You

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.

Roster Call

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.

2022AlamoClassic16u

Alamo Success, Girls Training, TAGS, and more

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Alamo Classic

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.

Parent Meeting

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.

Programming

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.

Player of the Month

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.

Communications and TeamUnify

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.

Roster Calls

  • TAGS for 8th, 6th, and 5th grade and under teams takes place in just a couple weekends. The location has changed to Garland ISD Natatorium instead of SMU. We’ll be working with Longhorn to create rosters for the tourney.
  • The Cowtown Stampede is the last club tourney of the calendar year. We expect to have a pretty large presence with 18u boys, 18u girls, 16u boys, 14u mixed, and hopefully 12u and/or 10 teams as well (could be with Longhorn). Danny Dixon is looking for hotel blocks so make sure you’re monitoring GroupMe for that info, and sign up via TeamUnify.

Team Suits

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.

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Alamo Tourney Deets, Fall Game Day, Welcome Coach Matt

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Fall Game Day

Thanks to everyone – athletes, coaches, parents, fans – for coming to our Fall Game Day on October 2 at Micki. It is something we will plan to repeat as the 2022-23 USA Water Polo season continues and our Junior Olympics plans come more in to focus. One of our masters players, Dan, took 500 photos of the game day, which you can find here. Thank you, Dan!

Alamo Fall Classic

I’ve updated details for this weekend’s Alamo Fall Classic in San Antonio including our 8th grade (14u) roster, info on when athletes are expected to meet, uniform requirements, etc. If you are attending the tournament this weekend then take a moment to read the update, and share with any teammates, friends, families who should know.

Player of the Month

In case you missed it, Chase Wadley is our September Player of the Month! Congratulations to him. Read more about it here.

UIL Season & AQTX

The first ever UIL season’s playoffs are here. Congratulations to all our athletes for taking part in this historic season. We wish every one of them luck in the coming weeks as the championship approaches. #BeYourBest

A couple thoughts about the high school season. First, many high school athletes have suspended their AquaTex membership until the UIL season is over. We want all of you to know that we have ZERO problem with that (from my own experience, high school athletes were not allowed to participate in club water polo during the high school season so it’s completely normal to me, Alon, Babs, etc.). To those who have continued to train with us during the UIL season we are very grateful and feel confident we’ve helped you at least somewhat improve while you play for your high school. It’s been a very exciting couple of months.

And, once the UIL season is over for your team then we expect to see you back training with us immediately. We have plans to send improved (and larger) teams to Junior Olympics next summer and that training begins in November. The Alamo Fall Classic for 18u and 16u athletes in San Antonio is in 30 days! So let’s get ready for our best season ever. We’ll see you back in the pool on a couple weeks.

Recruiting

I’m delighted to have spoken to several athletes and parents who are interested in the varsity collegiate recruiting process. High school-age athletes and their families who are even slightly interested in varsity collegiate water polo, it is CRUCIAL that you start planning for that now, even Freshmen. And I cannot urge you more strongly to watch this Zoom video featuring my podcast colleague Joe Linehan, who knows more about the collegiate process than anyone. Please watch it as soon as possible because there may be some misunderstanding about how the process works, scholarships, etc.

Welcome Coach Matt

We’re really excited to have Matt Braun join the AquaTex Waterpolo coaching staff. Matt is originally from Oregon and then played at NCAA Division I Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where he earned second team All-Western Water Polo Association honors in 2017. He went on to play professionally in the United Kingdom where he also coached youth athletes. He moved to Austin a few months ago and works in (shock!) the technology sector. Welcome, Coach Matt!

Olympic Development Program

I’m delighted to have been asked many times about the Olympic Development Program. And my answer to those who are asking, “should I try it?” is unequivocally: yes. There is only one more camp this season so if you haven’t signed up already please do so as soon as possible because there is a limit to the number of athletes allowed. One important note: Camp #2 for Youth athletes will not be at the RRAC. The site is still to be determined but it’s likely to be in San Antonio. For anyone who has more questions just let me know. I may have a separate post about ODP, why I like it, what it does for you, etc.

Parent Meeting

I’ve checked the calendar and am planning on NOT having a weather-related make-up practice on Thursday, October 13. So let’s plan for an online Parent Meeting that evening at 7:00 PM. As always, if there’s a subject you’d like covered just let me know.

See you on the deck.

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UPDATED: Alamo HS Tourney on Calendar, Masters & S2S Updates, ODP is Here

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Updated 20 September 2022

Practice Cancelled This Weekend

AquaTex Swim Team is hosting its biggest swim meet of the season this weekend so there will be no water polo training (age group, high school, masters, Swim2Score) on Saturday, September 24 or Sunday, September 25. We will have a makeup practice on Thursday, September 22 from 7-9 PM. That training session will be almost exclusively for our Age Group and Novice athletes since there is high school water polo taking place that evening.

The parent meeting for Thursday, September 22, is still on the calendar. We can shift the start time to 7:30 to accommodate those taking kids to practice but let me know how this works, or doesn’t, for you.

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It’s been a while and a whirlwind of activity so let’s get straight in to the update.

First, well done to all our athletes at all our different levels of experience for going 2-2 at the Armadillo Classic up in The Colony. It’s very gratifying that we’re in the position where we can now regularly expect to send teams from AquaTex to these tournaments. And thank you to all the parents, friends, and family who came to support our athletes.

Roster Calls

We have several signed up for the Alamo Fall Classic for our 14u, 12u, 10u athletes but want more! This tournament is in San Antonio so easier to manage than those in North Texas. Make sure to go to your TeamUnify account to commit to the tournament. This applies to our awesome Swim2Score athletes as well! We want a huge 10u team and this is the perfect opportunity for newcomers. Just a reminder that Swim2Score families who want to play in a tourney must be currently registered with AquaTex AND are required to have a Bronze membership with USA Water Polo.

Then, very good news: another San Antonio tournament is on the calendar for our 18u/16u athletes the first weekend of November. Several families have asked when the first chance of the fall would come for high school athletes to compete and now we have that opportunity. So sign up!

Parent Meeting

We had to postpone a parent meeting a couple weeks ago but we’ll re-convene via jit.si on Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM. Team members will be sent a link to join the meeting via GroupMe and TeamUnify email. jit.si works on any browser but requires the app to use on your device.

Masters Update

Several updates regarding our masters programming:

  • Beginning this Sunday the hours for masters water polo will change by 30 minutes. It will start at 10:30 AM and go until noon – 30 minutes of warmup in the South pool followed by one hour of all-deep scrimmaging.
  • Some clarification about high school and younger athletes
    • No middle school or younger athletes are allowed at masters scrimmages
    • High school athletes must be approved by AquaTex coaches to play at masters
    • Those select high school athletes who are NOT currently active, registered, paying members of AquaTex must pay the $10.00 drop in fee. AquaTex-registered high schoolers can play masters at no additional cost but must be approved by AQTX coaches.
  • All masters athletes who drop in owe AquaTex $10 per session. We strongly recommend you join AquaTex ($35/month is a bargain) rather than dealing with Venmo payments. But please be sure to pay so we can continue offering masters.

Swim2Score Update

We’ve never had more interest in our Swim2Score program than we do now, so thank you to everyone who has registered and given us a trial run, and to our awesome coaches, led by Babs.

Speaking of registration: a reminder: after your athlete’s two-session trial you must register with AquaTex in order to continue with the program.

Also, we are now requiring all our Swim2Score athletes to join USA Water Polo. There are several options:

  • If you think your athlete will only be participating at our training sessions at Micki and not competing at USA Water Polo tournaments then you can sign up for a “Splashball” membership
  • If you want your athlete to compete at USA Water Polo tournaments (the Alamo Classic, for example) then he or she must be a “Bronze” member of USA Water Polo.
    • (Swim2Score athletes who graduate to the “Novice Waterpolo” group will be required to have a Bronze membership as do all of our high school and age group athletes)

Team Suits

The Turbo Store should be closed for the season now. Given that we are a small club we will continue to work with Turbo as a courtesy to those who choose their product over RYTE. But Turbo is simply not set up to deliver as quickly to our families as RYTE.

A reminder that I’ll have a RYTE fitting kit for boys for the next couple weeks. Come try one on cuz team suits are required for all our (non Swim2Score) athletes. Then order one here.

ODP

USA Water Polos’ Olympic Development Program is around the corner. We encourage our athletes to give the program a try. We’ve been fortunate to have many AQTX athletes take part in the clinics and also selected to travel teams (Regional Championships and boys’ National Championships will both be in San Antonio!). More info here and feel free to ask if you have questions about the program.

See you on the deck,

Historic Junior Olympics Recap, Fall Programming

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2022 Junior Olympics Recap

It was an historic week for AquaTex. In past years we’ve happily partnered with Longhorn to send all our athletes to JOs. This year we sent two AquaTex teams and plan on doing more of it in the coming years.

Meanwhile, the Longhorn 10u coed team, featuring AquaTex’s Grey and Ryan Benson, won a full-on Gold Medal, beating Thunder in the final match. It’s been a spectacular summer for our 10u and 12u athletes.

16u Boys

Our 16u boys improved four places over the Longhorn team that competed in 2021, finishing ninth in the Gold bracket and with a 5-4 record. The boys were the only Gold bracket team to beat Colorado, the club that won the bracket championship.

Any mention of individual players risks leaving others out of the conversation, but particular credit to Declan, who was a defensive monster all tournament, and “Waco” Will, who provided us with the goalkeeping stability we needed. Luca and Max locked down that left-hander side producing the bulk of our non-counterattack goals. Riley showed center skills that surprised both our opponents and this coach (I’m still not sure how a couple of those goals happened). Gavin was a dynamo, improving his defense throughout the event. James, Adlee, and David gained truly important experience and showed improvement, especially defensively, as the games progressed. Jacob was our super-sub center who knocked the defense off balance and showed tremendous effort all week. Matthew showed huge potential and great instincts for a newcomer, while Finn (still in middle school!) was fearless, especially defensively, against a lot of larger, older dudes.

We played a good variety of teams from throughout the US. You can see our final results below, a roller coaster of wins and losses, with an extremely memorable end to the tournament: a penalty goal by Riley with zero seconds left in the game vs. Raider from Miami, Florida. It’s so great to end JOs with a memorable finale. And now we look forward to 2023…

Results

  • WCAC (Pennsylvania), 9-13
  • Cowtown, 19-5
  • Kraken (Atlanta), 7-9
  • Southside, 7-9
  • Colorado, 10-8
  • Great Lakes (Michigan), 11-5
  • Zilla, 11-14
  • Texas Mavericks, 21-11
  • Raider (Miami), 12-11

18u Girls

By Coaches Kendall and Alon

Right out the gate, our young team had the opportunity to experience both the Florida and Chicago style of play in their first two games against Orlando and Chicago WP. Though we fell to both teams, Morgan  led our team with multiple steals and a goal in each game.

During day two the ladies faced off against the Southside Honey Badgers from Houston TX, where they held the team to a one goal game until the second half where a few players had to sit out due to penalties. Nichole Wood put the team in a great position at the start of each quarter by winning three out of the four sprints. Corina Nunziata led the offense with 4 goals that game, and stepped up to the role of being the team’s primary center for the first two days of the tournament.

The second game the ladies took on another team from Florida called Raider. Kendall Strauss entered the playing field (with a broken finger on her shooting hand!) and put a couple of goals on the board for her team while Katya Ortiz shut down the middle of the pool on defense.Day three took the AquaTex girls all the way to the Northwest ISD Aquatics Center where they played the Texas team Maverick. Though the team didn’t see a win that game, we did see our goalie, Addison, make some key blocks and Akirti helped the team’s defense by putting her player under major pressure. The ladies found victory later that day against New Mexico’s Duke City, with goals from Morgan, Corina, Nichole and Kendall. Molly never gave up any goals on defense and Kailee showed major defensive improvements. Kelsie kept the defense on their toes with drives and post ups.

The last day the ladies ended with meeting Southside in the pool again and fell to the team’s strong offense and counter attack strategies.

All in all, our young players saw much improvement in the short course of 4 days. Coaches Kendall and Alon look forward to seeing the girls take what they learned from this tournament into the first UIL high school season, and wish Kendall Strauss the best of luck in her first year as a collegiate water polo player!

10u Longhorns

By Coach Tom

Return of the Champs!

Let’s kick off the email with a huge shout out to our 10 and under team who successfully defended their 2021 title and secured a gold medal finish in the Platinum division of Junior Olympics Session 3! The 10Us capped off their title run with an impressive 11-6 victory over Thunder in the championship game. Congrats to all our athletes, coaches, and parents that worked hard all year to bring the gold back to Austin!

Other Stuff

Fall Training

We’ve gotten a TON of new interest in water polo and the club (thanks and welcome to you all). One of the most common questions is, when’s practice? So here you go:

Until August 16

Middle School and High School

  • Tuesday, 6-8 PM
  • Friday, 7:15-9 PM
  • Saturday, 9-11 AM
  • Sunday, 8-10 AM

Swim2Score

  • Saturday, 10-11 AM

Masters

  • Sunday, 9:30-11 AM

August 16-Sept. 1

Age Group and High School (including 10u athletes approved by coaches)

  • Monday & Wednesday, 7-9 PM
  • Saturday & Sunday, 9-11 AM

Swim2Score

  • Saturday, 10-11 AM

Masters

  • Sunday, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM

Beginning September 1

With our new programming that includes age group training for 10u, 12u, and 14u athletes, plus plans for a Novice group for those who need a little extra attention before “graduating” to Age Group training, we’ll be working out the schedule a bit as we go. For now, the schedule will remain nearly identical to the August 16 – September 1 schedule above. But we may need to increase the number of practice days to accommodate our new young, and novice athletes. It’s a very good problem to have and we’ll address it based on the numbers that register with the club. We’re fortunate to have access to more time at Micki, and we’ll take it if necessary.

Competition

Our focus is entirely on Age Group water polo this fall. There is no club competition for high school-age athletes until November. So, we ask all our 14u, 12u, and 10u families to put these tournaments on the calendar. We will try to send teams to each one of those events (with Longhorn if necessary but preferably as AquaTex). Our key aim this fall is to prepare for and compete at TAGS on November 19-20. That’s the goal. Everything we do this fall is geared to being as good a team as we can be at TAGS (the unofficial “middle school” championship, BTW).

Obviously, after the high school season is complete we’ll ramp up competition for those athletes too. Can we win the Cowtown Stampede in December again?

We’re really excited to have so many newcomers in those younger age groups. So get ready to compete because that’s what we’re going to train you for as quickly as possible! #OneTeamOneDream

Registration

That’s right, it’s August, which means that if you were a club member on July 31 and haven’t gone back in to TeamUnify to re-register, then technically you’re not a member of the club! Please do it prior to your next practice. And if you’re a newcomer, please do the same. All water polo athletes must be registered with the club and with USA Water Polo in order to train with us.

Team Suits

The Turbo store is open again until September 18. After it closes on the 18th is when the products will be ordered and shipped. Identical suits from RYTE are available at any time and ship within weeks (I love Turbo but the RYTE suits are cheaper, more available, and high quality. I think you know my preference…). Now is the time to order a new suit if you don’t already have one. All registered AquaTex youth athletes (not masters or Swim2Score) are required to have an official team suit and now’s the time to do it. Grab a shirt while you’re at it cuz it’s also required. Oh, and Coach Alon, you should get one of these (I ordered one).

Coaches

You’ve already read about our programming plans. Well we need more coaches – always. If you are aware of anyone, a high school or college graduate who aspires to get in to coaching, please steer them my way. Water polo experience is preferred but not entirely necessary (we can teach you!). Again, it’s a good problem to have but we can use your help finding new coaching talent.

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SOGO, July Training Update, JOs Session 1

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A quick update with several things coming up fast.

Sun’s Out Guns Out

We are sending a 16u mixed team only to Pearland this weekend (didn’t get enough 18u girls, sadly) for the Suns Out Guns Out tournament. First game for that team is at 9:10 AM on Saturday. Be there one hour before game time. Read all about the tournament here, including game times and the location of the facility. Wear your AquaTex gear (not optional)! Look for Coach James or Coach Kendall, both of whom will be there leading the team. It’s going to be a fun tournament but, as always, #beyourbest.

Training Schedule

There are two big swim meets this weekend at Micki so there will be no water polo training at all (masters, youth, Swim2Score) on Saturday or Sunday, July 9-10.

Beginning on Saturday, July 16, Swim2Score will shift from Thursdays to Saturdays at 10:00 to 11:00. There will be no Swim2Score session on Thursday, July 14. Remember, any AquaTex Swim Team Novice athlete can join us on Saturday at no additional cost!

The calendar needs to be updated but until further notice, high school and middle school practices will remain at their currently scheduled times and days: Tuesday and Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday mornings. That will very likely change after August 1.

Masters remains on Sundays from 9:30 to 11:00 AM. Again, that may change as of August 1.

Junior Olympics Session 1

The (massive) schedule is out for Junior Olympics Session 1! It’s getting near for our Longhorn teams heading out to NorCal, games beginning on Saturday the 16th. Follow the action by visiting our event page with links to scheduling and more.

The New Shop

It’s been a great grand opening for our new AquaTex Waterpolo Shop with orders from all over the US, not just Texas! You can find all your team uniform gear there and a lot more. Check it out and share with friends and family.

See you on the deck, hopefully in my new AQTX collegiate t-shirt.

 

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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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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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