Training Schedule
The training calendar remains the same until August 16. The exception is the weekend of Aug 29-31 when a good chunk of us, coaches especially, will be in Dallas for JOs. Currently the calendar shows Swim2Score and Masters taking place that weekend but those will likely be cancelled due to a lack of coaches. Stay tuned.
The schedule after August 16 will likely revert to one similar to that of the fall of 2021. Plans are for four practices a week if not more, including Saturdays and Sundays whenever possible in order to take advantage of the deep water (Saturdays may be quite busy given the first ever UIL high school season).
The High School Season
We’re aware of other clubs in Texas that will shut down their training of high school age athletes until November, after UIL State Championships take place. Our current plans are to continue training high school age athletes and adjusting our expectations based on demand. We will have more on that Mid-August approaches.
Given the time demands of high school water polo, our focus this fall, and those going forward, will be on our middle school and younger athletes, which is truly exciting for us as a club. We are growing more quickly than any time in club history and our middle school athletes will have the chance to compete at USA Water Polo events throughout the fall (expect us to be very active that way!).
Club Registration
A reminder that EVERY member of the club is required to re-register via our TeamUnify site on August 1 of each year. It is an annual thing for all our families, swim and waterpolo. Registration is currently closed but please don’t delay once August 1 arrives.
Junior Olympics
What else?!
Session 2 begins today with three of our athletes competing for Longhorn beginning early Thursday morning against TPCM Sharks from the Marin area. Of course we wish the best of luck to all the Longhorns competing but with a special huge shout out to our AquaTexans: Izzy, Rudy, and William. We’re so excited for them and will be following their progress online. Have a great time in California everyone. (It’s been 10 years since I lived there but I still have advice about places to go to, eat, drink wine, etc. Could be a GroupMe thing).
And then, Session 3 will be here in a week. A couple notes for those families heading to North Texas:
- There is no “team” hotel as far as I can tell. I’ll personally be staying in a hotel in Coppell near Lewisville, which seems to be reasonably central to all 13 facilities. If you haven’t booked anything yet I know some of our coaches found plenty of AirBnB properties for not much money.
- On Wednesday the 27th, the day of the Expo, we’d like to have a team meal with all our athletes and coaches, including our awesome 10u Longhorn team. Expect a separate email and/or GroupMe asking who would be interested in doing that just so we have a headcount. But we’d love to see y’all there.
- I told our athletes at Tuesday practice to watch some of the highest competition from Junior Olympics to see how the best teams move in the water, pass the ball, etc. Game On Live Studio has streamed hours of action so far and will continue to do so at Sessions 2 and 3. Athletes, go watch 20 minutes worth of 14, 16, or 18u action. Pick one player and watch him/her that entire time. Notice how they execute the stuff that our coaches are teaching you. That’s a good technique.
- It’s too late to order any team suits prior to JOs competition. If you have one you are expected to wear it throughout the tournament. If you don’t (you should), and have multiple suits, wear the PLAINEST, darkest one you have (Longhorn suits are fine). We are trying to promote the club and our community over your high school or ODP team. Wear your team gear!
- Swim caps. For those who wear them, you are required to wear a white swim cap under white water polo cap, and dark swim cap under our dark water polo caps. Please be sure you have white and dark swim caps before you compete. Those are the rules and we don’t want you to be kept out of a game because you lack the correct color cap.
Collegiate Recruiting
Following on similar comments in an earlier post, there will be collegiate coaches at the JOs Expo on the 227th. I still don’t have a list of who’s coming but you can always check to see if a coach from a school in which you’re interested is going by contacting them directly.
In addition, if you are interested in playing varsity collegiate water polo then you should be starting to work on that as early as high school freshman age. One thing to do that is free and that the club is part of is FieldLevel, which matches athletes and coaches to water polo programs throughout the US. Sign up today.
See you on the deck… in Dallas.
