The summer rolls on, our numbers are big, training has been as productive as ever… time for an update.
Midsummer Madness
Replacing the cancelled Suns Out Guns Out is Triumph Aquatics’ Midsummer Madness on July 10-11, and the AquaHorns are going. It’s our last USAWP sanctioned tournament prior to JOs and we want to put the skills we’ve been sharpening on display against our Texas rivals.
Use the “Summer Commitment” google sheet to update your intention to play. If you need a link to that sheet just contact me. Check out the event page for locations and the teams we want to send.
Summer 2021 Tee Shirts
Those of you who signed up for our burnt orange 2021 summer tee shirts will hopefully get them by Friday, July 2 (such a good reason not to miss practice!). We had to revise the design just slightly especially to include our new Italian sponsor Maim Method, which has provided Alon with water-filled weights with which he plans to terrorize… no, TRAIN our athletes. Here are the front and rear designs for the shirt.
Junior Olympics
The schedules for JOs won’t be available for some time according to my sources (it’s Joe) at USA Water Polo. Scheduling for the two California sessions is only recently or not yet complete. Only after those are done will the North Texas session be put on a spreadsheet. We’ll share that with everyone the second we get it.
As for locations please be ready to compete at locations that are as far as one hour apart. USAWP will attempt to be reasonable about where a team’s games will take place. But given the logistics of the overall event we need to be prepared to cross from one side of the metroplex to the other.
There have been some useful conversations on our individual GroupMe chats and many have booked places to stay already. But we currently have no news about where our games will be.
Other Stuff
Free Women’s Suit
We have a women’s size 30 AquaTex water polo suit from RYTE, our vendor (they mistakenly sent one to Coach Matt, who for some reason doesn’t want it). Matthew has graciously donated it. So, contact me if that’s the proper size and you’re interested in having it. If multiple athletes are interested I’ll use technology to randomly select one of them. #bestsuitsintexas
Outstanding Tournament Fees
There are a couple payments still pending from athletes who participated in the SWZ JOs qualifier on June 11-13 in Houston. The fee is $100 payable to Coach James via Venmo. If you prefer that we bill you via your Team Unify account with AquaTex we can make that happen. And a gentle reminder that your athlete won’t be allowed to register for another USAWP event until the balance has been cleared. Thanks!
Milestones
Welcome to Kai, Laird, Pua and Izzy, our newest members! Laird has been swimming for AquaTex for some time while Kai joins us from Rouse HS where he wishes there were a water polo team (so do we). Pua and Izzy moved to Texas from Hawai’i a few years ago and are our youngest new members. Welcome to all of them. And Happy Birthday to Nilmary who turned 16 on June 16!
Training Schedule
Both Masters and Youth/HS practices are ON for the morning of Sunday, July 4. Training is on the entire following week with the possible exception of Sunday the 11th depending on coaches’ availability and our numbers at the tournament in Houston.
AquaTex on TV
Check out this blast from the past, featuring a 16-year-old Coach Kendall, in which two news personalities from KCEN-TV visited Micki to share with their viewers the skills required to play water polo just prior to the Rio Olympic Games. Tokyo is just around the corner so who knows, maybe another TV station wants to produce a piece on how to watch the oldest team sport in the Games…
See you on the deck,
James
