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.
Training Update
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
- 9:00-10:00ish AM, Age Group (12u/14u) Coed scrimmage
- 10:00-11:00ish AM High School scrimmage
- 11:00-noonish, Masters
Roster Call(s)
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.
Gear: New Year Sale!
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.
Finances
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.
- Alamo Classic (18u/16u), Nov 5-6, $65
- TAGS, Nov 19-20, $75
- Jingle Bells Festival, Dec 17-18, $61
Parent Meeting for JOs
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.
International AquaTex
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.
