ODP Success, Festival Begins on Saturday, Covid-19 Waivers

We’re entering the busiest time of 2020. Some important updates.

Olympic Development Program

AquaTex successfully hosted the very well attended USA Water Polo Olympic Development Program Southwest Zone clinic on Saturday and Sunday. There were more girls on Saturday than have ever attended a Central Texas ODP camp or clinic, and we capped the number of boys to 50 but could’ve easily surpassed 60 on Sunday. It was a great opportunity for our athletes who attended. We covered a LOT of territory in just 4+ hours.

This was only the second ODP camp/clinic held in the entire country this season. Now if only we had a 50-meter pool… Kidding (#gratitude).

Thanks for all our great volunteer parents from AquaTex, Longhorn, and all over Texas. You helped make it as crisp a clinic or camp I’ve ever led as ODP coach.

Central Texas Festival

The Central Texas Festival, the first USA Water Polo-sanctioned tournament in the US since the pandemic started, begins on Saturday, October 3 at Milburn Pool in Cedar Park. We will be hosting games at Micki on Sunday the 4th, Saturday the 10th, Sunday the 11th. More below, but first the competition part.

AquaTex Rosters

Here are the rosters as currently submitted to USA Water Polo. We have until Wednesday to make changes, which are very likely, so be sure to contact me if there are conflicts.

Athletes will pay $60 per team they play on. Each team gets four games.

The schedule may be published as soon as Monday. Saturday the 3rd features 14u and 12u teams. Each AquaTex team will get two games on Saturday ending at 1:30 PM or earlier. On Sunday the 12u athletes stay at Milburn while 14u plays at Micki.

The schedule is more fluid on the 10th and 11th but we are asking USAWP to put as many of our games at Micki as possible.

I’m so excited to get us back competing!

Volunteers

It’s a quite busy two weekends for us as local tournament hosts. USA Water Polo will handle a lot of the things we usually do. But we still need help with several things at Micki (Zilla is providing volunteers for all games at Milburn):

• Three desk workers doing game sheets, clocks, and flags at all games at Micki
• Two Covid-19 monitors making sure our limited spectators follow the tournament’s physical distancing guidelines
• Help setting up the course on Saturday the 3rd and Friday the 9th
• Help breaking down the course and cleaning up on each Sunday evening
• Sell concessions if we choose

There will be no entry fee but we will ask for donations, mainly digitally. USA Water Polo handles hospitality. AquaTex will have water and beverages for referees, coaches, volunteers.

We’re asking all our Longhorn friend families to pitch in too. You can contact me directly or Coach Tom for more information.

Covid, Covid, Covid

Take a moment to be sure your family has signed USA Water Polo’s mandatory Covid-19 waiver. You should see a popup on your browser when you log in to usawaterpolo.org under your athlete’s profile. Athletes will not be allowed to practice or play until the waiver is signed so log in today. And take a moment to update your athlete’s photo too.

Here are instructions as were shared by USAWP in May (click to expand).

Jolyn

I’m going to send the Jolyn fitting kit back to the manufacturer this week. If you want to try on a suit before I do let me know at practice.

See you on the deck,

James