Hosting

2023 Spin Lob Classic (Masters) Tournament

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Desk Workers

Sign Up | How to Work the Tables

The first schedule is out for the Spin Lob Classic at the RRAC on Feb 11-12. For each of the RRAC games you see on that sheet we will need four desk workers: two doing scoresheets, two working the game clocks. Each of those spots you can find on this sign up sheet. Desk workers will be fed and beveraged, and can add lots of legit, coach-signed volunteer hours to their portfolios.

You’ll see there are games beginning at 8:00 AM on Saturday ending at 7:00 PM. Sunday will go from 7:30 AM until 3:00 PM. Coach James will be there nearly the entire time as local tournament manager with, perhaps, some assistance from other AquaTex coaches and/or parents.

We suggest working with someone you’ve worked with before and signing up to cover a desk together. We’ll give athletes until Wednesday, February 8 to sign up after which we’ll start assigning slots to our current athletes (middle school minimum age).

We will also be offering hospitality to coaches and referees. Those who have done so before at the RRAC are encouraged to sign up. Just let Coach James know.

For our Athletes & Families

The Spin Lob Classic, one of the most popular masters waterpolo tournaments in the US, has outgrown its traditional 3-pool location at UT. So there will be masters games at the RRAC (!) on Saturday and Sunday and we will be hosting them.

AquaTex athletes and parents (if willing) will be required to work the desks for two courses on Saturday and Sunday (games end usually 1pm on Sunday). We will also be offering hospitality for coaches, referees, etc. For our efforts we’ll receive a nice bit of money from USA Water Polo. Also, this work applies toward volunteer hours for those who need them.

We especially want those who have worked the desks at the RRAC during last fall’s UIL season, and/or parents who helped host tournaments at the RRAC and are familiar with hospitality in particular.

From the Hosts

Below is the list of team entries for the upcoming Spin Lob Classic on February 11-12, 2023 in Austin, TX. There are 40+ total teams scheduled to play in the three divisions: Women’s Open, Men’s Open, and Men’s 40+. This is the biggest Spin Lob Classic ever and we will be using both the UT Swim Center and the RRISD Aquatic Center (new indoor 50M pool in North Austin, opened in Sept 2022). Please review the team entries. If you would like a different team name to be used on the schedule, please let me know ASAP. We will be running three courses at the UT Swim Center and two courses at the RRISD Aquatic Center (five total courses). Awards will be given out for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each division. The team roster deadline has been extended to Thursday, February 9th. A schedule for the tournament will be emailed to everyone on Thursday, February 2nd. The tournament will be locally hosted by Longhorn Aquatics, AquaTex, and the Southwest Zone. Below is all the basic info for this year’s event.

Spin Lob Classic – 2023
Date: February 11-12, 2023
Locations:
Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center, 1900 Red River St, Austin, TX 78712, http://www.tsc.utexas.edu/
Round Rock ISD Aquatic Center, 2801 Gattis School Rd., Round Rock, TX 78664
Divisions/Team Entries: Women’s Open, Men’s Open, Men’s 40+
Women’s Open (13): Alamo Area, Golden Gals, HOPS, NYAC, Pegasus, Olympic Club, Santa Cruz, Thunder, University of Texas, Viper Pigeons Red, Viper Pigeons Black, Wahoos, Zilla
Men’s Open (24): Alamo Area, Clayton, HOPS Crows, HOPS Hawks, Longhorn, Nashville, NOVA, NTA-Club Chicago, NYAC, South Florida, Pegasus, Southside, SPA Vibes, Tampa Bay, Olympic Club, SAWPC, Storm, Thunder Masters, University of Texas, University of Texas Alumni, Viper Pigeons Black, Viper Pigeons Green, West Point, Zilla
Men’s 40+ (6): Austin Space Cowboys, Beef Boyz, Cap City, Darkside, HOPS 40’s, South Florida 40’s
Schedule: A schedule for the tournament will be emailed to everyone on Thursday, February 2nd.
Updated Team Roster Deadline: Thursday, February 9, 2023. Team Rosters will need to be submitted through the USAWP Online Roster Verification System. Teams will need to print out and turn in their own score sheets prior to each game of the tournament (also used for ID Checks as needed).
Saturday Night Social: Time/Location TBD.

JamesMattCoachingCenTexFestival2020

Youth Athletes Excel, Weekend 1 of Central Texas Festival

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Central Texas Festival

14u Co-ed Squad Remains one of the Toughest in Texas

Our 14u coed team finished the Central Texas Festival on Sunday at Micki with a convincing win over Lake Jackson to bring the weekend record to 3-1. Two other big wins over Cy-Fair and Viper Pigeon and a tough loss to Thunder rounded out AquaTex’s first competition in Texas since the spring. Together they demonstrated how their hard work pays off, and will continue to as we get ready for Thunder’s Texas Challenge Cup on November 14 and 15. Well done to Joey, Riley, Morgan, Aaron, Kelly, Austin, Luca, Jacob, Cruz and Landon.

AQTX 14u Co-ed, masked and IDs checked

Young 12u Squad Takes Down Triumph

The young and developing 12u coed team let by Coach Tom notched a win versus Triumph and fell to teams from Viper Pigeon, Lone Star/Mavericks, and Thunder over at Milburn Pool in Cedar Park. With most of those athletes back in the pool just in the past couple weeks it was great to see them competing again under somewhat normal conditions. Nice work by Cruz, Landon, Nick, Tristan, Jake, Daniel, Maddox, Pierce, Laird and Silas over the weekend.

You can find all the tournament results here.

Weekend 2 Coming Fast

18u Boys and Girls Lined up to Compete

Meanwhile we get ready to do it all over again, this time with 22 games at Micki on Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th. Our 18u boys and girls teams are rostered below and a schedule for the event should be out early this week.

18U Boys18U Girls
Greysen GadersonGwen Sloat
Axel HaydtCate Sloat
Evan SayerValeria Ortiz
Tomas ChuKateryna Ortiz
Cole KershnerCammie Shaulfelberger
Caleb MoodyMorgan Spooner
Owen MurphyNilmary Padilla
John ‘Jack’ WatersElla Thomas
Matthew ‘Will’ WheelerEllen Larson
Nicholas AdrianBarbara Kulchisky
Chase Kershner
Michael Morrison II
Alexander Thulin
Luca de Araujo
Riley Dixon
Cameron Spooner
Alexander Thulin

Volunteers

Our parents and athlete volunteers were fantastic this past weekend and we want to match that level of excellence this coming weekend. The game schedule will be out shortly but take a(nother) moment to fill out the slots that are open on our volunteer worksheet.

Update your USAWP Profile Pic

The tournament served as a reminder that some of our athletes have photos on their USAWP ID’s from several centuries ago. Parents, please go update or add a photo to your athlete’s profile at usawaterpolo.org. ID’s are getting checked at every USA Water Polo event so we need that process to be as smooth as possible.

Jolyn

I sent the Jolyn suits back to Santa Barbara and it didn’t turn out to make financial sense for us to pursue a custom set of gear for our female players. The orders would be just too small. But, speaking of which…

Order AquaTex Suits (Please)

As I mentioned on last week’s pre-tournament Zoom meeting with our parents, we purposely do not have a lot of rules on this club so that our families can do what generally suits their best interests. We do not require athletes to purchase custom AquaTex suits (as nearly every other club in Texas does) but, it is safe to say… I really want every athlete wearing an AquaTex suit at our competitions!

RYTE Sports has been very good to us and is among the lowest cost, highest quality custom water polo suit in the USA. Plus, it gets shipped directly to your home. No bulk ordering necessary. Please strongly consider ordering an AquaTex suit if your athlete does not already have one so we can look as good as possible on the pool deck. Ord

er now to (hopefully) receive a suit prior to the Texas Challenge Cup on November 14-15. Thanks for supporting the club by doing so.

By the way, I’m in the process of ordering new custom AquaTex waterpolo caps. So it would be great to have suits to match.

See you masked on the deck,

James

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CenTex Festival Kickoff

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Good morning to all our AquaTex Waterpolo families and Longhorn friends:

It’s tournament day so a couple important reminders.

Here’s the schedule.

Be SURE you have a signed copy of your athlete’s secondary waiver to hand over to your coach today. Not optional.

For teams that I’m coaching you can be at your games 45 minutes before the match. Coach Tom has indicated that our 12u team can arrive 30 minutes before.

There are still many volunteer slots open for games at Micki tomorrow. Be sure to sign up here.

I will be at Micki at or before 6:30 AM tomorrow morning. I REALLY need help getting the pool covers off. Can a few athetes step up and give me and Coach Matt a hand?

After our 14u game at 1:30 PM today is done I’ll be heading directly to Micki to begin setting up for tomorrow. Again, I could use all the help I can get.

Excited for the weekend!

James

#oneteamonedream.

 

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

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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.

12U Mixed18U Boys18U Girls14u Mixed
Cruz CrowleyGreysen GadersonGwen SloatKelly Murphy
Landon VickeryAxel HaydtCate SloatLuca de Araujo
Nick MusilEvan SayerValeria OrtizRiley Dixon
Tristan ChamasTomas ChuKateryna OrtizJoey Bradford
Jake RobertsCole KershnerSamantha SmithMatthew Blood
Daniel ArmendarizCaleb MoodyCammie ShaulfelbergerAaron Gordon
Maddox ConteOwen MurphyMorgan SpoonerDeclan Graves
Pierce GreenJohn ‘Jack’ WatersKendall StraussCruz Crowley
Laird GreenMichael MorrisonNilmary PadillaAustin Kenton
Silas ChamasAlexander ThulinJames Strauss
Luca de AraujoJacob Gerakos
Aaron GordonAva Chamas
Riley Dixon

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