Jingle Bells Festival

PartitaPartenza2022

Jingle Bells and End of Season Update

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There are several things to cover as we head toward the much slower final two weeks of the calendar year and to the holidays. So let’s get in to it.

Ciao

It was a good day of games on Sunday with our friends from Longhorn, and a bittersweet Partenza Partita for our Italian exchange student, Stefano. Thanks to all of you for attending, supporting all our athletes, bringing food and drinks, and overall being great AquaTex parents. We plan on doing similar days when the tournament schedule is a little slower.

Speaking of tournaments…

Jingle Bells Festival

The Jingle Bells Festival schedule is out and rosters are final. Coach Smiley will be coaching all three teams (14u, 16u, 18u mixed) with the help of Longhorn coaches Tom, Steve, Molly, and Magaly. There are three AquaTex teams and four Longhorn teams playing at the tournament, which presented us with a challenge since our coaches are largely occupied that weekend. So our thanks to Coach Smiley for taking the lead, and Coach Tom for stepping up to help us.

As usual, families, plan on meeting coach Matt one hour before your first game of the day. After the first game it is the coaches’ decision about when to meet next. And don’t be surprised if you’re coached by one of the Longhorns! It’s gonna be a busy weekend.

Cowtown Stampede

It’s back on the calendar on a less-than-optimal weekend, January 7-8. We will take the lead on sending teams up to the LISD East Side Aquatic Center in The Colony. Longhorn will not be organizing any teams, so their athletes will play for AquaTex. The event is now live on TeamUnify so if you are interested in playing, commit as soon as possible. All age groups are open so plenty of chances to play.

End of Year

This week is the final one of the year with a normal practice schedule, including Thursday girls’ training. On Saturday we will have normal 10 AM practice (more of a shoot-around really) and Swim2Score. But we’ll cancel Sunday practice and then we’ll be dormant until the new year.

By dormant we mean that it is our coaches discretion to have some in-water shooting sessions and games or not! So keep an eye open in GroupMe for an ad hoc, fun training schedule, especially on the weekends.

Thank You

My heartfelt thanks to all our families for making this the biggest, most successful year in AquaTex Waterpolo’s history. Yes, we plan on more in 2023 but it’s important to reflect on the growth we’ve encountered this year, based on your trust in us to help your athletes get better. Thank you for that and we can’t wait for the new year.

And a particular note of thanks to our tremendous coaches. We added Babs and Matt this season, which has been an enormous help to our program. They, Smiley, Kendall, and Alon have committed many hours of their time sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for this crazy European sport with your athletes. For that I’m enormously grateful. Thank you, Coaches! And don’t be surprised if that roster of coaches grows in 2023.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to everyone.

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l’anno sta finendo, il torneo finale e l’addio

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Closing Out 2022

An overdue update after my return from the UK and hopefully a recovery from a respiratory thing (man, does that linger).

We end 2022 with our largest number of athletes ever, new training opportunities for our girls, more great coaches, and more competition for our athletes. We are now at a point where we have to decide about such things as separating high school training from Age Group, a great problem to have. But stay tuned as we consider changes.

Roster Call

It’s our final tournament of the season, the Jingle Bells Festival at Cy-Fair Natatorium in North Houston. As of today we are entering 14u mixed, 16u boys, 18u boys. For 18u boys we need 2 more athletes to make me comfortable (a couple players can only attend on Saturday). We’re still very short on the numbers of 18u girls we would need to enter that team, which we want to do.

Coach Smiley will be the head coach for all the teams we send to this tournament and will be assisted by Tom Andrew and/or Evan Sayer of Longhorn. If there are any conflicts between teams at the tournament we’ll definitely have a coach to cover it.

Partenza Partita!

Our friend Stefano is returning to Italy as his (blazing fast) semester in Round Rock comes to an end. So we’ll combine a game day with his departure, which will not include any Central Texas version of Italian food (sorry Niki’s) but a small smorgasbord of local delights such as Round Rock Doughnuts, Arandinas breakfast tacos, and whatever you suggest! We’re looking for ideas and/or goodies you could bring to celebrate the end of the year and as a farewell to our amico italiano.

Let’s have some grub ready for all the kiddos as they finish their games. Perhaps a volunteer or two to supervise a goodies table?

The game day schedule looks like this

The tentative schedule is:

  • 9:00 AM pool open for warmup
  • 9:30 AM 12u Coed Game
  • 10:15 AM 14u Coed Game (High School girls should expect to play at this time)
  • 11:00 High School Game
  • noon Masters Game

Girls’ Training

We’ve started our Thursday evening girls-only training sessions. Coach Babs is taking the lead but other AquaTex coaches will be there too or in her place when she can’t make it (she has a career!). Age group girls are encouraged to attend as well, not just high schoolers. We will take time to do chalk talks on Thursdays so all athletes are expected to take notes during meetings (no handouts) so have a notepad ready to go.

About TeamUnify

We have several families new to the program so I thought it would be useful to share some info about the tools we use to organize stuff, including communications. It’s a bit long winded but in the spirit of keeping our families informed about how club administration works I thought it would be useful.

First, AquaTex Waterpolo is most definitely part of AquaTex Swim Team. Without the support of club owner Mark Parshall there would be no autonomous water polo club at Micki Krebsbach pool.

Coach Mark several years ago began using the online swim team management tool, TeamUnify (also called SportsEngine). TeamUnify is, in my opinion, very good at only one thing: finances. It is apparently pretty good at registering athletes for swim meets, but that’s a very different process than organizing water polo events. But, most importantly, it is the tool Coach Mark has chosen. So all AquaTex families are required to register via TeamUnify in order to be considered a member of the team.

I have avoided using TeamUnify in past years for admin and comms because I find it very clumsy and not super waterpolo friendly. Plus, I do not have access to all the tools that Mark has: I cannot update your profile, change your membership status, or charge you. Only Mark can, and he’s a busy guy.

But I do have access to its communications tools and as our club has grown I’ve found it easier to communicate with everyone using it. So we recently began asking asking all our families to use TeamUnify more actively. Given all that, a few things for our families in no particular order.

  • My communications via TeamUnify will only go to active members. That is, if your account is suspended or not yet active you won’t get many or any emails from me. And email is my primary means of communications. There are perfectly good reasons why families suspend accounts temporarily but just know that it’ll limit any communications from the club.
  • My emails will go only to the addresses you’ve added to your profile. So, for example, if you register using only your athlete’s email address (strongly discourage anyone from doing that) and have not added your own as “Alternate” emails then you won’t get emails from me. So please go in to your account and make sure the email addresses you’ve entered are ones that a parent or guardian will receive and are validated.
  • On that note, your TeamUnify account is a family account to be set up by an adult (typically but not always a parent). To your account you can add any number of “members,” AKA athletes. So there is a difference between your “account,” which is meant to be managed by an adult, and your “members,” which include all the members of your clan including yourself if, say, you are a masters swimmer. (I plan on drawing up specific instructions for registering with TeamUnify to explain all that).
  • For those who have not registered yet, there are many swim team groups for which you can sign up. For water polo ignore all of them except: Swim2Score, Novice Waterpolo, Waterpolo, Masters Waterpolo. Do not sign up for “Middle School” or “High School.” Those are swim team groups.
  • When logging on to your account do not try to go via the SportsEngine site. Go to the AquaTex Swim Team home page and click on “Sign In” at the top. Several families are or have been members of other teams that use TeamUnify. But your accounts do not transfer between clubs. So log on directly via the AquaTex Swim Team site.

This site I built to make up for the many shortcomings of TeamUnify. But it is almost entirely meant to share information and news about the club. There is very little if any admin taking place on AquaTexWaterpolo.com. So, again, we appreciate you getting accustomed to using TeamUnify more often.

 

2022 CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival

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Schedule/Results

For our Athletes & Families

Tournament Expectations

We very gladly have a lot of new athletes attending this tournament. Welcome to all of you, and of course to all our experienced families as well. Here are a few things to cover for newcomers and oldsters alike:

  • This weekend, Coach Smiley will be the technical head coach for all three AquaTex teams. However, he will be assisted by several Longhorn coaches: Tom, Steve, Evan, Megaly, Molly. So, athletes should be prepared to follow the lead of any of those coaches prior to and during game time. We are VERY grateful that Longhorn could help us with coaches this weekend as AquaTex’s are occupied with other stuff.
  • Always plan on being ready to meet together one hour before our first game of the day. That is an AquaTex policy. Please schedule your time accordingly. For any games that follow on the same day plan on meeting 40 minutes before game time BUT it is at your coaches’ discretion.
  • Athletes, wear your team suit every game of the tournament, and your team t-shirt on Saturday at least. And, of course, we encourage our families to don the black, orange, and blue while attending.
  • Expect three games per day even if we only end up playing two. That means, be prepared: extra towel, goggles for warmup, eye drops, snacks, water, an extra suit is always a good idea. Be ready.
  • Food. Between games we encourage our athletes to eat lean protein, fruit, simple carbohydrates (not just candy!), water. After our last game of the day you can eat what you want… within reason.
  • AquaTex doesn’t organize team hotels or meals but definitely appreciates parents who take the lead in finding hotel blocks to share and/or organizing team meals. That is mostly done via our GroupMe so please do communicate amongst each other there.
  • We expect all our athletes to work hard, to be their best, when we compete. Winning and losing are important but not nearly as much as effort, being the best you can be, being there for your teammates, communicating, executing the skills you learned at practice. That’s what we as a club and your coaches expect.
  • And, of course,  the athletes’ behavior on and off the pool deck is important. You are being watched, so act accordingly. #BeYourBest

Athlete Fees

Each athlete will pay for participating in this tournament payable directly to Coach James via Venmo. Fees are nearly always estimated to be approximately $95 per athlete per roster. The final fee will be calculated after the tournament and takes in to account tournament entry fees, coaches’ travel expenses, per diem, etc.

Working Rosters

These athletes are those who committed to the cancelled Cowtown Stampede. If you need to make changes to your commitment contact Coach James.

AQTX 14u mixedAQTX 16u boysAQTX 18u boysLH 12U mixed
Rudy Matheo GarciaJacob GerakosJacob GerakosZephyr
Jackson "JP" PlaceAdlee ColegroveAdlee ColegroveRobert
Chase WadleyKenneth "Cash" BrownDeclan GravesCia
Kenneth "Cash" BrownAntonio "Rocco" FalceLiam GravesJane
Austin LewisRudy Matheo GarciaAntonio "Rocco" FalceLennon
John "Wes" KellyGavin HantlemanLuca De AraujoBen
Jake RobertsJackson "JP" PlaceRiley DixonAshton Benson
Nathan NolanAddison RodwellGavin HantlemanRyan Benson
Finnegan HarringtonVictoria HoylMorgan Spooner
Tomas BellaviaJake RobertsWilliam Wright
Zephyr GatesNathan NolanConnor Knight
Robert RothFinnegan HarringtonMathew Dixon
Chase Wadley
Matthew Dixon

AquaTex families should commit to the tournament here.

From the Hosts

12 December Update

This is a reminder of TODAY’s team entry deadline for the CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival on December 17-18, 2022 at the CFISD Natatorium in Northwest Houston (Age as of Date is August 1, 2023, graduating seniors in May 2023 who are 19 are eligible to participate). The current team entries are listed below. Please double check your team entries and let me know if there are any issues. This tournament will be a festival style, two day sanctioned USAWP event with divisions for all athletes: 18U Boys, 18U Girls, 16U Boys, 16U Girls, 14U Mixed, and 12U Mixed. Games will be played in three courses running simultaneously and begin on Saturday morning and ending around 3:00-4:00 pm on Sunday. Games will be 4 x 6:00 minute quarters. A schedule will be emailed to all clubs early this week. All teams will be guaranteed four games. Below is all the tournament info. Online Team Registration/Payment: CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival (must be logged in at USAWP website to register).

CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival – December 17-18, 2022 – Current Team Entries:
12U Mixed (5): Alamo Area, Longhorn, Viper Pigeons Boys, Viper Pigeons Pink, Zilla
14U Mixed (5): Alamo Area, AquaTex, CFWPC, Viper Pigeon Blue, Viper Pigeon Green, Zilla
16U Girls (2): CFWPC, Viper Pigeon Pink
16U Boys (7): Alamo Area, AquaTex, CFWPC, Longhorn, Storm, Viper Pigeon Blue, Viper Pigeon Black,
18U Girls (6): Alamo Area Blue, Alamo Area Yellow, CFWPC, Storm, Viper Pigeon Green, Viper Pigeon Pink
18U Boys (9): Alamo Area Blue, Alamo Area Yellow, AquaTex, Longhorn, Storm, Viper Pigeon Blue, Viper Pigeon Green, Viper Pigeon Black, Viper Pigeon Red, Zilla

CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival – December 17-18, 2022 – Tournament Info:
Date: December 17-18, 2022. Games will be played in three courses running simultaneously and begin on Saturday morning and ending around 3:00-4:00 pm on Sunday.
Location: CFISD Natatorium, 12550 Windfern Rd, Houston, TX 77064
Divisions: 18U Boys, 18U Girls, 16U Boys, 16U Girls, 14U Mixed, 12U Mixed
Age As of Date: The Age as of Date is August 1, 2023, graduating seniors in May 2023 who are 19 are eligible to participate.
Entry Fee: $550 per team. Payments will be collected when completing the online team registration.
Format: Games will be 4 x 6:00 minute quarters. All teams will receive at least 4 games.
Online Team Registration/Payment: CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival (must be logged in at USAWP website to register).
Registration Deadline: Sunday, December 11, 2022
Roster Deadline: Friday, December 16, 2022
Schedule: An online schedule will be sent to everyone early this week.

Original Invite

CFWPC will be hosting the Jingle Bells Festival on December 17-18, 2022 at the CFISD Natatorium in Northwest Houston (Age as of Date is August 1, 2023, graduating seniors in May 2023 who are 19 are eligible to participate). This tournament will be a festival style, two day sanctioned USAWP event with divisions for all athletes: 18U Boys, 18U Girls, 16U Boys, 16U Girls, 14U Boys, 14U Girls, 12U Boys, and 12U Girls. Games will be played in three courses running simultaneously and begin on Saturday morning and ending around 3:00-4:00 pm on Sunday. Games will be 4 x 6:00 minute quarters. All teams will be guaranteed four games. Below is all the tournament info. Online Team Registration/Payment: CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival (must be logged in at USAWP website to register).

CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival – December 17-18, 2022:
Date: December 17-18, 2022. Games will be played in three courses running simultaneously and begin on Saturday morning and ending around 3:00-4:00 pm on Sunday.
Location: CFISD Natatorium, 12550 Windfern Rd, Houston, TX 77064
Divisions: 18U Boys, 18U Girls, 16U Boys, 16U Girls, 14U Boys, 14U Girls, 12U Boys, and 12U Girls
Age As of Date: The Age as of Date is August 1, 2023, graduating seniors in May 2023 who are 19 are eligible to participate.
Entry Fee: $550 per team. Payments will be collected when completing the online team registration.
Format: Games will be 4 x 6:00 minute quarters. All teams will receive at least 4 games.
Online Team Registration/Payment: CFWPC Jingle Bells Festival (must be logged in at USAWP website to register).
Registration Deadline: Sunday, December 11, 2022
Roster Deadline: Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Schedule: An online schedule will be sent to everyone on Monday, December 12, 2022
Admissions: Daily admission of $5 per adult/student. 65+ and 10U are free.