Parent Meeting

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New Coaches, New Athletes, New Competition

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It’s September and aside from the weather it seems like a new beginning for the club. Some important updates for everyone as we welcome a new season with lots of new faces.

New Coaches

We want to welcome four people to the coaching ranks. Sebastian Houng is our newest hire. He comes from Diamond Bar High School in SoCal where he was a record-setting goalkeeper prior to earning a spot at West Point, where he played and coached water polo. He’s now serving in the US Army in Austin.

Anthony Gerakos has graciously joined us to help with our Consolidated HS team in particular. He is another SoCal native who played at Indio High School and now lives in Belton with some young man named Jacob (a long-time member of the club for those who didn’t already know!).

Akriti Mandal and Kailee Seto are AquaTex athletes who join Corina Nunziata as coaches with our Swim2Score program under Coach Babs. All of them have been terrific additions to the staff. Just ask the youngsters who work with them!

Welcome aboard, all of you, and thank you for your dedication.

New Athletes/Families

It’s been a banner fall for the club with a host of new families. It’s an exciting time for the club with the influx of new, young faces. We’re excited to start competing with all of them. Welcome to all of you, and to those yet to join us (we hope you will). Here are a few things for you and for our veteran families.

Parent Meeting

You can plan on an invitation to an online parent meeting in the coming weeks. We have a lot of new faces as part of the program, and lots of veterans as well. We need to share important information about how the club works: competition, communications, training, finances, etc. If you have a topic you want covered be sure to contact Coach James. Very tentatively we’ll put it on the calendar for Thursday, September 21 at 7:00 PM. More to come.

Communications

A quick reminder especially to our newcomers: because we’re part of AquaTex Swim Team you can expect to get emails from Coaches Mark and Marcy that are intended for swim families but not necessarily for water polo families. The emails that pertain specifically to AquaTex Waterpolo will either come from or from an email with aquatexwaterpolo.com domain. In response to an email regarding USA Swimming registration someone asked if that was relevant to water polo families. It is not but if you have any doubts please do contact me.

Roster Calls

You can find these events on our Tourneys page. And for those who might ask, we are trying very hard to field our own teams from now on. I’ve mentioned it many times: we are very pleased with our relationship with Longhorn. And we will continue to communicate with them about fielding joint teams if neither club has enough for its own. But let’s plan on working toward fielding AquaTex-only rosters as much as possible going forward.

The Alamo Classic for 14u athletes is on October 7-8 in San Antonio and we do plan on sending AquaTex teams (12u and 10u in particular). This will be the first competition for many of our athletes, which we’re really excited about. We expect a big turnout so sign up today.

The Team Vegas Founders Cup will be our first ever trip to Nevada. As of now our plans are to take that same 14u team that competed in California at JOs this past summer. Every one of those athletes, except one (!), is eligible. I would like to have a team of 10 athletes committed to travel and play at that tournament by September 22 so we can officially enter. The deadline is October 1 but the tournament is filling up quickly. The sooner we can rally the sooner we can register. So start bugging each other via GroupMe! And, of course, if there are sufficient numbers of 12u athletes then we’ll sign them up too.

TAGS (Texas Age Group Championships), AKA the Texas middle school championships, is now officially on the calendar for November 4-5 in Southlake and Keller. Again, we want a big turnout for this tournament since it marks the end of our Fall season. It’s what we’re training for!

Camps & Clinics

ODP

I’m delighted to hear how many of our families are interested in or already registered to participate in ODP (USA Water Polo’s Olympic Development Program). For our newcomers, you can read more about what ODP is here. Maybe even more important, here is when and where the camps are taking place and for which age groups.

I was the head coach of the Southwest Zone Boys for eight great years so I have a high opinion of the program. Feel free to ask questions about it if you have any. I plan to attend the Cadet Camp #1 at the RRAC on September 17, and I encourage our coaches to do the same. There are some great opportunities to learn from other coaches.

The Perfect Goalie Camp

On September 16 Team USA goalie coach Michael Zellmer will be in Houston conducting two back-to-back goalie clinics. Our goalies are encouraged to attend. And we’ll definitely keep an eye open for other goalie-training opportunities in Texas.

CenTex Consolidated

Our consolidated team has a big weekend ahead with games at the RRAC against both consolidated and UIL teams (exhibitions!). Also, we are looking in to hosting a scrimmage day with other consolidated teams at the end of September. Stay tuned.

See you on the deck.

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Alamo Success, Girls Training, TAGS, and more

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Alamo Classic

The 18u boys went 4-0 and the 16u boys, featuring several very new 14u athletes, played three very close games versus good opponents this past weekend. I call that a success.

Congratulations to all those who participated and to Coaches Alon and Matt (first timer!) for leading the team to such a positive outcome. And, as always, thanks to our great parents for repping, cheering, and helping the athletes get ready for a  weekend of a lot of water polo

Find final results here and ping me if you want a link to a gallery of great photos from the event.

Parent Meeting

Thank you to all of you who attended and participated in my online parent meeting last Thursday. Much of what follows here will be related to the things we talked about in the meeting. We’ll plan on re-convening likely in January or February to start laying down dates for Junior Olympics 2023.

Programming

We’ve arrived at a point where our training is often too crowded. This is a problem we’ve been hoping to have ever since the club started. So, we are working on new weeknight arrangements so we can keep our training manageable.

First, our aim is to start girls-only practices on Thursdays starting December 1. Coach Babs is taking the lead in training all our girls (we expect y’all back, you know who I’m talking about!) with help from the other coaches when necessary. You can expect to participate at the Cowtown Stampede under Coach Babs, and then start getting prepared for 2023.

If Monday/Wednesday numbers remain high you can expect us to add training on Tuesdays, perhaps for high school athletes only. We’re still working on that.

Weekend practices will remain the same. Since we can use the entire pool on weekends then we can still effectively keep training groups separate if necessary.

And, a reminder that all HS athletes should have a notebook at practice. Plans are to have chalk talks and video review session on Mondays. BUT those sessions could get postponed or changed so have your notebook with you regardless of day.

Player of the Month

We only just formed our new Novice Waterpolo group and already one of our superstars has earned the coaches’ attention. Ilay Lev is the AquaTex Waterpolo October Player of the Month! Congratulations to him.

Communications and TeamUnify

I’ve been contacting some of you about making sure your TeamUnify profile is up to date, that you’re registered for the correct group, that your contact info is correct, etc. As I increasingly use TeamUnify for email and SMS communications it’s important we have all those things up to date. As our numbers have grown (happily) it has become easier to use the TeamUnify platform for these purposes.

Right now it appears that nearly everyone is registered for “Waterpolo,” “Novice Waterpolo,” “Swim2Score,” “Masters Waterpolo,” or “Swim/Polo.” If not, let me know and we’ll ask Coach Mark to switch you to the correct billing/roster group. It definitely matters for communications, billing, and rostering.

Please also check that the email addresses you have added to your TeamUnify accounts are “Verified.” It appears that if they are not verified you may not receive communications from me. Here are instructions.

You keeping your profile up to date is extremely helpful so I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Roster Calls

  • TAGS for 8th, 6th, and 5th grade and under teams takes place in just a couple weekends. The location has changed to Garland ISD Natatorium instead of SMU. We’ll be working with Longhorn to create rosters for the tourney.
  • The Cowtown Stampede is the last club tourney of the calendar year. We expect to have a pretty large presence with 18u boys, 18u girls, 16u boys, 14u mixed, and hopefully 12u and/or 10 teams as well (could be with Longhorn). Danny Dixon is looking for hotel blocks so make sure you’re monitoring GroupMe for that info, and sign up via TeamUnify.

Team Suits

As I’ve been harping, it’s required for all members to have a team suit. For any of our boys who need to buy a suit I have a fitting kit with me at practice. Make sure you try on one (or more) of the sample briefs to find your proper size. (We don’t ask for fitting kits for jammers because they are so much more forgiving with stretch).

For girls, we are soon going to discontinue the “old” design in favor of the new suit, which is a brand new RYTE product. The suit, I’ve heard, better resembles the fit and stretch of other water polo suits. I’ve heard that’s a good thing.

The suit is so new that RYTE does not have a fitting kit for us. So, you can order one (or more) of the new suits, try it on, and return it if it’s not the right fit. I encourage you to do that prior to Cowtown.

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Alamo Tourney Deets, Fall Game Day, Welcome Coach Matt

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Fall Game Day

Thanks to everyone – athletes, coaches, parents, fans – for coming to our Fall Game Day on October 2 at Micki. It is something we will plan to repeat as the 2022-23 USA Water Polo season continues and our Junior Olympics plans come more in to focus. One of our masters players, Dan, took 500 photos of the game day, which you can find here. Thank you, Dan!

Alamo Fall Classic

I’ve updated details for this weekend’s Alamo Fall Classic in San Antonio including our 8th grade (14u) roster, info on when athletes are expected to meet, uniform requirements, etc. If you are attending the tournament this weekend then take a moment to read the update, and share with any teammates, friends, families who should know.

Player of the Month

In case you missed it, Chase Wadley is our September Player of the Month! Congratulations to him. Read more about it here.

UIL Season & AQTX

The first ever UIL season’s playoffs are here. Congratulations to all our athletes for taking part in this historic season. We wish every one of them luck in the coming weeks as the championship approaches. #BeYourBest

A couple thoughts about the high school season. First, many high school athletes have suspended their AquaTex membership until the UIL season is over. We want all of you to know that we have ZERO problem with that (from my own experience, high school athletes were not allowed to participate in club water polo during the high school season so it’s completely normal to me, Alon, Babs, etc.). To those who have continued to train with us during the UIL season we are very grateful and feel confident we’ve helped you at least somewhat improve while you play for your high school. It’s been a very exciting couple of months.

And, once the UIL season is over for your team then we expect to see you back training with us immediately. We have plans to send improved (and larger) teams to Junior Olympics next summer and that training begins in November. The Alamo Fall Classic for 18u and 16u athletes in San Antonio is in 30 days! So let’s get ready for our best season ever. We’ll see you back in the pool on a couple weeks.

Recruiting

I’m delighted to have spoken to several athletes and parents who are interested in the varsity collegiate recruiting process. High school-age athletes and their families who are even slightly interested in varsity collegiate water polo, it is CRUCIAL that you start planning for that now, even Freshmen. And I cannot urge you more strongly to watch this Zoom video featuring my podcast colleague Joe Linehan, who knows more about the collegiate process than anyone. Please watch it as soon as possible because there may be some misunderstanding about how the process works, scholarships, etc.

Welcome Coach Matt

We’re really excited to have Matt Braun join the AquaTex Waterpolo coaching staff. Matt is originally from Oregon and then played at NCAA Division I Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where he earned second team All-Western Water Polo Association honors in 2017. He went on to play professionally in the United Kingdom where he also coached youth athletes. He moved to Austin a few months ago and works in (shock!) the technology sector. Welcome, Coach Matt!

Olympic Development Program

I’m delighted to have been asked many times about the Olympic Development Program. And my answer to those who are asking, “should I try it?” is unequivocally: yes. There is only one more camp this season so if you haven’t signed up already please do so as soon as possible because there is a limit to the number of athletes allowed. One important note: Camp #2 for Youth athletes will not be at the RRAC. The site is still to be determined but it’s likely to be in San Antonio. For anyone who has more questions just let me know. I may have a separate post about ODP, why I like it, what it does for you, etc.

Parent Meeting

I’ve checked the calendar and am planning on NOT having a weather-related make-up practice on Thursday, October 13. So let’s plan for an online Parent Meeting that evening at 7:00 PM. As always, if there’s a subject you’d like covered just let me know.

See you on the deck.

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UPDATED: Alamo HS Tourney on Calendar, Masters & S2S Updates, ODP is Here

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Updated 20 September 2022

Practice Cancelled This Weekend

AquaTex Swim Team is hosting its biggest swim meet of the season this weekend so there will be no water polo training (age group, high school, masters, Swim2Score) on Saturday, September 24 or Sunday, September 25. We will have a makeup practice on Thursday, September 22 from 7-9 PM. That training session will be almost exclusively for our Age Group and Novice athletes since there is high school water polo taking place that evening.

The parent meeting for Thursday, September 22, is still on the calendar. We can shift the start time to 7:30 to accommodate those taking kids to practice but let me know how this works, or doesn’t, for you.

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It’s been a while and a whirlwind of activity so let’s get straight in to the update.

First, well done to all our athletes at all our different levels of experience for going 2-2 at the Armadillo Classic up in The Colony. It’s very gratifying that we’re in the position where we can now regularly expect to send teams from AquaTex to these tournaments. And thank you to all the parents, friends, and family who came to support our athletes.

Roster Calls

We have several signed up for the Alamo Fall Classic for our 14u, 12u, 10u athletes but want more! This tournament is in San Antonio so easier to manage than those in North Texas. Make sure to go to your TeamUnify account to commit to the tournament. This applies to our awesome Swim2Score athletes as well! We want a huge 10u team and this is the perfect opportunity for newcomers. Just a reminder that Swim2Score families who want to play in a tourney must be currently registered with AquaTex AND are required to have a Bronze membership with USA Water Polo.

Then, very good news: another San Antonio tournament is on the calendar for our 18u/16u athletes the first weekend of November. Several families have asked when the first chance of the fall would come for high school athletes to compete and now we have that opportunity. So sign up!

Parent Meeting

We had to postpone a parent meeting a couple weeks ago but we’ll re-convene via jit.si on Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM. Team members will be sent a link to join the meeting via GroupMe and TeamUnify email. jit.si works on any browser but requires the app to use on your device.

Masters Update

Several updates regarding our masters programming:

  • Beginning this Sunday the hours for masters water polo will change by 30 minutes. It will start at 10:30 AM and go until noon – 30 minutes of warmup in the South pool followed by one hour of all-deep scrimmaging.
  • Some clarification about high school and younger athletes
    • No middle school or younger athletes are allowed at masters scrimmages
    • High school athletes must be approved by AquaTex coaches to play at masters
    • Those select high school athletes who are NOT currently active, registered, paying members of AquaTex must pay the $10.00 drop in fee. AquaTex-registered high schoolers can play masters at no additional cost but must be approved by AQTX coaches.
  • All masters athletes who drop in owe AquaTex $10 per session. We strongly recommend you join AquaTex ($35/month is a bargain) rather than dealing with Venmo payments. But please be sure to pay so we can continue offering masters.

Swim2Score Update

We’ve never had more interest in our Swim2Score program than we do now, so thank you to everyone who has registered and given us a trial run, and to our awesome coaches, led by Babs.

Speaking of registration: a reminder: after your athlete’s two-session trial you must register with AquaTex in order to continue with the program.

Also, we are now requiring all our Swim2Score athletes to join USA Water Polo. There are several options:

  • If you think your athlete will only be participating at our training sessions at Micki and not competing at USA Water Polo tournaments then you can sign up for a “Splashball” membership
  • If you want your athlete to compete at USA Water Polo tournaments (the Alamo Classic, for example) then he or she must be a “Bronze” member of USA Water Polo.
    • (Swim2Score athletes who graduate to the “Novice Waterpolo” group will be required to have a Bronze membership as do all of our high school and age group athletes)

Team Suits

The Turbo Store should be closed for the season now. Given that we are a small club we will continue to work with Turbo as a courtesy to those who choose their product over RYTE. But Turbo is simply not set up to deliver as quickly to our families as RYTE.

A reminder that I’ll have a RYTE fitting kit for boys for the next couple weeks. Come try one on cuz team suits are required for all our (non Swim2Score) athletes. Then order one here.

ODP

USA Water Polos’ Olympic Development Program is around the corner. We encourage our athletes to give the program a try. We’ve been fortunate to have many AQTX athletes take part in the clinics and also selected to travel teams (Regional Championships and boys’ National Championships will both be in San Antonio!). More info here and feel free to ask if you have questions about the program.

See you on the deck,

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Labor Day, Swim2Score Update, Novice Group, and More

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A quick note for our families who were emailed most of this earlier today.

  • Practice is on tonight, Monday, from 7-9 as usual.
  • On Saturday, September 10, Swim2Score will take place from noon to 1 PM instead of 11-noon.
  • I’ve emailed several families but may have missed some: please verify in TeamUnify that your athlete age 18 and younger is registered in the correct AquaTex billing group. The only groups your athletes should be registered with are “Waterpolo,” “Swim/Polo,” or “Swim2Score.” (Those who help us coach Swim2Score are already in the proper group so no need to update.) And “Masters Waterpolo” is the correct group for any water polo player who is a high school graduate. “Middle School” is a swim team group and does not apply to water polo.
  • Novice waterpolo: we are soft-launching our Novice programming beginning tonight. There is not currently a TeamUnify group to join so we are offering Novice athletes a chance to give it a try on a trial basis. Novices are those age 9-14 who have “graduated” from Swim2Score but may not be quite ready to join our Age Group training yet. Sessions are one hour each, four times a week: Monday/Wednesday from 7-8 PM; Saturday from 10-11 AM; Sunday from 9-10 AM.
  • I’ll share the schedule for this weekend’s Armadillo Classic the moment I get it.
  • If you have not joined our GroupMe I strongly encourage it. That’s where we communicate most urgently.
  • There is an online parent meeting on Thursday 8 September at 7:00 PM via jit.si meet, which works on all browsers but may require the app on a device. The link to join the meeting was emailed earlier and will be in the GroupMe as well. If you have any subjects you want covered just let me know via email, text, or DM.
  • A reminder that every AquaTex athlete is required to purchase a team suit. My strong preference is that you buy via RYTE Sport but Turbo suits are also available. I have a RYTE fitting kit for boys with me. If you want to try one on (strongly recommended) I will have the kit with me at practice.

USAWP membership

If you are not currently a member of USA Water Polo, including Swim2Score athletes, make sure to join before your next session. Swim2Score athletes can join USA Water Polo’s “Splashball” group but it would be better to have a Bronze membership so you can compete at tournaments.

See you on the deck,

James

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Fall Tourneys, Team Suits, Parent Meeting Planned…

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Time to check in as the summer winds down and the mosquitoes have a field day at Micki!

First, thanks to all our new and trial members. We are having the biggest boom of new families since the club started so we are grateful for you being part of the club. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: this is a really exciting fall for the team.

We are working harder than we ever has as a club, meaning we are getting our athletes in as good of shape as we can in four practices a week. Our expectations are high and our young athletes have responded very well to our demands. We want to be the team that won’t be outworked but we have to do actual work to get there. So far, so good.

#OneTeamOneDream #BeYourBest

Tournaments

The fall tournament schedule is updated so please log in to your TeamUnify accounts to commit to each one of them. Use TeamUnify to commit, but I share more details about each event on the aquatexwaterpolo.com site.

By “commit” we mean share your intentions. There is always some chance we won’t have enough players to go to a tournament (increasingly rarely). But by committing on TeamUnify you’re saying you will take part and that you understand you’ll be charged for it after the tourney is over.

The Cowtown Stampede has been updated on TeamUnify; it had an incorrect deadline but has now been fixed. And remember that participation in that tournament is determined by age as of August 1 and not by school grade.

A reminder for our new families, you can read more about how traveling to tournaments works on our Programs page. Scroll down to the FAQs and expand “How does traveling to tournaments work?” It includes the fact that if we don’t have enough athletes to field a strictly-AquaTex team we combine with our friends from Longhorn.

School grade

I shared a link via GroupMe to a form we’re asking all our families with 14u athletes to complete. We need to confirm which grade your youngster is in! The first three tournaments of the fall are grade-based instead of age-based. Let me know if you need the link. The form should take 2-3 minutes max.

Required team suits

A RYTE fitting kit for boys’ suits is on the way. So if you want to wait and actually try on one of the boys’ suits prior to purchasing, it should be here in the next few days and I’ll make it available to you at practice.

As you know all registered athletes are required to have a team suit. Based on input from our athletes and families we asked the popular fabricator Turbo, based in Spain and vendor to the US National Team among many other American programs, to provide suits for us in addition to our main vendor RYTE Sports. The AquaTex Turbo store is now open until September 18 for you to place suit or robe orders. After that it will close for several months.

However, as much as Turbo provides very fine products, I have come to advise all our families to order from RYTE Sport. For several reasons:

  • It’s cheaper
  • The store never closes; orders can be placed throughout the year
  • The suits are fabricated in the US so they don’t get hung up in customs
  • The orders take something like 2-4 weeks. Recently Turbo gear has been taking quite a bit longer
  • The people at RYTE have treated AquaTex quite well over the years (not that Turbo hasn’t). Our RYTE competition caps are really good
  • The water polo suits are very solid and durable
  • Alex Young, the founder of RYTE, worked at Kap7 (Turbo) for three years so he knows those products

One additional pitch: regardless of vendor we know that some boys prefer jammers over water polo briefs. But, as I think some of you know, jammers are not made for water polo durability. Coaches all suggest boys buy and get used to wearing a brief, which will last for as long as you fit in it.

All members are also required to have at least one AquaTex tee shirt for travel tournaments. You can shop for all our gear in our fantastic new online store.

Parent meeting

I have a parent meeting tentatively on the calendar for Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 PM. It will be held online (I like the open source jit.si meet for videoconferencing. It works on any browser but requires the app if you’re participating via a device) and I’ll cover our plans for the fall and beyond. But it’s also just a chance for our new parents to introduce themselves, ask questions, and hear more about how the club operates.

Novice group

We’re still planning on a new Novice group beginning on September 5. We need to make some internal changes to our TeamUnify database and will let you know when that’s all done. Novices are age 10-14 who are new to the sport and need a different level of training than our Age Group athletes. Novices will practice four times a week for one hour each.

Game days

It is very likely we’ll host at least one Game Day this fall so that all our 14u athletes can play regardless of school grade. It may simply be a set of officially refereed scrimmages against Longhorn. Stay tuned.

USAWP membership

Since we’re using TeamUnify more than in the past I’d appreciate it if, the next time you log in, you enter your athlete(s) USA Water Polo membership number in the proper field. I do not have access to your records at that level so I can’t do it for you. Thanks in advance.

See you on the deck,

James

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Parent Meeting, JOs, WTTS, Summer Schedule

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The high school season is over which means it is essentially summer. We have ambitious plans for the next few months and, as always, have to adjust our training schedule to fit the city’s summer needs. There is a lot here so, AquaTex families, please read it all.

Schedule Update

In order to maximize the amount of time we get in the deep pool we are doing our annual schedule changes. As always we attempt to keep all training updates current on our calendar.

May Training Schedule

Ends May 29

  • Mondays 7-9 PM, middle school & high school
  • Fridays 7-9 PM, middle school & high school
  • Saturdays 10 AM-noon, middle school & high school
  • Sundays 10 AM-noon, middle school & high school
  • Sundays 10:30-11:30 AM, Swim2Score
  • Sundays 11:30-1 PM, masters

Note that on Sunday the 29th, if we don’t cancel practice because we’ll be competing at WTTS, we will begin at 9:00 AM instead of 10:00 AM.

Tentative Summer Training Schedule

May 30 – July 8

High school and middle school

  • Mondays and Fridays 7:15 – 9 PM or earlier start if available.
  • Sundays 9-11 AM
  • Tuesdays 6-8 PM (subject to swim meet schedule)
  • Saturdays 9-11 AM (select Saturdays, when available)

Swim2Score

  • TBD but likely Fridays at 10:00 AM or Sundays at 9:00 AM

Masters Waterpolo

  • TBD but likely Tuesdays at 8 PM or Sundays at 8 AM

Summer Parent Meeting

Parents are asked to join us in a mandatory Zoom meeting with coaches on Tuesday, May 17 at 7:00 PM. We will cover details from both coaches and parents about our plans for Junior Olympics this summer, but also other stuff:

  • What are Junior Olympics and why should athletes participate?
  • What are the deadlines for committing, etc.?
  • Which of our teams are trying to qualify for Sessions 1 and 2 in NorCal, and which will register for Session 3 in North Texas?
  • Does my athlete’s team need to qualify for JOs
  • Which club, Longhorn or AquaTex, is fielding each team and who’s coaching?
  • How does travel work for AquaTex families going to JOs (or any other tournament)?
  • Which other tournaments, including Welcome to Texas Shootout, are we planning on registering for this summer?
  • What do we know about collegiate coaches scouting at JOs?
  • How are we preparing for the first UIL fall high school season?

We’ll share Zoom invites via GroupMe and email so if you’re new to the program please be sure to join the GroupMe and that we have a current, working email address. Contact me for a link to GroupMe and/or any email address updates, or if you have any topics you’d like us to cover.

Junior Olympics Qualifier & Festival

It’s confirmed that those teams that plan to register directly for JOs Session 3 in North Texas are invited to the Southwest Zone Festival, which takes place simultaneously with the Junior Olympic Qualifier Tournament June 10-12 at CyFair and other local pools. This tournament will help the Zone seed teams for JOs Session 3 so it is NOT considered optional. We will send our best rosters and try to get the highest seeds possible.

Roster Calls

Welcome to Texas Shootout

The deadline for us to register is Friday, May 20. Spaces are filling up so please go to the Tournament Commitment Google Sheet to make any updates. You can find tournament info, including current rosters, on the tournament event page.

National Junior Olympics

Again, filling up quickly. In particular we’re looking to add to the AquaTex 16u boys and 18u girls teams, and the Longhorn 10u team, headed to Session 3 in North Texas (breaking news). More info on the JOs Qualifiers page. The form for committing to play at JOs is different than our Tournament Commitment Sheet so please let me know if you need the link.

Other Stuff

Welcome Coach Tom

Not only did Cammi earn MVP honors from West Region Coaches for her high school season, we also now have in our presence the West Region’s Coach of the Year from Round Rock High School! I’m delighted that Tom Arredondo will be helping us coach this summer and hopefully beyond. He’s been the very successful swim coach at Round Rock HS for well over a decade and has coached the water polo teams on and off since it was created in (around) 2011. Welcome aboard, Coach Tom.

Speaking of Swimming…

I have been speaking with some of our athletes, especially our middle school-aged ones, about joining a swim team. I’d like to make that case more strongly to our parents whose athletes are not already part of a swim program.

Obviously our game depends on mobility, which means efficient swimming. As you can tell from our training schedule we have limited time to strictly develop swimming skills. And our coaching staff has been assembled not for teaching swim technique (though we all have some skills in that regard) but in technical and tactical water polo skills. That is our focus.

To put it directly, we need to improve our swimming skills and speed, especially among our younger athletes. So if your athlete is not already signed up for a team we suggest as strongly as possible that you do so. Of course, we want all our athletes to swim for AquaTex. But a summer league team can be a huge help, and we have athletes who swim for other programs as well. The point is simply that, we need to get faster and have more stamina. And it takes specific swim training to do so.

To be clear: swim lessons and recreational swimming on your own are not substitutes for training with a team with qualified coaches. If you are interested in playing water polo in college, for example, it’s a rare thing for someone to do so without some swimming background. Take a listen to my conversation with three-time Olympian and NCAA Champion coach at UCLA, Adam Wright, who makes specific reference to swimming skills as a requirement for water polo success (that discussion starts around the 24:00 mark, but do listen to it all!).

Contact me if you have questions but I hope you’ll take my point seriously and help our team get better more quickly. And, as always, thanks for your support.

Austin High School Rumors

It’s been mentioned by a few people that AISD schools are poised to drop water polo prior to the first UIL season this fall due to a lack of training facilities. That would eliminate programs for many of our friends at schools such as Austin, Anderson, McCallum, and LASA. My understanding is that at least a couple of those schools have already come to an agreement to use Austin city pools during the UIL season. We’ll share the news when those plans are final but I think the concern for those programs is premature… thankfully.

RRISD Natatorium

Travis Benson, one of our masters players and father to two of our awesome Swim2Score athletes, plays a key role in the construction of the new Round Rock ISD Natatorium. So here are a couple photos of what it looked like on April 28. Rumors are that it may open pretty soon.

See you on the deck,

James

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ODP Selections, Dare 2 Dream, Parent Meeting

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AquaTexans Selected to ODP National Teams

We learned today that Kendall Strauss and Tristan Chamas were both selected to represent the Southwest Zone at USA Water Polo’s Olympic Development Program National Championships in March. Kendall and Tristan were recent participants in the program’s West Region Championships in Utah, after which ODP coaches selected their final rosters plus alternates for the zone’s national championship teams.

The National Championship for boys takes place in Northern California March 4-6. The girls reconvene there March 18-20.

Tristan will play for the boys’ Development team (born 2008 and younger) while Kendall is on the girls’ Youth team (born 2004). Aaron Gordon was scheduled to play in Utah for the boys Cadets but was forced to cancel because of exposure to Covid. You can find all the roster selections here.

Huge congratulations to all three of them for their hard work, and best of luck in California! #TexasWaterpoloRising

Dare to Dream

Rosters and schedules have been finalized (thanks to everyone for updating their Covid-19 waiver) for this weekend’s Dare to Dream tourney. Our 12u team has its first game at the very civilized time of 11:00 AM on Saturday. But you can find all the games, AquaTex and Longhorn, on the event page. For this tournament AquaTex athletes are expected to be ready to warm up 30 minutes prior to the game (not 29!). For those playing for Longhorn 10u teams you’ll be coached by Coaches Tom and Sydney, and I’ll be hovering around those teams as well. Stoked!

To our newer families don’t be shy about using the GroupMe to communicate during the tournament.

Weekly Training Schedule

Though our 12u athletes will mostly be in Houston this weekend the training schedule at Micki remains the same: Saturday and Sunday at 10 AM; Masters at 11:30 AM; Swim2Score at 10:30 AM.

Parent Meeting

A reminder that on Thursday, January 13 at 7:30 PM we will have a parent meeting via Zoom for all AquaTex Waterpolo families. We’ll send an invite to you via email and/or GroupMe. Plans are to cover the coming spring season (more below), partnering with Longhorn, Junior Olympics, goals for the club, and much more. We have many new families (happily) so please to take the time to join in and learn more about what we’re trying to do, and share any questions or issues you’d like. Contact Coach James if you have anything you’d like covered during the meeting.

Roster Call

South Texas Championships

Now that Joe Linehan is running things in the Alamo Heights area we can expect to have many more chances to compete somewhere relatively close to us for not-so-much money. Here’s the next one: a one-day Winter championship tournament for all ages on January 30. Our high school athletes have very few chances remaining to compete prior to the prep season. This is a good one, and each team gets two games within a few hours, so no extended stay in the bleachers (unless you play for multiple rosters!).

Our plans are to field teams for every age group, 18u down. Don’t miss this opportunity for some (inexpensive) game experience prior to the spring high school and 14u seasons.

Other Stuff

See you on the deck.

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2022 Kicks Off with Parent Meeting, Roster Calls, JOs and More

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Happy New Year, everyone.

We end 2021 as our busiest and most successful ever with definite aims at making 2022 even better. We kick off the new year with several items, some more current, others more down-the-road.

Parent Meeting

On January 13 at 7:30 PM we will have a parent meeting via Zoom for all AquaTex Waterpolo families. We’ll send an invite to you via email and/or GroupMe. Plans are to cover the coming spring season (more below), partnering with Longhorn, Junior Olympics, goals for the club, and much more. We have many new families (happily) so please to take the time to join in and learn more about what we’re trying to do, and share any questions or issues you’d like. Contact Coach James if you have anything you’d like covered during the meeting.

ODP West Region Championships

Kendall Strauss, Aaron Gordon, and Tristan Chamas are headed to Utah this weekend to take part in the ODP West Region Championships. Here are the rosters and the game schedules for everyone to follow. We’re also excited that our friends from Longhorn are making their marks too: Greyson, Axel, Owen, Thomas, Kelly, and Zeke. Make Central Texas proud, and congratulations to all of them for their selection.

Roster Calls

As always, contact me for the link to our Google commitment sheet to update your athletes’ plans.

Dare to Dream

This tournament is held simultaneously in California and Texas making it the (unofficial) national 10u and 12u championships! All our young AquaTex athletes should plan to play. And keep in mind, the “age as of” date is August 1, 2021, so it’s the last chance for many of us to compete at that 12u level against players the same age. The deadline to commit is quickly approaching so let us know.

South Texas Championships

Now that Joe Linehan is running things in the Alamo Heights area we can expect to have many more chances to compete somewhere relatively close to us for not-so-much money. Here’s the next one: a one-day Winter championship tournament for all ages on January 30. Our high school athletes have very few chances remaining to compete prior to the prep season. This is a good one, and each team gets two games within a few hours, so no extended stay in the bleachers (unless you play for multiple rosters!). Sign up!

High School

It’s January which means that the high school swim season is coming to its peak with District Championships on January 28, Regional Championships on February 4-5, and for the fastest of the fast, UIL Championships on February 18-19. As always, we’re rooting for all our swimmers to shatter some personal bests and make waves against their Texas competitors. For those who’ve taken a break from polo we look forward to having you back at practice after your last meet if not sooner.

The high school water polo season comes quickly with the first possible tournament on February 25-26 followed soon after by our own Spring Festival at Micki on March 4-5. Our spring season training schedule will not change and high school athletes are expected to attend AquaTex practices, especially since it is unclear whether they will be able to continue club practices during the UIL season in the fall. Nothing makes AquaTex coaches happier than seeing our athletes perform well with or against fellow AquaTex athletes for their high school teams. #BeYourBest

Middle School

With the high schoolers occupied between March and May we get to place our USA Water Polo focus on our middle school and younger athletes! The spring will have several tournaments throughout Texas geared for those age 14 and under, which is great news for our growing group of youngsters.

Other Stuff

  • A reminder to renew your USA Water Polo membership for 2022 if you haven’t already. A current membership is required to practice and compete for AquaTex or any other club.
  • Another reminder that athletes are required to wear an AquaTex suit and have at least one AquaTex tee-shirt for any USA Water Polo competition.
  • An athlete’s tournament fees will now be drawn automatically via families’ AquaTex Team Unify accounts instead of via Venmo.

See you on the deck.

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Our Ironman, Traveling Coaches, OctoPoloFest

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OctoPoloFest Rosters

We’re excited for our participation at the upcoming OctoPoloFest near Lake Jackson. For several of our new athletes it’ll be their first USA Water Polo competition. With Longhorn we’ll be entering 12u mixed, 14u mixed, and 18u co-ed rosters. Families that are attending should be prepared for early Saturday morning matches. The roster deadline is Sept. 27 so there’s time still to get on a roster if you’re interested. Coach James will be coaching at this tournament.

Coaches

In case you didn’t already see it, Coach Matt returned from Wisconsin very sore but having completed his first (and last?) Ironman in 14 hours 3 minutes. Another round of congratulations to Smiley for finishing so strong after training so hard!

Coach Alon was up there cheering him on and then proceeded to, naturally, Barcelona! If you already follow him on Instagram you can watch his worldly progress including, I’ve been told, a pending visit to one of the city’s world-class water polo clubs.

Coach Dom will be traveling the next few weekends, and I will be in New York checking out beautiful and pricey colleges for Kenna beginning on Wednesday. So…

Schedule Reminder

The timing is good because there are no masters, high school, middle school, or Swim2Score sessions this coming weekend, Sept 25-26, due to a big AquaTex swim meet (go fast!). Enjoy the weekend off unless you’re busy swimming.

Uniforms

I should have a RYTE fitting suit for boys only next week (they’re currently out of women’s fitting suits). Take the chance to try one on before ordering. Families should plan to have purchased a required team suit and one tee shirt prior to the Texas Challenge Cup on Nov. 6.

Also, a reminder that I have an AquaTex women’s suit, size 30, for $40. Let me know if you want to try it on, or just buy it and I’ll deliver it to you to practice.

Other Stuff

  • Here are links to video parts one and two of our recent parent meeting. We covered a good amount of territory so I recommend you check it out if you haven’t already.
  • Make sure to update your tournament commitments for high school and middle school athletes on our Google sheet. Contact me for the link.
  • We had our biggest turnout ever at the season’s first ODP camp at UT. I’m excited to hear how it went for all our AquaTex athletes. There are two more camps this season (Cy-Fair and North Texas) if you missed the one at UT. You can read more about the program here.
  • A note to newcomers: you’ll notice receiving lots of emails from Coach Mark Parshall about swim meets, etc. He sends those notices to every member of AquaTex (he owns the club!). Some of them are relevant to water polo, many of them are not. So don’t think you must act on every, or even many, of those emails.

See you on the deck,

James

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