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2022AlamoClassic16u

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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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