We’re back at Lake Creek and there are a lot of updates about the spring and summer schedules, including JOs! Read on.
TAGS Roster Call
The Thunder Spring Invite tournament is full so we’re calling on our families to commit to the next big non-high school tournament of the spring. TAGS is back in Pearland on April 24-24 and we want to send at least two teams to go. Roster categories are 8th grade u boys/coed; 8th grade u girls; 6th grade u coed. We will be asking our friends from Longhorn to join us as usual. Our team commitment is due by April 14 so check it out and commit now.
Longhorn Partnership
We’ll be continuing our rostering partnership with Longhorn until the end of the summer. That means we should have plenty of athletes and coaches for SWZ Championships and JOs plus other more local tournaments.
Athlete Recruiting
A quick note on the importance of your athletes to us and efforts to recruit them to participate in competitions or practices for other clubs.
First, if any family becomes aware of a coach, administrator, parent, or athlete from another club attempting to recruit an AquaTex athlete to train or compete with them notify me or one of our other coaches immediately.
Then, we understand that athletes and families have a lot of choices to make regarding their water polo clubs, and we’re always grateful for those who choose to be with us. We are continuously working on strengthening the culture of AquaTex Waterpolo. So we want to encourage our families to stick with us (we think we have a lot to offer!).
Therefore, any athlete who is found to have played for another club without the explicit permission of AquaTex coaches will be required to meet with me and Mark Parshall prior to returning. As a point of reference, Thunder in North Texas will kick any athlete off the team permanently if they play for another club without permission. We prefer not to go quite that far, but we also want to encourage athletes and families to stay with us.
As mentioned above, our relationship with Longhorn remains in place until the end of the summer. We will combine rosters with them whenever necessary. But we don’t ever recruit from any clubs, including Longhorn, and expect the same courtesy from them.
Athletes Contacting Coaches
I’m really pleased that several of our athletes are asking if I’d be willing to be a reference for a job. The answer to that is yes! However, families should know that athletes under 18 should contact me via a parent. If minor athletes contact me directly, if I do respond it will be to both the parent and the athlete. So better to simply contact me via a parent or guardian in the first place. Same with all of our coaches.
USA Water Polo Affiliation
We’re asking all our families and athletes who are practicing with AquaTex to update their USA Water Polo profiles so they are affiliated with AquaTex. All athlete’s IDs should display the AquaTex Waterpolo Club. And keep that photo updated too!
Lake Creek Schedule Update
A reminder of the club-wide update about our Lake Creek schedule from Coach Mark. We’ve made some changes of our own for the duration of our time at Lake Creek, until April 17ish (hopefully back to Micki sooner after which we’ll add Sunday practices again).
Weekly youth practices at Lake Creek will be Monday, Wednesday, AND Thursday, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
There will be no masters or Swim2Score (our updated splashball program) until we return to Micki.
Tournaments
Some major updates to our competitive calendar. Much more info on Junior Olympics coming soon.
- April 24-25, Texas Age Group Championships (TAGS), Pearland, TX.
- June 11-13, Southwest Zone Junior Olympics Qualifiers, TBD, TX
- July 17-20, National Junior Olympics Session 1 (boys), Irvine, CA
- July 22-25, National Junior Olympics Session 2 (girls), Irvine, CA
More Olympic Development Program
Two more clinics are available to anyone who wants to participate in the Southwest Zone’s Olympic Development Program. Those who make one of the multiple rosters for the program will likely participate at a West Region Championship in San Antonio.
- Sunday, April 11: North Texas Clinic, LISD Eastside Aquatic Center
- Sunday, April 18: Houston Clinic, Cy-Fair Natatorium
- Week of April 19: Roster Selections and Announcements
- Memorial Day Weekend: Tentative – ODP West Region Championships, San Antonio
That was a lot.
Good luck to all our high school athletes who may be competing this weekend! Have a great week and we’ll see you on Monday.
James
