Southwest Zone Championships
Results
As Coach Tom mentioned via GroupMe yesterday it was an historic weekend for both AquaTex and Longhorn. All six of our Longhorn teams are going to Junior Olympics after we experienced our best results ever at Zone Championships, which means more of our athletes and teams than ever will be playing at Junior Olympics in July. All credit to our tough and improving players, and to our families who were so immensely supportive, for such a successful three days of water polo. Here are all the final standings from SWZ Championships and seedings for NJOs. For scores, go to our event page.
| 10U Mixed (DNP) | 12U Girls | 12U Boys | 12U Mixed | 14U Girls | 14U Boys | 16U Girls | 16U Boys | 18U Girls | 18U Boys | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longhorn | Thunder | Pegasus | Mavericks | Thunder | Pegasus Blue | Thunder Black | Thunder Black | Thunder | Pegasus |
| 2 | Zilla | Thunder | Longhorn | VP Green | Thunder | CFWPC Blue | VP Green | VP Green | Southside Navy | |
| 3 | VPs | CFWPC | VPs | Southside | Southside | Southside | Thunder | |||
| 4 | Zilla | Triumph | Aqua Swift | Pegasus | CFWPC | Storm | ||||
| 5 | Cowtown | Thunder Silver | Longhorn | Longhorn | VP Green | |||||
| 6 | Longhorn | CFWPC Red | CFWPC | Mavericks | Lake Jackson | |||||
| 7 | Pegasus Red | Thunder Silver | VP Black | CFWPC | ||||||
| 8 | Zilla | Zilla | ||||||||
| 9 | Storm | Aqua Swift | ||||||||
| 10 | Aqua Swift | Longhorn | ||||||||
| 11 | VP Black | Southside Silver | ||||||||
| 12 | Cowtown | Mavericks | ||||||||
| 13 | VP Red | VP Black |
Fees
Each athlete who participated at SWZ Champs is charged $100 for the tournament to cover entry fee and coaches’ expenses. Contact me for my Venmo to make a payment, and thanks to those who already have.
Training
We will be utilizing our time at Micki this summer to do as much joint training with Longhorn as possible as we approach Junior Olympics. Any joint training of JOs teams will take place along side regular practice, not replace it. As of today after discussions with Tom our focus will be on 16u boys and 18u girls on Sundays from 9-11 AM (Masters from 8-9:30 as a bonus); 18u boys on Tuesdays from 7-9 PM (regular AQTX practice goes from 6-8 PM, plus masters on Sunday). We will update those plans as they are solidified for other teams and, perhaps, other training opportunities. Those current plans do not preclude us from making space at our practices for any and all the other age group/gender teams. We’ll continue to look in to it with Longhorn coaches.
We’re fortunate in that we can easily accommodate our Longhorn teammates at Micki. That is not the case at the Texas Swim Center. In order for AquaTex players to join Longhorn for practice those individuals would have to join TXLA. Thus our focus on working at Micki as much as possible.
Photos/Video
Thanks to those who shared photos and video from Houston. Anyone who’s willing to share those and more let me know and I can share a link to our Google Photos so you can upload them.
Sunday Masters
The aging masses have spoken and prefer early Sunday morning masters water polo over late Tuesday evening. So the schedule has changed. Until August 1, 2021 we’ll plan on masters scrimmaging from 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM leading in to our youth/HS practice. Don’t forget: no more on-deck, walk-in payments. Register for masters water polo via our Team Unify portal and make sure your USA Water Polo membership is current.
Suit Fitting
I’ll be sending our RYTE fitting kit back to the vendor at the end of this week so come to practice and let me know you’d like to try one on (they’re the best looking suits in the Southwest Zone, c’mon.). Try one on for size and then order directly from the fabricator. Feedback about our suits has been positive and they are among the least expensive on the water polo market while still being very high quality (our friends from RYTE formerly worked for Turbo and Zumo). And they are shipped directly to the address of your choice. AquaTexans are STRONGLY advised to purchase a team suit, but not required (nudge nudge). And several of our female athletes have said that the sizes match those of their other suits, in case you wondered.
Summer Tournaments
Our calendar page is now updated to include the one directly managed by the Southwest Zone so you can see all the USAWP tournaments and other events that are upcoming.
As for scheduling, we will not be sending teams to the Dallas Summer Classic (renamed the Endless Summer Classic, I think) June 26-27. And my understanding is that Sun’s Out Guns Out is likely to be cancelled and replaced, possibly, with one or more tournaments around July 10-11 and/or 17-18. We’ll obviously look for other opportunities and share any updates as they emerge.
Online Parent Meeting
Thanks to everyone who attended our online parent meeting on June 9. Bad news is that I can’t find the meeting recording for those who wanted to watch it. But I’ll put together an outline of the things we covered so you have a general idea, and am happy to follow up with anyone who would like to.
See you on the deck,
James
