There’s a lot to cover. First, big thanks to all our coaches who are taking care of business while I’m overseas with the family. I’ll return on June 3 and am (obviously) still in communication with y’all.
WTTS
The schedule is out. Coaches Matt and Savvy will be updating all our participants via GroupMe. Good luck and have a great weekend in San Antonio.
Summer Schedule
May 27-28 Weekend
Keep an eye on GroupMe for announcements from Coach Alon about practice this weekend. It’s entirely possible we’ll cancel since most will be in San Antonio or out of town for the holiday.
Summer Schedule
The summer training schedule is here:
High School Waterpolo Training Group
– Tuesday 7 – 9 PM
– Friday 7:15 – 9:15 PM
– Saturday (select): 10 AM – noon
– Sunday: 10 AM – noon
Age Group Waterpolo Training Group
– Tuesday 6-8 PM
– Friday 7:15 – 9:15 PM
– Saturday (select): 9 AM – 11 AM
– Sunday: 9 AM – 11 AM
Novice Waterpolo Training Group
– Tuesday 6-7 PM
– Friday 7:15 – 8:15 PM
– Saturday (select): 9 AM – 10 AM
– Sunday: 9 AM – 10 AM
Swim2Score
– Sunday 10 AM – 11 AM
Masters Waterpolo
– TBD
Regarding our Tuesday practices, we may consolidate them on occasion and start only at 7PM to accommodate coaches’ schedules. A reminder that our goofy summer schedule is meant to maximize the amount of deep-water training we get during the pool’s busiest time of year.
Junior Olympics Update
By Junior Olympics I mean the JOs Qualifier Tournament, The Southwest Zone Festival, and then Sessions 1-3 of Junior Olympics themselves. Here’s an update, and some task items for those of you participating.
First, if you haven’t done so already all participants must have Gold USAWP membership and have submitted valid Date of Birth verification.
If you are playing for a non-AquaTex Team (Longhorn, Alamo Area) you need to change your club affiliation. If you are not in communication with Longhorn or Alamo Area let me know.
14u boys
14u boys are paid and registered for the JOs Qualifier/JOs Session 1. A couple reminders:
Qualifier games will begin on Friday, June 9 itself so prepare for early Friday morning games (I’ll be checking in on Thursday afternoon). The location in Cypress again with our games likely to all be at the CFISD Natatorium next to Pridgeon Stadium.
Our aim is to place top six in the category which would earn us a trip to California! If we don’t achieve that we will most definitely play at Session 3 JOs in North Texas at the end of July instead of at Session 1. I personally won’t be making California travel plans until after the Qualifer tournament but advise our families to at least begin looking for or even booking refundable flights and hotels near Irvine, CA for for Session 1.
18u boys
18u boys are registered and paid for Session 3 of JOs and will be registered and paid for the SWZ Festival on or before May 31. Remember that these two tournaments are basically separate: one does not affect the other. There is no qualifier for Session 3. The Festival is a great warmup tournament for our team and we will enter it, but athletes are not required to be on the SWZ Festival roster to play at Session 3.
Plans are already afoot among parents for traveling to Session 3. Keep an eye on GroupMe for hotel suggestions, etc.
Also, we’re very pleased to have Kaden from Longhorn joining our roster as a goalie. Thanks to him and his family! We’ll make introductions very soon.
10u mixed, 12u mixed, 14u girls, 18u girls
- 10u mixed: Ryan, Grey, and Emeric are all on Longhorn’s 10u roster and will attempt to qualify for Session 2
12u mixed: Ilay and Neel are on Longhorn’s 12u mixed team attempting to qualify for Session 2- 14u girls: Izzy is on board with Alamo Area, which will play at Session 3
- 18u girls: We have until May 31 to assemble an AquaTex 18u girls team. If that doesn’t work out then any AquaTex 18u girl who wants to play at JOs will be placed on Longhorn’s Session 3 roster. Let Coach James know what your plans are as soon as possible.
Session 3 Team Dinner
For those headed to Session 3 plan on a team dinner on July 26 tentatively set for 6:30 PM at the Black Walnut Cafe in Coppell. We’ll both celebrate our participation at JOs and (unfortunately) say farewell to Coach Alon.
Gear
I see that some have ordered our new backpack and it looks great. For JOs in particular it would be great to see our athletes donning that gear. You can see our Arena collection here.
A JOs t-shirt is coming. Promise!
CenTex Consolidated High School Team
A reminder that we’re going to attempt to field a team of high schoolers this fall who do not have a UIL team to play for. And, the good news is that Houston will also be fielding a consolidated team in addition to the one in Dallas. So there’s competition to be had for those who want it. If you haven’t already, fill out this form to show your interest, and please do share it with anyone you know who wants to play high school water polo this fall.
See you on the deck (soon).