Welcome Calgary Selects Renegade Players!
Selects and Provincials – John Csikos Feb 4 2010
Selects to Provincials:
To finish off this year Alberta Water Polo will run the first games of nationals (provincial play-downs, required by Water Polo Canada) during the March provincials – they will strive to make the event 1 day as much as possible.
That should have two outcomes
Great provincial games as all select players will be in attendance, for both play downs and community club games.
Some tune up games for up coming events.
Play downs that will occur:
U16 Boys – 3 game single round robin – for National seeding between Torpedo Gold, Torpedo Black and Tsunami. The standings will secure the following National seeds First will be seeded 6th Second seeded 16th and third will be seeded 22nd U18 Girls play downs 1game Renegade All Blacks vs Renegade Gold, 1st will get the number 3 seed and second will get the 8th seed
Community Clubs and Provincials:
We are now in year three of the combination of community club and select water polo.
Many positives are happening – the sport is growing and we are allowing kids and families to choose more than one level of play. There are also some growing pains and the two levels are not always supported by each other.
The development of community clubs was a long standing personal goal – the primary
reasons for making the program changes were:
Have many more people play Water Polo - the project was named operation 660 by 2011. We will fall short of 660 players in the Calgary area, unless we also add a third thread that being Jr High and High School Championships – these would provide additional feeder systems for the community clubs who in turn feed the Select clubs …
Create a consistent and deep feeder system for the Torpedo’s and Renegades as they strive to fulfill their mission statement of winning National medals and placing players on various national teams.
Create an environment where we get many games in the Calgary and Alberta areas at reasonable expense.
The Select program has huge requirements re training, travel and dollars – this has caused many players /families to forgo their Community club commitments in favour of catching up school, saving money or just taking a weekend off – all understandable but off the mark as far as getting great games at home.
Obviously if all the select players show up for Alberta provincials the games will indeed be at a high level. Pick up and combined teams fulfill this goal to a much smaller intent.
Last year – we were on the brink of a best ever provincial championship until the weather hit us hard.
If this years Tsunami MAKO Cadet boys game last month is any indication we should have a great provincials this year. Very exciting to me (I have talked it up for years) is that Sask will bring some of their best teams to challenge our community clubs at this years provincials.
Let’s all make Provincials the championship it deserves to be.
As this season ends – we will have to have a summit of Calgary Water Polo – to redirect the vision and move forward in other ways " seasonality , age groups etc.. "
I look forward to these discussions and the future of Calgary Water Polo – within Calgary Alberta Canada and beyond…
2009-2010 Season
Calgary Select families:
I am happy to open this year’s registration welcome letter with a quick reflection on the year past.
The Calgary Water Polo Community has started to thrive with the various community clubs involvement in City Leagues, Provincial leagues and the Provincial Championships. If not for the weather, 2009 Provincials would have been the best provincials ever.
I look forward to this season of Community Polo as it once again culminates at the Provincial Championships. I am 90% sure we will have the Regina Squids in both Cadet and Youth Provincials this year more spice for our players.
The strong community club program and number of games has now started to reflect itself at the Select level.
The Calgary Selects (Renegade and Torpedo’s combined) have just had a best ever season performance – never before have both clubs played so well in the same year. After the 2009 National Championships season the Calgary selects were firmly in the running to be ranked top program in the country. Calgary entered 11 teams in the various Nationals coming away with 5 medals including our first ever Cadet Championship Gold to the Renegade girls. Medal winners were: Senior Men (Silver), Youth Men (bronze), Masters Men (bronze) Youth Women (Bronze) and Cadet Girls (Gold). Maybe the most exciting part is that we can expect similar results next year. The program also showed incredible depth with second teams entered in Youth and Cadet Championships. Put it in the dream department but I think we have so much depth in girls right now that we could have TWO top 4 finishes at next years Youth Girls Nationals.
The select program will evolve further this season to the point where we will pre-select our Renegade and Torpedo teams based on previous seasons and community club Polo. We will also expand by offering enhanced practice for interested Atoms and Bantams whether or not they are interested or ready to commit to a full Select program. This new initiative we hope will expand the number of Atoms and Bantams developing excellent Water Polo skills for the future.
These are exciting times for both Calgary Water Polo and the Calgary Select clubs.
I am reminded of the Torpedo and Renegade mission –"compete for National medals, put players on provincial and National teams, and grow the sport in Calgary". The 2009 season went a long way and 2010 looks even better.
5 boys playing for team Alberta ‘95 in California 2009
7 girls playing for Team Alberta ‘95 in California 2009
15 Girls playing for team Alberta ’91 and ’94 teams in Europe 2009
Kelly McKee playing for Team Canada Jr. Worlds 2009
Scott Robinson, Jared McElroy, Oliver Vikalo and Marc Santamaria playing for Team Canada Jr. Men at Junior Worlds 2009.
Jared McElroy and Emily Csikos played for Canada’s National Teams at FINA World Championships Rome 2009. Emily on the second best team in the Worlds (Silver Medal), with a very close final game against the US.
Here’s to having a great 2009 -2010 season and a special thanks to the great parents who send us these incredible kids year after year.
