Sunday, 18th September 2005
Taste of WaterPolo in the US
Today i got to see the 2005 Ohio Cup, a waterpolo tournament held by the Central Ohio Waterpolo organisation. I had been (mistakenly) been lead to believe that Waterpolo in Ohio was non-existent or barely popular. A couple of weeks, i happened to be surfing around and saw a couple of waterpolo links which finally lead me to the US waterpolo Website and from there to the central ohio waterpolo website www.centralohiowaterpolo.com. I was pleasaantly suprised to find out that waterpolo has been going strong under my very nose and contrary to my belief, the sport is very popular on Ohio. I excitedly dashed off an e-mail to the coach, Geoff Gear asking for a chance to visit practise and meet. Geoff was extremely kind enough to accomodate my request. On a slightly dissapointing note was when he informed me that the club season was over and only the high school season was on. So membership options and me getting a chance to (desperately) play some polo myself would have to wait till the next club season in march. (bummer !!!). I did get a chance to catch the teams (Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kibourne) which practise at Worthington High School in Worthington at practise last week and also meet geoff.
He also invited me as a special guest for the 2005 Ohio Cup tournament which was held yesterday and today. The games were real good, competitive, especially considering the age of the kids involved (high school kids of grade 11, 10 etc). The biggest difference i saw between kids here and back home (besides the obvious physique difference) is the sheer numbers and enthusiasm of the players and teams. I'm a firm believer the to build a good team, competition in the form of more players is an essential quantity. Having a large players bases keeps the starter (main) team players on their toes and prevents complacency. So seeing 16 teams and over 200 players all at one place was great and showed the popularity of the sport here. And on top of it, today's tournament was guys only. And from what geoff tells me, more girls are into polo and guys. Boy thatz a suprise. Geoff must be pleased because both his main teams (Thomas worthington and Worthington Kilboure) did really well making the finals and third place respectively. So the urge to play waterpolo only increased after seeing the game. Only time will tell if the desire is satiated soon. But first need to get into atleast 'a sorry excuse for a former professional athlete'shape!!!
Posted by Nikhil on Sunday, 18th September 2005 in Sport | Nonsense