There will be errors on this page, factual and typographical. I am new to the sport. I think most of this is accurate. It is very, very easy to google specifics for those interested.
Updates
November 15, 2015: we just got back from the tournament. For the girls, Santa Barbara 805 took the championsip in a very, very close game, perhaps the best game of the tournament. SoCal A (Huntington Beach, et al) went ahead 2 - 0 and I thought it was going to be a blow-out, but SB 805 came back. Tied at 5 - 5. And then SB 805 took the lead at 7 - 5, and it appeared the momentum had shifted. SoCal A looked like a slightly better team in the first half, and their players were clearly much bigger, but the SB 805 were fast, wiry, and aggressive. It was 9 - 8 when SoCal A was charged with a penalty -- the only penalty throw of the game, and SB 805 went ahead 10 - 8. With 26 seconds to go it was 10 - 9; it was a real fight to maintain possession of the ball; SoCal A took a wild shot with 8 seconds to go and that was it. SB 805 wins; the photo is already on Twitter. I am being told that Jewel Roemer, SB 805, is someone to watch at the collegiate level in a few years.
Original Post
I haven’t had so much fun in a long time. I wasn’t looking forward to this weekend — three full days of water polo, and it looked like I was going to be trapped for all three days in a natatorium watching 14-and-under play water polo.
Wow, was I surprised. This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I couldn’t wait to return to Day 2. This is the USA Water Polo TYR Champions Cup, with 17 teams represented from all over the United States. Most brought both a girls team and a boys team, but not all. There is one local team, our team from South Lake (sort of local): ten teams from California, two teams from Chicago: one team from Seattle: and one team from Hawaii. I’ll have to check where the other teams are from.
The southern California teams include: Rose Bowl, SoCal (A), SoCal (B), San Diego, and Santa Barbara. From the Bay area, Diablo, Lamorinda, CC United, and 680.
Southern California is clearly the capital of water polo. They crushed the competition yesterday. Absolutely crushed the competition. I’m told that whereas our team practices one or two hours two or three times a week, the California teams practice three hours a day, five days a week. But the really big deal is the size of the SoCal team -- be sure to click on their website.
Our granddaughter’s team was one of those crushed by the southern California teams but our girls were not upset. It’s all about the sport. More on that later (see below). The great news: our granddaughter was thrilled to hear that her nemesis, the Houston Viper Pigeons, were also crushed by SoCal. The other team’s nemesis, St Marks in Dallas did not participate. I like to think they were afraid of taking on the buff SoCal boys.
I enjoy people watching. Yesterday I stood on the second landing overlooking the entry way down on the first floor. It was the perfect vantage point to watch the teams arrive. The southern California boys were right out of Hollywood casting: buff, beach blond, sunglasses, some with hoodies, all looking very cool — it looked like the LA Lakers had arrived. The girls — I hate to call them that — they are young women — just as the “boys” are young men — were much more diverse. A lot of Asian, but more specific than that, I couldn’t say. They were probably a mix of Hispanic and Asian, but it was really hard to say. My wife is Japanese-Hispanic; our closest friends in Los Angeles are Japanese and Chinese, so I have a pretty good eye for identifying Asian ethnicities but in this case I was flummoxed yesterday. Maybe Hawaiian mix. I don’t know.
Everyone, I mean everyone, in the 14-and-under group had an iPhone or a iPhone lookalike. I have nothing to base this on but my gut feeling is that many parents and children younger than 10 have a mix of Samsung and old iPhones, but those aged 12 to 22 years old in America predominantly have Apple iPhones. I cant’ imagine many 14-year-olds begging their parents for an Apple iPhone lookalike. A lot of the iPhone lookalikes with bumper pads look like Fischer toys.
Well, some of the boys from southern California have arrived. They are on the deck, bouncing their balls against the wall. Buff, beach blond, the sunglasses and hoodies are off and replaced with Speedos that are not much more than silk handkerchiefs. Small handkerchiefs. Alexander the Greek would have enjoyed watching water polo.
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The water polo tournament is for 14-and-under. It appears the SoCal girls — young women — are all fourteen years old and will have their 15th birthday the day after the tournament ends. They also have about 15 women on each team, giving them seven on the bench. The bench is incredibly important in a high-intensity sport like water polo. The average age on our team is probably close to 12 years old. We have one 9-year-old who is not much taller than our 16-month-old granddaughter.
I mentioned above that our team was really, really impressed with the friendliness and fair play by the SoCal girls — top-rate all around. In the first game yesterday, they pulled out to 8 - 0 in the first period (of four periods). But they did not run up the score. By the end of the game they had 12 points. They easily could have hit 40. But this next little vignette almost brought tears to one mother’s eyes. When the score was 12 - 3 near the end of the game, our team’s 9-year-old threw a weak ball to the goal. It could have easily been stopped. The goalie missed it, letting it wash in. That little 9-year-old had scored her first goal in a national water polo tournament.
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Down in the lobby is a blond Californian, about 35 I would say. He appears to be a surfer. I didn’t ask. He was selling water polo jewelry — really classy stuff. He was here last year for the same tournament and was back again this year. His dad owns a jewelry store in the diamond district in downtown Los Angeles.Checking out the water polo tournament rosters, apparently surprised to see a team from Chicago, down here in Texas:
While here in the DFW area, he was staying with a family friend who had just moved from SoCal to the DFW area two months ago. Their families lived across the street from each other. She was the typical SoCal drop-dead beautiful blond, about 28 years old, I suppose. But she was not a Valley Girl. She was a joy to talk to. I had to laugh at her stories about how confusing it is to get around the DFW area. She sounded just like my daughter when she first got her a couple years ago. They both admitted to crying when they couldn’t get to where they wanted to go. Both of them said the same thing: they used GPS and on the freeway they could see the destination off to their right, but they couldn’t find the off-ramp, no matter how many times they “circled” the area.
I told her that it would take two years, but in two years, she would realize how incredibly good the road system is here in the DFW area. It’s incredible. I love it. There are some unique innovations the Texans have come up with. I think I’ve talked about them before: the frontage roads which add two to four lanes to all major highway systems; and, the “turn-arounds” which allow one to circle a two-mile area for days if lost, and never having to stop once. Except to refuel. For $1.37 / gallon (at least at one station in the area — no kidding — a local gasoline price war — which I doubt will last long — once their point is made).
Clapping when our team scored!
Lamorinda -- California, Lafeyette, Moraga, Orinda
Greenwich -- Stamford, CT
Thunder -- Southlake, TX
Vanguard -- Huntington Beach, CA
Rose Bowl -- Pasadena, CA
West Sub -- Naperville & western suburbs of Chicago
CC United -- Lafeyette, CA
Mid Valley -- San Gabriel Valley, CA
Viper Pigeons -- Houston, TX
SD Shores -- San Diego, CA
SoCal -- scores of participating locations in southern California
NW Orcas -- Seattle, WA
680 -- Northern California
Chicago Park -- Chicago, IL
SB 805 -- Santa Barbara, CA
Diablo -- northern California, Diablo area, Bay Area
Island -- Hawaii
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