NCAA

I tagged this blog and named it NCAA because that is what I am thinking about today. This is the time of year when players are contacted by US schools for 2009 scholarships and it takes our focus to that part of the world for awhile. 

Of course we know that Breda, captain of the Jr National Team, will get offers from schools but there are others who are being looked at too. Like the guy in my last blog picture, Brendan Domoney. He plays in California in the summer, smart guy, so has some people there paying very close attention to him. He has a scrappy quality that most US boys with speed swimming backgrounds do not match until later in a collegiate career. He is possibly the most overlooked male player in Canada right now (but since we know nothing about NT depth charts we can't be sure). 

Old Pic from the late '90's

Girl in front NCAA bound, behind 2007-08 pro from Italy

I coached for a long time without supporting NCAA play for Canadians; didn't fight it but didn't support it either. It wasn't until I had female players being overlooked for national teams while they were offered pro contracts in Italy, or having girls told to move to Montreal to get support, that I decided it was wrong to not help them improve down south. There are no english speaking female players who have moved to Montreal to the Training Centre and have graduated from a Canadian University there. That is sad since it should be possible to combine post secondary education and training. In fact, 2 players from the Hawaii NCAA program combined studies and training that still allowed them to win Olympic gold medals this past summer after a brief return home to prepare with their national team.

Coaches in Canada have been talking for some time about using National Team cards (financial support) to help Ontario university programs attract players and keep them in Canada while boosting the level and status of the OUA league. The only thing stopping that is .... well, nothing should stop that. It just is not supported by NT coaches right now.

Hopefully I will be around long enough to help make the changes to our domestic program that I have been after for a decade or so. In fact, this past weekend the youngest member of our club told me I could not retire for 10 more years. He wanted to be sure I was coaching until he was 18. I would say that is one of the warmest compliments I have had in a very long time. But, I don't quite have 10 years of high end coaching left in me.

Finally, a new blog entry

It's been quite some time since I last sat down to update this blog, sorry. I have been busy but also preoccupied with negative BS in the water polo world that I didn't want to write about.

This past weekend we had some friendly inter-club games with the Saskatchewan Provincial Team at Pan Am Pool. That gave us a really good early season snapshot of what the players know and how strong and fit they are. The absence of game knowledge was surprising for the girls and that is not explained by the fact that their national team members were away at other events. The boys, that was a different story, they picked up ahead of where the finished last year.

After 2 weeks of formal training this fall we have a decent fitness level and good passing mechanics and strength. What was poor was pass selection and leg strength with the ball. We'll deal with that in weeks ahead as we do drills that include partner work. The best thing to come out of the weekend was the interplay between Heather and the boys.

Some people thought I had lost my mind when I named Heather, a 20 year old woman, to coach an 18& under boys team. Hopefully this weekend helped people see what I am after as she was very calm, direct and specific about what she wanted and expected. The boys were better each game and seemed to follow what they were asked to. There is more excitement to come as Heather starts to share some experience from her pro career in Italy with these guys.

Now that Breda has finished her NCAA visits to the tropics and Shae is home from CSL we can turn our attention to serious training and getting ready for the Sask Open. That will be a good time to look at teams in relation to real games vs training.

Symposium Comments, Day 3

I had some bad feelings at this years leadership symposium. It was, in fact, not about leadership and only 1 national coach was present. No Men's coaches even though they had just been to an historic Olympic Games, no Junior Team coaches even though club coaches were there to hear their plans. Pretty much a wash out in that respect.

There were plenty of contradictions presented to us as well. The big push in years to come is to concentrate efforts in what is referred to as MMA's (major metropolitan areas), specifically -  Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The women's program is actually only focusing on Toronto to Montreal, nothing to the west. No mention of water polo support for the prairies or the maritimes at any level. That is consistent with past history so at least now it is being talked about openly. The funny/sad part is that there is some sort of illusion that water polo will be added to the Canada Games in future. That is odd since Water Polo Canada is shrinking the base, the provincial support, and killing all domestic competition beyond Cadet age.

I am thinking of writing a large blog on national team centralization and how it is killing women's domestic water polo while leading to slumping national team performance. That effort will take some time though since I am busy with club registration right now and getting 2008-09 going for the players who I can actually help.

Leadership Summit, Day 1

Hmmm, not sure how this is going to roll out. I had a few chances to raise points tonight, to get dialogue going in a specific direction, and that was positive.

I keep bringing up the topics of partnerships, dialogue and responsibility. It remains to be seen if this resonates with more than the few people who thanked me after the meeting for raising the points I did.

This is a very big group of people, 105 in total. Maybe 25 or so are young BC coaches so it is not a genuine cross section from Canada. But it is a good start. We'll see how Saturday goes before I have specific observations about the dialogue.

Daily Blogs Coming Soon

Hotel I will be at this weekend

As I get back into the swing of things I am starting to have meaningful things to say. Soon I will return to blogging on a daily basis. Topics I may cover are; the new designation of elite training with Bushido as the High Performance Centre; rosters and philosophy for 2008-09; why no Neptune girls will train at a high performance level; what the CSL is and how it has influenced domestic play.

This weekend I will be at a national water polo leadership summit in BC. At first I was under the impression this was to be a sharing of ideas and a coming together of ideas from all corners of the sport. I was excited by that possibility and the chance that the philosophy behind the old "Leadership Symposium" might be returning. Sadly though, I now have the agenda for the weekend and it is a not good sign. We have 2 days of meetings, much of it around Long Term Athlete Development, the NCCP and new theories in athlete development and coaching. Oddly the summit will not follow the theories underlying the NCCP and instead we will be sitting down for the whole time as people "tell us things". We won't be sharing much, just hearing what others have already decided on and want us to "rubber stamp".

You can be pretty sure I will have some things to say about the weekend. I'll have my laptop with me (as always) and may even do a blog from there if my mind is blown by something unexpected.

Back in the Saddle

It was a pretty long summer of very limited internet access so there was not much Blog activity. That will end now as I am back in Winnipeg planning the 2008-09 season.

I was very happy to see a Canadian referee that I know and respect get chosen to do the Olympic men's gold medal match. Gaetan is a great ambassador for the sport and his having been a Manitoba coach at one time is an interesting curiosity.

This week I am meeting with coaching candidates to sort out roles for the coming season. There will be some radical changes in staffing and in practice structure. All the juggling of people and resources will be sorted out soon and seasonal plans outlined for everyone.

Good News

Today Water Polo Canada named its Junior Team for the Junior Pan Am Games later this summer. Of course, Breda and Shae are both on the squad. This wasn't a surprise but it's always good to have the details confirmed by an official selection so everyone can relax and get focused on serious final prep. Congratulations girls!

Sorry that I am not blogging more regularly this summer. It's a down time from coaching, recovery is the focus, and we are also very busy moving right now. That means there is not a lot of water polo news to blog about and my energy is low for manufacturing topics. Don't worry, it will be back to normal soon enough.