This week marks the beginning of my 50th year in the sport of Water Polo; started with my Delta High School team in Hamilton, Ontario in 1965. Ive decided to do a weekly post to share some memories and hopefully some interesting stories from this long journey. Ive shared this pathway with so many dear friends, many talented athletes, coaches, officials - we shared great victories, humiliating defeats.....tears of joy and of sadness. The stories will not be in chronological order but rather, I will jump around from year to year as a particular event comes back to me. Todays story is of the Canadian Water Polo Dream Team, a private project which I launched in the summer of 1995 - 20 of Canadas most promising 15 and 16 year-old male athletes were offered the opportunity to participate in a 4 year project which involved training camps and international trips - completely self-funded for the first 2 years - many alumni helped us by sponsoring the athletes. We visited Mexico, Cuba, Florida, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Germany and Kuwait - achieving a couple of significant firsts in Canadian Mens Water Polo history. 16 athletes spent a memorable week in July 1996 at my cottage prior to our European Trip as well as a crazy one-week stay at my home in Ottawa - all the players living in our basement and being fed 3 meals a day - Louis Zavodni eating his usual 16 pancakes each morning - Great memories - the bench-clearing brawl against Brazil at the Puma Cup - the alternative-living conditions at the nudist camp in Berlin - living like Kings at the Hotel Nacional in Havana Cuba thanks to the incredible financial support of Robert Lantos - Dusan Lazarevics heroics versus the United States at the Americas Championship in Cuba - the first ever Mens victory against Cuba - the amazing defensive performance of Kevin Carroll who completely shut-out Tony Azevedo in the gold medal final in Havana - I have to acknowledge also the wonderful support I received from Carl Burt, Gaetan Turcotte and Bill Meyer - something that contributed greatly to the quality of the project. The athletes with whom I worked over those 4 years were truly awe-inspiring - tremendous drive, focus, competitiveness (even mischievousness from time to time.....) the famous water balloon fight in Budapest and the meters upon meters of head-up fly, crawl kick with a ball punishment that ensued.........thanks also to many amazing parents who hosted us in their homes and did so much for their sons .....Mr and Mrs Marks, Klara Miller just to name a few - I am so proud too of how all the members of the Dream Team have gone on to great success in their personal lives and some have even started families of their own. The Dream Team is certainly one of the great highlights of my career. Hugs to ever one of you - if any of the guys have photos theyd like to post you can add them to this - Ill see if I can track down some more....
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 15:56:59 +0000
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