Stanford Water Polo Club

Kick-Off Meeting Re-Cap: For those of you that were unable to attend Monday’s summer kick-off meeting, the following information was covered……..

Welcome To Summer 2009: Coach Vargas, Coach Barnea, and the entire Stanford Water Polo Club Staff would like to welcome all our new, and returning, club families to what should be another great summer of water polo here at Stanford.

All Club BBQ, Thursday June 4th: We strongly encourage all our athletes and families to attend the club bbq on Thursday, June 4th. The bbq will mark the first time that the entire Stanford Club family (Boys Club, Girls Club, Men’s & Women’s Varsity Teams) will all be at the same place, at the same time. We have a fun filled evening planned, which will include the Stanford Varsity teams working the grill, a musical appearance by Stanford Red-Shirt Junior Cody Wiesen, and a once in a lifetime raffle that you won’t want to miss. Raffle prizes include: A customized new Flip Video HD camera, A 2-hour clinic with Stanford Women’s/Men’s Coaching Staff, a ball and trading card autographed by US Team Capitan and former Stanford All-American Tony Azevedo, and the opportunity to be one of four persons to have the opportunity to be a ball boy at the June 7th USA vs. Serbia game at the Avery Aquatics Center. Bring your blankets, set up a comfortable family picnic, and sit back and enjoy a relaxing evening with your Stanford Club family and friends. BBQ and raffle tickets should be purchased at http://wopo2009.com/BBQ/

Summer 2009 Strength Development Program: Stanford University Strength and Conditioning Coach Ron Forbes will be offering the Cardinal Water Polo Physical Development Academy to Stanford Club athletes. Cardinal Water Polo Physical Development Academy is a unique opportunity to train each student athlete for the physical and metabolic demands of water polo. Training is provided to each athlete by the same strength and conditioning coaches, and using the same facilities, as the Stanford Cardinal Men's and Women's Varsity water polo teams. This is an intense academy designed to provide the fundamental components necessary to maximize athletic performance and physical development. All workouts will be held at Stanford University's new state of the art Maples Annex Sports Performance Center, using the same facilities as current Stanford athletes. For more detailed information and registration, visit the Cardinal Warrior Sports website http://cardinalwarriorsports.com/waterpolo1.htm

USA vs. Serbia, June 7th: The Avery Aquatics Center will once again play host to one of the best games held this year on US soil when team USA takes on Serbia. This is going to be an opportunity for all our club athletes to see some of the best players in the world competing in our own backyard. Stanford Water Polo Club has some promotional fliers available for anyone who has access to a community bulletin board. Just email Coach Barnea at your convenience to arrange for a time to pick one up (email). Game and ticket information can be found on the USA Water Polo Website https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp/Products/ListEventTickets.asp?prd_CustomFld1=1696.

Summer 2009 Coaches Introduced: On behalf of the entire coaching staff, we are looking forward to getting summer workouts, scrimmages, and games underway. For those of you who did not have the opportunity to meet our coaches at the kick-off meeting, please check back to the “Coaches” section of our web site later next week for updated information on our great summer coaching staff.

Stanford Water Polo Club To Host 2009 Junior Olympics: Stanford Water Polo’s history of hosting some of the greatest water polo events in the country will continue this summer as our club will be hosting the 2009 S&R Sport National Junior Olympics (JOs). The planning for this year’s tournament is well underway, and we are looking forward to putting on the most memorable Junior Olympics of all time. There will be numerous volunteer opportunities, and anyone interested in helping out should email volunteers@jo2009.com at your convenience. The most up-to date information on the tournament can be found at http://www.jo2009.com/index.aspx. We will once again attempt to qualify as many teams as possible for this year’s Junior Olympics (July 25th - July 28th for boys). In order to participate at the Junior Olympics, teams must first qualify through the zone-qualifying tournament. (See club calendar for each age group's qualifying dates). In order to be considered for a JO Team, athletes must commit and declare themselves eligible by submitting the Junior Olympic Declaration of Commitment along with the $200 deposit by Wednesday, May 27th . (The JO Declaration of Commitment form will print out with the signature pages once you submit your online registration. We encourage you to submit the Commitment form and deposit with your registration materials.) Selection to a JO team is based on, but not limited to, the following criteria: overall ability level, work ethic, and longevity with the Club. Athletes selected for Junior Olympic teams to play in the Qualifying Tournament will be posted on our web site by Friday, June 5th .

Stanford Water Polo Club, A Year In Review: The past year has been an exciting one for Stanford Water Polo Club. Last summers JOs was highlighted by two gold medals won by our 16&U A team in the platinum division and our 14&U A team in the gold division. Also bringing home some hardware was our 18&U A team bringing home bronze in the platinum division, while our 18&U B team finished a great run with a 7th place finish in the platinum division. The fall saw five former club members participate in the NCAA Water Polo Championships; Jimmie Sandman (Stanford/Menlo HS), Steven Wright (Stanford/Menlo HS), Chris Jacobson (Stanford/Santa Cruz HS), Arjan Lightenberg (USC/Gunn HS), and Brian Benedetti (LMU/St. Francis HS). Our High School athletes had an incredible fall season. Club athletes were heavily represented in the CCS Championships. CCS Championships were won in both division I and Division II by Stanford Coaches Terry O’Donnell (St. Francis) and Brian Kreutzkamp (Sacred Heart Prep), while both DI and DII MVPs were awarded to club athletes Miguel Matin de Bustamante (St. Francis) and Paul Rudolph (Sacred Heart Prep). In all, 33 Club athletes were selected to the All-CCS teams, and 10 club athletes were selected to the All-America teams. The Fall also saw our Age Groupers do a great job in Pacific Zone League play, and some of our 14&unders took a great training trip to Southern California to compete against some of the top club teams in Orange County. The Winter was highlighted by some great intra-squad scrimmages, club athletes participating in the new USWP ODP Tryouts, more great play from our Age Groupers in the Pacific Zone Winter League, and three teams that traveled down south to participate in the Los Alamitos WinterFest. The spring provided our high school athletes with a couple workouts per week while they focused on developing their speed and stamina with their high school swim teams, yet more competition for our age group athletes in the Pacific Zone Spring League, and for the first time ever, we brought three Age Group teams down to San Diego for the San Diego County Cup. To finish of the spring season, Coach Barnea took 12 high school athletes to Hungary where they spent 9 days competing against some of the best club teams in Hungary, while traveling through the cities of Eger and Budapest. It was a great trip and we are already looking forward to the next European club adventure.

Local Tournaments A Plenty: We have our teams entered in numerous local tournaments this summer, and will continue to update the web site once new tournament entries are confirmed. Please continue to check back on the “Practice Groups & Schedule” and “Calendar” pages of our web site as the summer goes along.

Pre-Summer vs. Summer Workouts: Please make note of the switch date (June 15th) from our pre-summer to summer workout schedules. Details on the different practice days/times/locations can be found on the “Practice Groups & Schedule” page of our web site.

Practice Group Assignments: We have posted the preliminary practice group assignments for the upcoming 2009 Summer Session on our “Practice Groups & Schedule” page of our web site. If you do not see your name listed, it is because we are missing one or more of the required registration materials. We will not allow any athlete to participate in practice until all registration materials have been turned in. To find out what registration materials you may be missing, please email Dawn at your convenience (email) Please note: The coaching staff will continue to evaluate the placement of all athletes during the first couple weeks at practice, and will make any, and all, necessary adjustments as the session goes along. Beginning June 15, we will move approximately 15 athletes currently listed in the HS 2 group up to the HS 1B group. If you have any questions about practice group assignments please email Coach Barnea at your convenience. (email)