Dolphins aren’t supposed to hang out in the prairies, their heart is closer to the coast.
The coast is exactly where several members of the Foothills Dolphins Water Polo Club are heading for the Valentine’s Day International Water Polo tournament in Victoria, B.C.
The Dolphins hosted a provincial Atom and Bantam tournament on the weekend at the Okotoks Recreation Centre. Several of the Dolphins will be on two Calgary Selects teams who will play in Victoria.
Michael Duval, 11, will be busy. He will be playing on the Selects co-ed Atom team as well as the boys’ Bantam team.
“My coach in Turner Valley is now the coach of the Dolphins, so I decided to come here,” said Duval, who is one of several Dolphins from Turner Valley.
Duval plays “hole” for the Dolphins.
“I’m right in the centre in front of the (opposition’s) net,” Duval said. “The hole is usually the bigger and stronger guys.”
Duval is one of the Dolphins’ harder shooters and he gets some of that power from his love of the game.
“I like water polo for the team sport,” the St. Mary’s School student said. “It has a lot of adrenaline in it.”
Teammate Tanner Potaka helps get some of that adrenaline going. He swims against an opponent who is on the opposite end of the pool, to the ball floating in the centre of the pool to get things started.
Sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle.
“You get dunked a lot in this sport,” Potaka said.
Potaka was one of the top swimmers with the Okotoks Stingrays Summer Swim Club in 2010. The experience helped him for water polo as the swim club gives him the endurance to play water polo.
Chayle Clark from Okotoks made the Atom Selects as a goalie in her first year of water polo. She is one of the few Selects who doesn’t swim competitively so it took her awhile to get her strength and endurance up.
“It was hard at first but it is a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s hard because the net is so big. I also get tired sometimes because you have to tread water.”
Goalies aren’t allowed to rest on the side of the pool when the ball is in the opposition’s end.
Heidi Frehlich has the endurance in her family genes to be successful in water polo. Her dad, Craig, has plenty of wind on the ground, having run the Boston Marathon.
However, Frehlich built up her endurance through the Stingrays club.
“A lot of people from swim club play water polo because (swim club) helps you a lot,” she said. “Water polo can get pretty rough, sometimes you get scratched and stuff.”
Danielle Gorman also joined the Dolphins through Atoms coach Jen Wakely.
“I was looking for a winter activity and I thought I would try it,” she said.
The reason for the high number of players from the Dolphins on the Selects is simple.
“There are a lot of good players here and we all work well together,” said Gorman.
Meira Neubauer said she was surprised she made the Selects.
“At the tryouts (in Calgary) I thought a lot of the girls would be faster than me so I was afraid I wouldn’t make it,” said Neubauer, who is a member of the Turner Valley Torpedoes Swim Club. “But I did pretty good.”
The other Dolphin going to play for the Atom Selects is Taylor Strome.
Bantams
Twelve-year-old Zach James-Davies was following up on a dream when he joined the Dolphins.
“I saw a display for it at the Parade of (Programs) at the rec centre and I thought I would give it a try,” the Okotoks Junior High School student said.
He also swims competitively, however, he said he prefers water polo because of the team aspect and the fact there aren’t long waits between matches. There are often long gaps in time when a swimmer is waiting for a heat at swim meets.
Dolphin Aidan Saunders of High River will join James-Davies in Victoria.
The Dolphins finished in the top of both the Atom divisions at the tournament in Okotoks. The Bantams finished in the middle of the pack.
The tournament was cut short because teams from Edmonton were unable to attend due to poor driving conditions.
