Summer is here, and that means an end to water polo until fall, right? Wrong! In fact, Alberta water polo has rarely seen so much activity in the months of the sun. The world is our backyard, and what a huge backyard it is. Holland, Hungary, California, Florida, and Belgrade will all have hosted Alberta players, where they will train, scrimmage and play against many different teams.

   For the girls’ side of water polo, there are five different locations. Montreal was the site of centralization for Shelby Taylor, Elise Martin, Kelly McKee and Rae Lekness, as well as Sami Banks, Breanna Godzosa, Julia Patterson, Alynn Reade and Cara Robinson. After that, Sami, Breanna, Julia, Alynn and Cara headed for a tournament in Holland, and will later fly to Hungary for the Olympic Hopes tournament. Meanwhile, Shelby, Elise, Kelly and Rae flew to the Global Championship in California. After that, they will go to Florida for the Pan American Junior Championships. Good luck girls!

   The guys have also got quite a few places to go. There will be a summer camp in Toronto for Vanya Kesivchenko, Neven Kovacevic, Nikola Curcija, Strahinja Salajic, Joe Wiltshire, Bruno Zigger, Bryce Reade, Nikola Maksimoric and Karson Kratzenburg. After this camp, Nikola C, Neven, Vanya, Strahinja, Joe and Bruno will be traveling to Belgrade as a Boys U16 team. Devon Thumwood was the only one from Alberta to make it on the Junior Men’s team, which will be going to Florida. Best of luck to all the guys!

   Lastly, both the boys’ and girls’ team Alberta groups have gone to California for scrimmaging, training and games, and have learned a ton in the process. So, once again good job to those have returned home and good luck to all the athletes still performing worldwide this summer. Make Alberta proud!      

Thank you Ashley Menard for writing this article for AWPA!