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Ottawa Titans Water Polo Weekly Newsletter
March 26, 2009
22U Nationals: Four Days of Great Water Polo
Submitted by Carolyn McGill
Congratulations to the Ottawa Titans Swordfish, Bronze Medalists at the first 22U Women’s National Club Championships. The Swordfish were the only non-Quebec team to medal at the Men’s and Women’s 22U Nationals, hosted by the Ottawa Titans and held at Carleton University and University of Ottawa pools, March 19-22. The Titans Piranhas finished fourth in the women’s competition; the Titans Great White Sharks finished sixth in the men’s tournament.
22U Women’s Summary Results
Gold DDO 1
Silver CAMO
Bronze Ottawa Titans Swordfish
4th place Ottawa Titans Piranhas
5th place DDO 2
Rebekka Steenkamer of the Swordfish was named to the tournament All-Star team.
22U Men’s Summary Results
Gold DDO 1
Silver CAMO
Bronze Hull 1
4th place York Mavericks
5th place Fraser Valley
6th place Ottawa Titans Great White Sharks
7th place Hamilton
8th place Laval
9th place DDO 2
10th place Hull 2
John Conway of the Titans Great White Sharks was named to the tournament All-Star team.
Team managers’ reports have more details about the Titans’ performance at 22U Nationals. Complete results for the 22U Nationals may be found here: http://sites.google.com/site/u22waterpolo2009/Home
Rogers Cable 22 Ottawa to air the Medal Games
Commentary is provided by National Coach Pat Oaten on Sports Exclusive (Rogers Channel 22) at the following times:
Fri, March 27: 1:00-2:00pm – Women’s Bronze, 2:00-3:00pm – Women’s Gold
Sat, March 28: 2:00-3:00pm – Women’s Bronze, 3:00-4:00pm – Women’s Gold, 4:00-5:00pm – Men’s Bronze, 5:00-6:15pm – Men’s Gold
Sun, March 29: 4:30-5:45pm – Men’s Gold
22U Nationals Tournament Director’s Report
By Carolyn McGill, with contributions from the Tournament Organizing Committee
22U is the newest age category for Nationals. This was the first year that 22U club championships have been offered for women; and only the second time it has been offered for men. It is so important to offer young adults opportunities to play good, competitive, age appropriate water polo to keep them in the sport. That’s why the Titans wanted to host this event, and why I accepted the position of Tournament Co-Director along with Yew Lee, and Titans outgoing General Manager, Deanna Barry.
On a personal note, it was simply wonderful to see current Great White Sharks together with team “graduates”, some of whom travelled many miles to play as Titans again for a weekend. It was also great to renew ties with their parents, who were friends and co-fans for many years as our boys progressed through Academy, Cadet and Youth levels of the Titans competitive program.
Organizing and running two simultaneous Nationals, which took place over four days at two different venues, was certainly a challenge! And now that the events are over, I’m taking on my biggest responsibility: acknowledging and thanking the small army of people who made this event a success. I’m sorry, but there is just no way to do this concisely.
Deanna Barry is a Titans employee, but there is no doubt that many of her hours – days even! – working on this event were as a volunteer. She was essential as a Co-director, especially (but not only) because we had to run simultaneous games at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. As a tournament director, I acknowledge many gaps in my knowledge, time and energy. Deanna filled all these gaps super-efficiently while consistently maintaining her calm, can-do attitude.
Yew Lee was our other co-director. He was on hand for any and all pick-up jobs for four long days. In particular, Yew shuttled referees between their hotel and the pools. He set-up and operated the sound system, and developed playlists that had the athletes singing as they warmed up. Yew was also a photographer during the medal games and the awards ceremony.
Titans President JP Caron came to the rescue when my courage flagged when I saw a game schedule that showed both Men’s and Women’s teams ping-ponging between the two pools. He assured our small tournament committee that Nationals were a club priority. These weren’t just idle words. The event started very early on Thursday for JP and his wife Lyne, who did a wee hours pick-up of referees from the airport. JP was on site for all four days. He performed numerous shifts as a minor official, as did Lyne and their daughter Audrey. Audrey also created some beautiful signs to advertise the event.
Titans Head Coach David Hart provided encouragement and advice to the Tournament Committee. Unfortunately, David became ill and was unable to attend on Sunday to watch the medal games. Get well soon, David!
Titans Competitive Director Paul Massel handled liaison with our host hotel and provided many, many hours of shot clock mastery.
Heather Seaman set up the minor officials schedule and recruited volunteers for 41 games, a job that continued right up until Saturday night. Heather was often available to back-up the minor officials table at both sites, when she wasn’t doing a shift herself.
Angela Walker planned hospitality menus and recruited assistance and contributions. She did a lot of cooking, and toted food and supplies to and around the pool buildings, as we didn’t have a hospitality room 100% of the time. She provided personalized delivery service to people who couldn’t leave the pool deck. All this on a weekend when her son was home from college in the States for a precious few days. Many Titans’ families contributed food and drinks, so important for our referees, volunteers and team staff who spent long hours at the pool.
Rennie Marcoux, handled communications and media, and provided good advice to all aspects of organizing the conference. Rennie’s outreach attracted coverage by the Citizen, Le Droit, CTV News, Orléans Star, and – a major coup – Rogers TV, who came with a full crew to record the medal games.
Hurd Stein oversaw details related to field of play, and was on site for all games at U. of Ottawa. Jim Farmer took charge of field of play at Carleton University and was in charge of setting up for the crucial first morning of the event.
Jim Farmer and Nicole Le Saux contributed their personal cooler and several large bottles of water for the weekend. They also handled numerous shifts as minor officials. Some of these shifts were scheduled. At other times, Nicole and Jim just appeared like angels, to offer relief. They returned for the final clean-up at Carleton University.
John Chinneck created and maintained our web site, posting tournament results a couple of times a day.
For most games, six volunteers worked as minor officials (shot clock, game clock, secretary, ejections secretary, 2 goal judges). Our minor officials tables were exceptionally strong, I’m proud to say.
Unfortunately, we so many minor officials I can’t name them all personally. I would like to note that in addition to Titans parents, our volunteers were members of the Titans recreational water polo program, Titans athletes and siblings, and members of Hull Aqua Polo (who had hosted their own tournament just the previous weekend). Some people had signed up for shifts; some just answered the call on the spot. What a wonderful community of water polo loving volunteers we have in Ottawa!
Nationals required a number of additional volunteers: as drivers (Ian Cumming), to collect admission (Simon Mills, Bev Davis, Rémi de Champlain, Audrey Caron), and as chaperones for doping control (Kevin Fox, Evan Bradshaw, Erin Bickerton, Sue Sidebottom).
Other partners and contributors to this event were:
• Water Polo Canada – Thank you for selecting the Titans to host these nationals. It was a great opportunity to showcase our club, our sport, and to develop our volunteers.
• Referees – Referee in Chief Marie-Claude Deslières had the difficult job of assigning referees to games. Each day she sat with us to work through shuttling arrangements in light of our volunteer and vehicle capacities. All the referees were extremely clear and helpful to our minor officials, so that we felt we were working together to get the correct record of game events. The referees’ patience and developmental approach helped our volunteers to meet the exacting standards set by Water Polo Canada.
• Carleton University – Steve Baird, Rob LeRoy, and all the Carleton pool staff were terrifically helpful with pool and equipment set-ups.
• University of Ottawa –Thanks to Nathalie Valliere-Loy and Luc Payer at U of O, for stepping up quickly to the task of finding additional deep end pool time when the game schedule became too much for the available Carleton pool time.
• The Radisson Hotel Ottawa Parliament Hill — The Radisson offered our visiting teams a great room rate and provided tournament organizers with complimentary meeting space for two technical meetings.
• Pat Oaten brought his years of water polo experience and insights to the game commentary he provided for Rogers.
• Visiting teams – Thank you for coming to Ottawa to compete!
President’s Commendation
From JP Caron, Club President
As most of you know by now, the Under 22 National Championships hosted by the Titans this past weekend were a total success, and we could not have achieved that without the dedication and professionalism of our co-directors, Carolyn McGill and Yew Lee. They have distinguished themselves not only with their planning and foresight, but also by their organizational skill sets. We all owe them our gratitude for having tackled this major undertaking during this very busy season, and for greatly enhancing the Club’s reputation on the national scene. Please join me in thanking Carolyn and Yew for their ongoing commitment to the Club and our community! I would also like to commend the performance of Monique Sidebottom, one of our officials during the tournament, who, by her exceptional skills and devotion, has provided us with the capabilities to weather the WPC storms. Thank you Monique!
For those who would be interested in watching the finals of the U22 Championships, please stay tuned to Rogers (Channel 22) this weekend (detailed times listed above) and enjoy the games.
Great White Sharks at 22U Nationals
Submitted by Carolyn McGill
The Great White Sharks team for 22U Nationals consisted of six athletes currently in the Titans competitive program and five Titans alumni born in 1989 and 1990. The team hadn’t had much chance to practice together, and managed to look brilliant only about half the time – not enough to succeed in this company. Several times the team built up, then lost early leads. They laboured through game after game that seemed too close to those who know the potential of this group. Their final game against Fraser Valley was an exhausting see-saw that went into overtime, ending in a 20-19 win for Fraser Valley.
These young men can play at this level for another few years, so we hope they will want to get together to tackle 22U Nationals again. With a little more preparation they are sure to be contenders.
Thanks to our coaches Jerry, Nick and Scott.
Piranhas and Swordfish at 22U Nationals
Submitted by Valerie Walker and Celso Rojas
This past weekend, the Ottawa Titans hosted the Canadian U 22 Water Polo Championships. Clubs from Camo, DDO1, DDO2 and our sister teams, the Piranhas and the Swordfish, played several games over the course of Friday and Saturday at both Ottawa U and Carleton University. Parents and spectators were treated to some exciting games with strong performances from the girls. Both of our Titans girls' teams were divided into two young even teams.
Sunday afternoon was the scene of the Bronze Medal game, complete with many television cameras recording the action, as the Swordfish and Piranhas gathered in the center of the pool to do their group cheer. The game was dramatic with opportunities for both teams as evidenced by the tight score throughout the game. The teams were tied 2-2 at the end of the first quarter, edging up to another tie at 4-4 at the end of the half. The Swordfish ended up winning by one goal 9-8, after a great performance by both teams.
The final standing saw the Piranhas finishing in 4th place and the Swordfish taking home the Bronze Medal. Rebekka Steenkamer from the Swordfish was named to the All-Star Team.
Celso remarked: “There hasn’t been a better opportunity than this event to have all our younger girls play against some of the best teams in Canada for this age group.”
Well-done girls!!.
Many thanks to our President, Board Members, Organization Committee, and Volunteers for the big success of this event.
Big thanks to Rennie for making possible the broadcasting of the medal games by Rogers. It is a great opportunity for exposure and promotion of our sport.
Swordfish proudly sport their Bronze Medals
Senior Tournament in Kingston
Submitted by: Louis-Arthur Langlois
Our adult players participated in the RMC invitational tournament in late January and performed very well. Our team won the gold medal and Tristan Tremblay received the Most Valuable Player Award for the tournament. While our fitness level may not have been as strong as our opponents, we were able to adapt our strategy and exploit our experience.
Offensive
Jerry led in the water as usual. We expect such leadership from Jerry. His Tasmanian Devil style energized our team and totally spoiled the concentration of our opponents. They had no answer to his level of perseverance. Believe it or not, Jerry screamed only four times at his teammates, most of them deserved, of course. ;-)
Oliver, Colin, Dan and Alain won all of their swim-offs. Colin is like in a fox and stole the ball repeatedly. Colin shots were good and his ball control improved throughout the tournament. Alain, for his part, is quieter but nonetheless just as effective. He got the job done and scored many goals. Both Alain and Colin excelled at finding the upper corners. When Dan was not in the goal, he was all over our opponents, both offensively and defensively.
Tristan was an offensive power house. He almost looked like a Water Walker – a figure of speech, not to be confused with the team with the same name. His shoulders were always above his guard’s shoulders and his head rarely went under water. His control of the ball at the centre forward position improved throughout the tournament and he soon became the master of that position. At times, it seemed like Tristan had three hands! He averaged 3 goals per game, for a grand total of 15, and he achieved this even though he played as a goalie on and off to give Dan a break. He fully deserved his award of tournament MVP.
Defensive
Aaron, Jerome and Mark controlled all the centre-forwards that were thrown at them. Jerome was a quiet weapon. He neutralized all centre offensive efforts and he never got in an awkward position, no matter how large and strong the centre forward was. Mark had his own personal style and he taxed anyone going by him. He pressed them to go back to where they had come from. Every now and then, he managed to surprise everyone and position himself at the right place and score a great goal. Aaron paced himself throughout the tournament, making sure that his turns in the water were not overly long, but highly energetic and effective. Another important landmark for Aaron was that this time around, he was able to contain “the beast inside” and did not injure anyone. ☺
Dan, Jerome and Tristan were the men in the goal and the ball seemed to be scared of them. At the beginning of each game, Dan killed the spirit of our opponents by stopping all their first shots with great assurance. After that, our defensive style sealed the deal by not allowing our opponents to shoot.
Tournament Discoveries
Oliver is unstoppable swimming-wise. His speed and eclectic style completely baffled our opponents. The coach had to tell him to stop swimming when he got to the two-meter line. No matter, he just kept on swimming and went behind Jerry at the centre position a few times at Jerry’s great surprise. At one point, he found himself swimming right into the opponent’s net. Oliver’s unique style turned out to be very productive and he managed to score a number of goals.
Geoff, aka the New Kid on The Block, played extremely hard and was not scared of anyone. At times, he would engage in wrestling matches with his opponent. No one swam by Geoff without being scanned, billed, taxed and bagged in a corner. Although Geoff tried very hard, he was not to score a goal during this tournament. However, we are all happy with the great work he did in the water and how instrumental he was in setting up many of our goals. Great first tournament, Geoff!
Pierre’s style also turned out to be unique. He did frequently get himself into trouble because he was not afraid of anybody or any responsibility. At the surprise of most, he usually got out of trouble just as fast as he got into it. Either offensively or defensively, Pierre deceived everyone, was very effective and played a great tournament. Maybe it’s time dad learned a few safer practices from his son. ;-)
We figured out that if we are going to have a team meeting that lasts more than 90 seconds, we need to hold it in a hot tub. This worked especially well with Aaron who is impossible to pin down.
Newsletter Submissions
If you would like to contribute an item to the newsletter, please send your submission to Sue Sidebottom at news@titanswaterpolo.ca . I depend on the readers to submit articles to keep club members up to date with water polo news! Photos from tournaments or other club events are always welcome. Any submissions received before noon on Wednesday will go out with that week's news.