Many of our athletes are very active during the summer months. Here are a few reports and photos from some of our club's members:
Trip to Greece, July 2007
Contributor: Sharon Lapins
This past summer, Rob Tarnoczy and I took a team of 13 Titans athletes to Greece to train with, and compete against, some tough Greek teams. Travelling and living as a team involves many challenges including learning to live together under varying conditions far away from home, coping with different levels of water polo ability, dealing with any health issues that arise, forming friendships amongst ourselves and with others.....all of these things involve physical and mental toughness and courage. Through it all, the hope was to give our girls more tools to help them to deal with life's many challenges.
Another objective was to live in Greek homes and learn about the culture on a first-hand basis. Again, this involves being flexible and open to a different way of living as well as trying to communicate with people who speak a foreign language. From what we could see, the Greek athletes and families made every effort to ensure that our girls were well fed and cared for. Many new friendships were created that could very well last a lifetime!
Of course, our main objective was to play water polo and to see how it is played in Greece. We faced some tough competition and were reminded that reaching that level takes dedication and commitment on the part of all athletes and families.
Providing these international experiences to our Titans athletes is incredibly special and we feel that the girls have gained invaluable experience in and out of the pool. This trip will remain in all of our hearts for years to come!
Greek team members (blue) and Titan team members (white)
Thessaloniki, Greece
Sharon Lapins and the girls in Greece
Just can't get enough time in the water!
Women's Team Ontario Competes in the Czech Republic, July 2007
Contributor: Maria Lapins
On July 1st, Stephanie Lessard, Lisa Sharp, Gillian Kengis, Rachel Stein, Stephanie Le Saux-Farmer, Annie Chinneck, Rebekka Steenkamer and I were proud to represent the Titans as part of Team Ontario! With our coaches Christi Bardecki, Mara Madden and Megan Whittle, we traveled to the Czech Republic and faced some tough competition. We competed in the 'Olympic Hopes' tournament in Prague and placed 4th, competing against teams from Czech, Hungary, France, Croatia and England. We also traveled to another city, called Strakonice, where we played against the team from France, as well as the Youth and Junior National Czech teams. When we were not in the pool, we were busy touring the cities and shopping!
This journey will always be memorable as I gained both water polo and life experience.
Team Ontario Women
Planning strategy before the team cheer!
Team flags at the tournament in Prague, Czech Republic
Trip with the Women's National Youth Team to Australia, July 2007
Contributor: Evie Marshall
I went to Australia the first two weeks of July with the National Youth Team. I met girls from all over Canada. I had a great time and I made some good friends. We stayed in Sydney and we went to the Sydney Opera House and I got to pet some kangaroos at the zoo. It was a really good experience playing international water polo. We played against the national youth teams from the U.S. and Australia.
National Youth Team Girls
Koala encounter!
Titans at Traversée Internationale du Lac Memphré magog, August 2007
Contributor: Sue Sidebottom
Three Titans families attended and participated in the events at the annual International Lake Crossing at Lake Memphrémagog during the August long weekend this summer. The annual event in the Eastern townships in Quebec includes a 34 km FINA marathon swim which draws professional swimmers from around the world - an impressive event in itself! There are also shorter swim races on the lake open to anyone wishing to enter. Stingrays Audrey Caron, Nicole Sidebottom, and Patti and Gillian Massel had an impressive swim in the 2km race; Dolphin Monique Sidebottom attacked and did well in the 1km race; and ILWP alumni Doug Massel won a first place medal for his swim and age group in the 500m race! Rumour has it that some of the Titans plan to attend next year's event to improve their time or tackle a longer race - 5km and 10km races are also run. In addition to the swim events, we enjoyed other activities during the festival weekend, such as bands, fireworks, artisan's tents and a cruise on the lake.
For anyone interested in more information on the event, you can visit the website: www.traversee-memphremagog.com . Perhaps we may see more Titans at this event next year!
Swimmers Nicole, Gillian, Patti, Audrey, Monique and Doug before their race
Titans Men's Team Ontario Youth Team Travels to the Netherlands, July 2007
Contributor: Deanna Barry
After the completion of a 3-day training camp in Etobicoke, 18 boys and five adults boarded a plane on July 1 2007 for Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The team included Titans Evan Anderson, John Conway, Evan Bradshaw, Logan Seaman, Connor Lee, Calum Norton Kendrick and Charles Bouwer, as well as Team Manager Deanna Barry and Chaperone Clem Pelot. We were met at the Amsterdam airport by our hosts for the next five days, representatives from the WOC school of water polo in Alphen, which is about 40 minutes from Amsterdam. Our accommodations were a five-minute walk from the pool, and were part of a bird sanctuary- interesting! A 20-minute walk brought us to the town of Alphen, with lots of shops, located along a canal, as many small towns are in the Netherlands. Our big learning experience in Alphen was that bicycles have the right-of-way..... over people, dogs, and vehicles, and if you don't learn this early, then they just run you over! Although slightly younger than our group of 15-18 year olds (mostly 16 and 17), the local water polo players were very strong. We started almost immediately into twice per day pool sessions. Our success came early as we won the first 3 matches, in spite of some very questionable officiating. On Wednesday night we played our first "official" game, with clocks , minor officials, player introductions and excellent refereeing. We won easily 17-7. Our final game in Alphen, also an official game, was hard-fought and extremely frustrating for us, at times. An example was having 3 players kicked out at once on the same man down situation.WE STOPPED THEM and countered off of it. Final score 9-3 Ontario. Farewell to Alphen!
A charter bus took us to Amsterdam for 2 and a half days of down-time and sight seeing, and a chance to rest the sore, aching muscles. The boys quickly vetoed the museums, convincing the chaperones that they would 'get cultured' just walking around, so walk around we did! A fabulous city and easy to get around. The red light district was, as you can imagine, particularly fascinating, especially since it's a tourist attraction for all ages during the daylight hours! Our challenge was finding reasonably priced healthy meals for 18 always- hungry boys. The Hard Rock Café Amsterdam was a highlight for all of us (dinner for 23!).
On Monday we set out for the next leg of our journey. After hauling 23 of us and our belongings on a tram, 2 trains and 2 buses, we arrived at the JVB Sports Centre in Zeist. The accommodations were not exactly the 'Ritz'. We stayed in barracks in a camp environment (apparently 5 miles from the nearest town), complete with daily food drop offs and rations, communal bathrooms/ showers along with bunks and rooms that slept 6- 20 people. We were waiting for Lord Baden Powell to show up at any moment! Down time featured eating, resting, stretching sessions and endless tournaments of euchre and ping pong. The pool was not spartan like the accommodations were, though. We had 2 of our twice-daily pool sessions devoted solely to practice in a 25 X 30 metre sport pool, which was critical in preparing the players for our upcoming games. On Tuesday we travelled to Utrecht to play in an outdoor pool. Our players were not acclimatized to such cold water temperatures - advantage: home team.We did manage to win, mainly because of our defence and our successful counter attacks.
On Wednesday our team really started to peak, winning both games against the Utrecht Regional (provincial) team.Our defence shone in spite of their efforts to break our zone.We won the first game 15-4 with a stronger lineup and carried it over to a 10-2 win in the second game with the rest of the team playing.
Now for Thursday night's affair. We were back at the Utrecht "ice pool", to play a team that was bolstered with 9 senior club players.They used their size and the refereeing to their advantage to win 12-4, but we did miss at least 8 breakaways and extra man situations in total.
Our last day of competition featured 2 Ontario lineups. This time against their National team, our first lineup beat them 7-4, a highlight for all of us. We dominated all aspects of the game.We lost the second game due to a combination of tired players, and the same ref from the first game but this time his interpretation of the rules really confused us, shall we say.
A very successful trip, overall. In fact we dominated our opposition, winning 11 of 14 games.This included wins over their regional team twice and their National team as well. We had a nice combination of experiencing the culture of a new country (many of the boys had not been outside of North America, or even Canada), as well as the opportunity to play many different teams over a two-week period. We decided towards the end that the trip would not be complete without orange Netherlands bathing suits. You can spot the Team Ontario Boys players from a long distance in their new orange Turbo suits!
Men's Team Ontario
