Waterpolo Sport
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rinity waterpolo concluded on a high for the Term One season 2004 with the First VII defeating Guildford Grammar School 10 – 7 in Trinity’s first home fixture in the new pool. After what was an excruciatingly long and frustrating wait the pool was finally given the all clear to be used for the second last fixture of the season against Guildford Grammar School. It was the best game the team played all year. With the scores 8 – 7 in Trinity’s favour in the last quarter of the game Guildford could not put away any of their shots. With some excellent individual and team play Trinity scored two more goals to finally bury Guildford. All Trinity waterpolo players, swimmers and coaching staff should be congratulated on their patience with the pool in first term and their willingness to keep turning up to training in the hope that the pool would be all clear to use. Coaching staff, consisting of Mr Peter Duckett, Mr Jim Shackleton, Mr Richard Cackett and Mr Dion Mepham, especially need to be commended on their enthusiasm to pursue different avenues of training and keep the students motivated when the lack of a pool became an on going problem. General strength and running exercises in the summer heat trained the students physically, and psychologically in the sense that they knew it was only a matter of time before they would be training in a pool. The Year 8s and 9s showed that without any water time they could still be competitive against the other
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PSA schools. The A team had some strong wins, but in a hard fought match against Aquinas, were unfortunately defeated. They failed to score four swim away goals and eventually lost by three goals to the best team in the competition. Swimming fitness, or lack of, is an attribute that is always highlighted against the stronger teams. Without a pool we had to concentrate on other areas such as defence to try and stop the set plays, which we did with regularity in both upper and lower school. The First VII lead by Ronan Fahey and Simon Whitfield improved with every game. Teams that beat us convincingly in Term Four of 2003 had trouble scoring this season and ended up scoring either from our mistakes or swim away goals. Importantly, the scoring percentage of other teams in set play and extra man attack was relatively low. I’m feeling confident that waterpolo at Trinity will go from strength to strength due to the programs which will commence in winter for both the senior and junior schools. I would like to thank Mr Peter Duckett for his tireless effort in getting the pool up and running against a maelstrom of adversity. I would also like to thank the Trinity parents who showed vast amounts of patience and support in terms of coming to watch their sons play waterpolo at a variety of venues. Charlie Liggins Coach
WATERPOLO FIRST VII Back row: Tom Gryta, Michael Page, Alexander Lee, Christopher Ravat, Daniel Steffanoni, Mr Charles Liggins [Coach] Front row: Ryan Taylor, Marcus Carter, Patrick McGinnity, Ronan Fahey [Captain], Simon Whitfield [Vice-Captain], Justin Russell, Matthew Pitcher, Ben Russell Absent: Travis Wayman
