Kaua‘i Water Polo enjoyed its second outing to the 42nd Annual Hawaiian Invitational last week. According to Billy Brown, KWP played a very hard schedule against teams including the Olympic Club, which had former Olympians playing, and a La Canada
Kaua‘i Water Polo enjoyed its second outing to the 42nd Annual Hawaiian Invitational last week.
According to Billy Brown, KWP played a very hard schedule against teams including the Olympic Club, which had former Olympians playing, and a La Canada squad that had two former national team players on its roster.
“All in all, KWP did very well, especially since it is the second year of our program,” Brown said. “Our team played very strong when it came to setting up good plays, and smart defense.”
Brown said the outing was a lot of fun and there was a big improvement from last year.
“We brought a full team out there, but had to recruit an O‘ahu goalie,” Brown said in an e-mail. “It was a lot better showing than last year.”
During the 2009 tournament, KWP brought five players who played in selected games. This compares with the eight players who made the trip this year and playing in all of the games.
“It was great to see down the starting lineup and see all of our players who have been at the practices and the games since the beginning of the season,” Brown said.
This year’s tournament featured the deepest and strongest field in 10 years, claimed some of the tournament officials.
“We played a couple of teams a lot closer than the final scores indicated,” Brown said. “It was pretty tough trying to ‘outswim’ some of the collegiate polo players who are in their swimming peaks, while mine was 10 years ago.”
Jaime Deboet netted three goals in KWP’s 21-8 loss to La Canada. Brad Rockwell added two goals, Brown, Tony Apocada and Micah Kraden each netted one. That game was followed by a 19-4 loss to Olympic Club with Brown and Tiloi Alapa, a Kamehameha School graduate, each netting a goal.
Against Downtown LA, Debonet, Brown, Kradin and Rockwell each scored a goal in KWP’s 17-4 showing. Alapa led the KWP scoring with two goals in KWP’s 16-6 showing over Agoura with Brown and Kradin netting a goal each. Brown and Rockwell led the KWP effort with two goals apiece in its 15-4 loss to Honolulu, and in the final match, a 14-3 loss to Australian Country, Brown, Alapa and Rockwell each netted a goal.
The KWP team learned a great deal and solidified the growth of our program, Brown said. The team also received many compliments on its improvement over the previous year and was applauded for being one of the two local Hawai‘i teams entered in the tournament.
The Kaua‘i water polo program started in January, 2009, supported by the YMCA of Kaua‘i with the mission to provide a competitive, yet recreational activity for adults while primarily encouraging a kids/high school program in the hopes that the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation can sponsor a Girls Water Polo program in the near future.
Brown said currently, three of the four major islands in Hawai‘i have a girls polo program.
There are 28 members in the program, of which 10 are between the ages of 13 to 18 years old. The team practices on Mondays and Wednesdays between 5:45 to 7 p.m. in Puhi.
All of the funding for the water polo program comes from private donations and contributions are always welcome to help support equipment, promotions and clinics.
KWP will host the Kaua‘i Cup in mid-October at the YMCA ‘Ohana pool.
For more information, call the YMCA of Kaua‘i at 246-9090.
