By Andrew Thomson
Beginner water polo players may now be using foam floaters in place of goal posts during practices at Brewer Pool, but soon they’ll have real nets to shoot on.
The Ottawa Titans Water Polo Association has been granted $153,000 over the next three years from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to expand its I Love Water Polo program.
The program is taught at six area pools, including Brewer Park, the closest pool for Centretown residents. The non-competitive program has just started its second year and teaches the game to boys and girls from ages eight to 13, most of whom are playing for the first time.
“We’re quite pleased,” Titans spokesperson Diane Moore said. “This was a huge coup for us. Absolutely wonderful.”
The grant was given in late June by the Trillium Foundation, a provincial agency that distributes about $100 million in grants to charities and non-profit organizations annually.
The money helped start two new I Love Water Polo teams at Brewer and Pinecrest Pools. Last year, there were only teams at Orleans, St. Laurent, Sawmill Creek, and Goulbourn pools. More than 130 children are registered in the program this fall.
Grant money will also be spent on equipment, including caps, proper goals and practice nets clinics, coaching development, and administration costs, said Moore.
“Water polo’s a fringe sport, and it can be tough to get our message across . . . it is one of the toughest sports to play,” Moore said.
Despite the sport’s difficulty, more and more youth are signing up to learn. Moore said the program is almost full and the club hopes to expand to four new pools in the next two years.
Brewer Pool’s new team held its first practice Sept. 28, and 23 of the youth are under the tutelage of Erin Bickerton. Bickerton, a second-year coach, was an assistant for the team at St. Laurent pool last year and plays for the Titans women’s juvenile competitive team.
“I just want to pass on what I’ve learned and help them become the best athletes they can be,” Bickerton said in between drills at the first practice.
Part of the attraction of water polo is that it lets children who have completed swimming lessons continue with another aquatic activity.
Graydon Paulin, the Brewer team’s manager, said his 11-year-old-son gets a “fantastic workout” from the sport.
Other parents are equally enthusiastic about the new Brewer program.
Standing poolside watching their 11-year old daughter, Annie, work on a swimming drill, Linda Duxbury and John Chinneck talked about the benefit of having a new team at Brewer, something they had wanted to see happen last year.
“It’s good for the children playing in the community,” Duxbury said. “They should be with other kids from around here.”