Pan Pacs Captain's Reports
We asked the captains of the 16U Girls and Boys Victorian State Teams to reflect on their experiences at the 2018 Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival in Auckland, New Zealand.
Jessica Loftus
Captain
16U Girls Victorian State Team
An incredible week full of cherished memories, new lifelong friends and, learning experiences. This, was the incredible 7 days we, the under 16 Victorian girls Water Polo team, spent in Auckland. As 13 girls who had not played together, the first couple of games were spent working out systems and fine tuning the basics. As the week flew by so too did our levels of improvement. We were able to jell as a team both in and out of the water and it was evident in our games.
Although we still had good games and bad, we solidly improved during the tournament. Finishing 4th in our pool and 14th overall was a placing we were quite happy with. It showed us we can compete in the top half and gave us something to aim for. I’m sure I speak for all the girls when I say that we could not have done it without Spindles and Bec. Spindles was a passionate and engaging coach, who seemed to somehow find the time to help each one of us. Thanks to Bec for keeping us in line and for making us feel like you were our big sister.
Lachlan Barclay
Captain
16U Boys Victorian State Team
It was an honour for all boys to represent Victoria at the 2018 Pan Pacific Water Polo Festival in New Zealand. We loved wearing the historic blue bathers and the Big V on our caps. During the week the players from different teams came together as one to compete against high level opponents from NSW, Queensland, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand. It was a great experience to play for your State at an international tournament and watch the development of the team over the week. We had many funny experiences throughout the week and really bonded as a team. We enjoyed supporting the girls team in their games and the team dinner at the end of the week was well deserved. We would like to thank Joel Di Martino for all the coaching leading up to and during the Festival. Joel taught us a lot in the pool and in life. As a team we improved greatly leading up to the tournament. The boys put in a hard effort and this showed with our improvement in games. Thank you also to Simon Armstrong for team managing throughout the week. Finally, thank you to Water Polo Victoria for the opportunity for 13 boys to play proudly for their State at the Pan Pac Festival.
