Prince George hoping to form water polo team

Even though Prince George isn’t competing, Boyle said the chance to showcase water polo in the city could be the catalyst needed to drum up a lot of interest.

“We’ve had a couple handfuls of our swimmers sitting in the stands watching, interacting with people that they speed swim against who are playing water polo. And you can see everybody’s interest is starting to peak,” Boyle said.

“We are looking to leave a set of nets in the north as sort of a legacy for BCSSA and to drive that development of water polo here in Prince George,” added the BCSSA Director of Water Polo Cynthia Springate.

The legacy gift of the nets would be a big help for kickstarting water polo in Prince George, but there are several big challenges to overcome in order to actually form a team. One of the biggest is pool space.

Water polo requires at least half a 25 meter pool for a period of time, an hour or two, two or three times a week, I think would be ideal to get started. And usually pools are filled to capacity with all the speed swimming clubs and everything else that’s going on in the pool, and obviously access for the public. So lobbying local governments to be able to a think ten years ahead and build a new pool, but also trying to squeeze out just a little bit of space for the water polo club to develop,” Cynthia explained.

“We’ve got some great people on the board that work with the City tirelessly to try and maximize our space and our usage. It’s tough when our group keeps growing as quickly as it is and has been for the last decade. But I would love to see another stream open up for water polo under the Pisces umbrella,” Boyle said.

Distance is another problem, as a Prince George team would have to do extensive driving to face other teams. To try and counter this, there would have to be enough people involved so Prince George teams could at least face each other. Cynthia says the bare minimum would be 14 people to form two teams of seven people.

“In order to start a club, first of all, you have to have a foundation of kids who swim, right? So I’m sure lots of kids are here in your pools learning how to swim. And then there are kids who will join swim teams and do the speed swimming, all of the strokes, some of these kids eventually get bored of swimming back and forth,” she said.

Prince George has many swimmers in the Pisces Club, on top of swimmers in lessons, so the amount of people needed could be enough for a team. And Georgia Springate, the Crescent Beach Swimming Club Water Polo Head Coach, believes having a water polo team in Prince George would be a fantastic opportunity for all the swimmers in the city.

“I love the team aspect. I used to do synchronized swimming and then I transitioned to water polo. So I love that as a teammate I’m always with my friends and the same girls. I also love that it’s kind of an aggressive game. I think that part of it is really fun,” Georgia said.

“I used to do speed swimming as well, and I think I got bored of just swimming up and down the pool. Obviously for water polo you have to do some conditioning, but I think the team aspect of it (is great). And then you’re getting to shoot this ball and it keeps you in really good shape, that part of it is really great,” she added.

Even if Prince George is able to get the interest needed, find the pool space, and handle the distance between other teams and cities, a final challenge could be a perceived barrier of entry. However, both Georgia and Cynthia say it’s much easier to get into than you may think.

“The fundamental skills are what they’re learning in swimming classes, so they’re absolutely capable to come and try water polo. And it’s super fun, so I think once you get them in the water and put a ball in their hand, I think it’s pretty easy to hook them,” Cynthia said.

“Some of the kids that I coach in the summer, the 12 years start off and they don’t even know how to do egg beater (a type of kick) in the first week, and then by the end of the summer, they’re playing these games and scoring lots of goals because they have had lots of practice doing egg beater,” Georgia added.

The BCSSA Provincial Championships concluded water polo on August 13, and artistic swimming will be showcased next on August 14.

Local news. Delivered. Free. Subscribe to our daily news wrap and get our top local stories delivered to your inbox every evening.

by Tommy Osborne

Prince George hoping to form water polo team

What's Trending