The question asked on The Backshot water polo social media site: “Is the OLD BOYS NETWORK killing off the growth
of Water Polo?” opens an interesting, and not uncomplicated, discussion.
Here’s what the post said:
This team from Reddam Helderfontein have just won National Co-Eds in
their first year of competing and without a single Matric, BUT... They weren't
welcome to compete at the upcoming Saints Fest, despite beating teams that have
been invited. And the reason given? They apparently dont have a
"traditional connection". So it seems that tournaments have nothing
to do with making sure the best teams get to compete against each other (Herschel, arguably the 2nd best girls team in the country
at present have also not cracked an invite) but everything to do with who
scratches who's back. You can only come to MY water polo tournament if I can
come to YOUR rugby festival. Reddam, Umhlanga seem to have the same problem...
no matter how good they get, they will never crack an invite to the big
tournaments. Not because they aren't good enough, but because of some bullshit
arrangement between the schools themselves. Or maybe we just need someone from
the larger tournaments to explain to all those angry parents who have chosen to
invest in growing the sport why their schools are apparently not good enough.
The short answer
is no. Water polo, especially girls water polo, is still growing all the time and
a lot of that growth is outside of the “old boys network”, whatever that is. If
the “old boys network” refers to the older, more traditional schools (many of
which are girls-only schools), then it’s also true to say that the game continues
to grow at pace within the network, schools are investing in new facilities,
have more and better coaches, field more teams and stage more and bigger
tournaments.
So, the growth
of water polo isn’t being killed by the traditional schools. The question posed
flows, however, from certain schools (very successful ones) not being invited to
certain tournaments. That’s a different story, and as I said, it’s not a simple
one.
In the first
instance, one has to acknowledge the efforts made by schools belonging to some of
the newer independent schooling groups to thrive at water polo. Reddam House Helderfontein
is one of the examples cited. Their boys won the National Co-ed Festival
tournament, in their 1st year of competing. That’s a great achievement.
The school is barely a year old, and it has undoubtedly the best indoor pool
and training facility in the land. I was there while it was being built and the
intention, openly expressed, was that it would become the centre of water polo
in South Africa.
Recruitment and
coaching will follow and I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen. Reddam House
Consantia showed it can be done. There are other schools who have built themselves
into water polo powerhouses. Some are private schools of the type I mentioned –
Crawford College Lonehill for example, and Reddam House Umhlanga, apparently.
Other schools of various types have targetted polo as the sport they want to shine
in, like Pearson and Stirling in the Eastern Cape and Clifton College in
Durban. They have invested wisely, worked incredibly hard and they have the
support of very strong parent bodies. They deserve all the success they are achieving.
The Backshot
piece implies that there are certain “big” tournaments. I assume those are the ones
that have been going longest (the ones that these new emerging powers aren’t
invited to). The Saints Invitational tournament is named, others I’d guess, would
be the SACS tournament and the King Edward Festival.
There are
schools who play at those three events each year who are undoubtedly not as
strong as some of those who don’t get to play there. If school sport were
arranged on a league basis, with promotion and relegation in place, they would
be out, and the rising stars would be in, no argument.
But that’s
not how it goes. School sport has to be an educational activity first and
foremost and that means winning, and the strength of teams, really have to take
a back seat. If a principal agrees to the exclusion of a long-standing participant
from his/her event because they are not good enough (and that has happened at one
of the “big three” tournaments) then that principal is on shaky ground. morally
and educationally, because winning is not supposed to be the objective of
school sport.
And,
remember, for every emerging school that “cracks an invite” to a tournament, an
established participant has to be given the boot.
So, old boys
rules do apply. But it’s not that simple. Life is about relationships and schools
interact on all sorts of levels. Do you drop a school that you have played
against in multiple codes for many years because their water polo team isn’t
performing?
On the other
hand, these tournaments are marketing exercises for schools and the organisers
sit with a dilemma. Your tournament gains in prestige when you have the top
performing schools in the land there, but then again it doesn’t look good for
you when the new kids on the block walk off with the honours.
Of course
there’s a fair degree of hypocrisy involved. As I said, it’s not uncomplicated.
Take a look
at The Backshot - @theBackShotPodcast. It’s breathed new life into summer’s
beautiful game.
No comments:
Post a Comment