The Saints water polo festival is fantastic, let's hope promotion-relegation doesn't spoil that

 

I spent Sunday at the St Stithians Water Polo Invitational Water Tournament, which is called the Saints Stayers tournament these days, because it doesn’t involve the departing matrics at the various schools and provides a first outing for the teams that are staying behind after they leave.

It’s proved to be a popular concept, having grown from a two-day affair involving mainly the local schools in the beginning, to one involving all the top teams in the country with, I was told, a sizable waiting list of schools clamouring to get in.

There is another national tournament on at the same time – the Inspire Cup – which is played at different venues for the boys and girls teams because there isn’t another school in Joburg that can accommodate 40 teams like Saints with its three pools can do.

The upshot was that for the weekend, the independent schools’ half-term break which makes it a good time of the year, Joburg is very much the epicentre of schools water polo in the country. Much as the city is the heart of schools rugby over Easter – and St Stithians was the instigator of that too.

I spoke to Bruno Fernandes who was the organiser of the event for the 15^th year in a row on Sunday. This was the 35^th national tournament he has run. He’s a bean-counter by profession and that precise thinking translates into an intricate programme design that goes beyond the usual ‘round-robin with cross pool playoffs’ formats and actually gives the 3^rd placed finishers another chance to get into the top eight playoff section. He has refined it over the years and it’s a work of art to see.

On a long weekend like the one just past, despite the rain and lightning interruption, it all finished on time and the girls and boys all played seven full, four-chukka matches at the end of it. That’s not something you get at any of the other big tournaments.

When I was told on Sunday that, from next year, there will be a promotion-relegation system in place, with the two boys and two girls team finishing last at the Saints tournament dropping down to the Inspire Cup and the top two teams from there coming up, my first reaction was disapproval.

I’ve always believed that making winning the main aim does not belong in school sport. I’m concerned that the dynamics will change for the teams striving for promotion, and for those fighting relegation. I agree that these concepts are part of life and children shouldn’t be shielded from them, but my experience is that when wining becomes the all-important thing all manner of evils follow.

School sport isn’t about winning and losing, so the strength of a team shouldn’t be relevant when it comes to invitations to tournaments. Our school sport has always been organised on traditional lines, and long-term traditional relationships shouldn’t be ditched because a team is going through a lean patch.

On the other hand, I agree that lopsided scorelines don’t do anyone any good and it is true that the players at schools that haven’t been included at tournaments like the Saints Stayers, historically, and who have worked hard to reach a level which deserves recognition at a prestige event like this, also have a case.

I guess it’s going to depend on how promotion-relegation is managed. There have been some pretty ugly incidents in other codes and competitions where it exists.

I hope it works out. Everything else about the tournament is fantastic, it shouldn’t be spoiled by upping the stakes and making winning too important.