Local teens make national water polo teams

Crescentwood

West End

Windsor Park

Four young local water polo players have been selected to wear the maple leaf.

“This is an amazing opportunity for Manitoba athletes to compete at the highest level on the world stage,” David Paz, president of the Manitoba Water Polo Association, said in a statement.

“It’s also exciting for our young athletes to see what is possible and help build a strong future for water polo in Manitoba.”

Jayden Del Campo, an École Secondaire Kelvin High School alumnus who is currently a freshman at McKendree University in Illinois, playing water polo in the NCAA, will play for Team Canada’s 19U squad at the Pan American championships in Bauru, Brazil in September.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity,” Del Campo, 19, said. “I could not have done it without the support of my friends and family. It’s huge to me.”

For Del Campo, water polo runs in the family. His paternal grandfather played for the Cuban national team before coaching internationally. Del Campo got his start in the sport at Cindy Klassen Pool, at the age of four.

“They threw me in the deep end. I was wearing a floating belt,” he laughed. “I didn’t really like it at first, didn’t like water in my face. But when I was about seven I really started enjoying it.”

For Del Campo, the physical and mental challenge involved is what he enjoys most about the sport.

“The sport is so physically and mentally demanding, that it preps people for the real world,” he said. “If you can handle water polo, you can handle whatever.”

This year, Del Campo earned an opportunity to try out for the 19U team, a challenge he embraced. Now that he has made the team, he intends to focus on his own training throughout the summer — including coaching a youth program in Lebanon, Ill., where he attends university — in preparation for getting together with the team in California in the fall ahead of the Pan Am championships.

“There are only about 20 competitive clubs in Canada, so I’ve been playing against the same players for about four years,” he said. “The national team tryouts, I got to know everybody pretty well.”

Long term, Del Campo hopes to help grow the sport in Manitoba and abroad. At the moment, he’s focused on improving his own game.

“I just want to coach this summer and train,” he said. “Next year, my goal is to start on my university team, to be a starter. Last season, I was coming off the bench, but I was still getting a decent play time. I want to perform better next year.”

Izzie Hyman, a student at St. John’s-Ravenscourt, will play for Team Canada 16U at the world championships in Croatia in July. Last year, Hyman was named Manitoba Water Polo’s athlete of the year.

Meanwhile, Kensleigh Swanston, a student at Linden Christian School and Paolo Vivas Anderson, a student at Collège Béliveau, have been selected to the 15U national development program. Both will represent Canada at a training camp in Spain this summer.