Clippers win one, lose one, in the pool

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This article was published 26/11/2023 (737 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Kelvin Clippers girl’s water polo team set out to bring more attention to the sport and win a provincial title in the process, this season.

While it remains to be seen if the former will come to fruition, the Clippers captured its second straight girl’s high school league banner with a dominant 15-2 victory over Collège Jeanne-Sauvé (team two) at Pan Am pool on Sunday.

“I’m incredibly proud of them,” said Shae O’Halloran, in her first year as the coach of the Clippers. “I was hoping for an outcome like this and I’m really proud of the way they played. We had a lot of younger teams with new players this year and it was really nice to watch them teach and help these newer kids learn in the water.

“I’m really hoping they were able to convince some kids to come join and help grow the sport.”

The Clippers bested the 10-team tournament, which played water polo ‘fours’, also known as beach water polo, with three players and one goalkeeper in the water at a time.

“It’s really nice because I think Grade 10 year we almost made it, but didn’t,” said Grade 12 leader Kayleigh Bueckert, who is relied upon for her defensive prowess. “The amount of times our team stole the ball from the other team and managed to then get ahead of them (was the difference in the game), because they had some pretty strong, fast players who also play on the club team.”

The Clippers have long been the standard in high school water polo, continuously fielding competitive teams in both the boy’s and girl’s leagues. Many players grow up playing together for Vortex Water Polo, a Winnipeg-based club, from as early as 10 years old.

The chemistry on this year’s team was evident from the outset.

“They’ve really come into their own, they’re able to communicate in the water much better and call their own plays and they know what each other needs. It’s a really tight group so it’s nice,” O’Halloran said.

“The whole thing was, ‘Be as good as you can to all the other kids, we want them to come back. Be leaders, be teachers, invite them out to practices and help grow the sport.’”

Earlier in the day, Collège Jeanne-Sauvé (team one) outlasted Oak Park 7-6 to win bronze in the girl’s bracket.

In the boy’s provincial championship, the Vincent Massey Trojans won a thrilling 16-15 title bout that ended in a shootout (3-1) over the Clippers (team one).

The Trojans swam through the seven-team bracket to capture its second title in three years.

“It was a lot of fun, said Henry Suffield, in Grade 12, who led the Trojans’ offence. “It was competitive, the closeness. To have it go dow to the very last minute, it makes it exciting.”

Luke Hiebert, in his third season as the coach, credited goalkeeper Mattias Mukozi for several big stops — and just one allowed goal in the shootout — that helped the Trojans mount a four-goal comeback in the second half. Mukozi is in Grade Nine and is viewed as a future anchor for the Trojans’ program.

“Watching these guys grow, I’ve coached some of them since Grade Nine, and just watching them progress throughout the years — and some of them are graduating this year — graduating at the peak and watching them come from learning water polo for the first time to playing at one of the highest levels in Manitoba … it’s just awesome to see that progression,” Hiebert said.

“I’m super proud of my boys and how they performed today.”

Wheat City (an amalgamated team from schools in Brandon) beat Oak Park 12-10 in the boy’s bronze medal game.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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