[monster]

OK I'm hijacking this for High School Polo mom so I don't clog up the proud parent thread.

The Skyline water polo team are a little fluid in the season as to Varsity/JV. Polo Girl has played every game in both levels (except when both teams had tournaments at the same time) until this Tuesday. When she didn't play the JV game because she got named to the post-season team -the one that should go to States and will get letters, and it was JV night to honor those for whom the season just ended.

She's a freshman and has never played a game before, although she did train and learn the basics with most of another school's team for a few months prior to the season through our city's rec and ed program.

Tonight was the first game of district championships. As the top seed in the district, we played the bottom seed in the first game. After three minutes, if was 5-0, so the starters got out and the "B-team" got in. Including Polo Girl. After a few more minutes at was 10-0, with polo girl's name on the score sheet. Still in the first period. So then Skyline stopped scoring and started playing drills (no mercy rule, so the game had to play out, although the did run the clock after half time). So we got a skills demonstration.

SHE IS AMAZING. i'm sat in the bleachers with the other parents and I can see so much better than I can when I'm on deck at home games, just how accurate and long and hard her passes are. She reads the play spectacularly, is already taking charge of her line verbally, calling the plays, and has mastered a fair few tricks for relieving the opposition of the ball legally but sneakily (and a little illegal but undetectable stuff too). So i'm sat there and I can hear all the other parents pointing out her nice moves to each other and even applauding on some of them (we stopped cheering after goal three, still within the first minute of the game). We went out for dinner afterwards, and the mother of the girl who was named to the all-state team last year told us her son (just back from college where he plays and now helping coach) thinks she has amazing skill and potential.

I am gobsmacked by this girl. Swimming, yes, we knew she was good. We didn't know how good, but we knew. Polo was an unknown. She played soccer for 8 years and had a good boot and read of play, but wasn't spectacular. She certainly didn't have killer instinct. And polo players are usually tall or chunky and she's neither. Tonight I watched her push a much bigger opponent back 20 feet and then obstruct her pass. By "push" I mean swimming/bulldozing in the water with no hands -they were above water and clear of the player- an opponent who is actively trying to go in the other direction. that there is some power!

Oh and she won all three sprints she did. But to be fair, the opposition were SO bad, I could have won them.

I asked her on the way home what she will do when she has to choose and she said she can;t even think abbout it. I never thought she'd ever consider anything over swimming.

So proud, and yet kind of apprehensive that she may fallout of love with swimming. I'm hoping though, that she will get back into it and take the killer with her. She has already said she can't wait to race a short course 100free now to see how fast she can go. She never said anything like that before (and she used to hate racing freestyle)