Growing Awareness 4/14/12

It was a good hard week of training for Team USA. The level of intensity in the pool was high all week. The guys are competing against each other and making each other work. In my opinion, this is what will make us better than anyone else. Our practices must be as intense as the games themselves. The intensity and stress level must be high in the water at all times, and then when we actually get to London, we will be used to playing at this high level. Unfortunately, one of the risks of training at this level is injury. We had two players get hurt this week. Peter Hudnut took an accidental head butt to the face and lost his two front teeth. It was a violent collision (totally accidental) that occurred in our Wednesday night scrimmage. Peter missed a couple of days of training but will be back in the water on Monday morning sporting a couple of new teeth. Thursday morning, John Mann took an accidental elbow above the eye. He was a bit bloody but after a few stitches he was ready to go again. Both of these players - in fact all of our guys are very tough. Even though it was a bit of a bloody battlefield this week at practice – it was a very solid week of training. I feel we accomplished what we had planned. One week closer to London – one week closer to being ready.

As we get closer to the Olympics, we are seeing a big increase in the popularity of our team. We had ESPN (radio, magazine and TV) out doing interviews with the players and coaches the week before last. This week, Tony Azevedo shot a commercial for 24 hour fitness. He was one of two Olympians that were chosen for this spot. The other was beach volleyball superstar Kerri Walsh (pretty good company). We had Reuters out with cameras on Thursday. They shot practice and then interviewed a number of the guys. Men’s Health was out in between trainings on Friday shooting photos of 5-6 of our athletes for an upcoming issue. This weekend the athletes of both our Men’s and Women’s team will be making appearances at Simon Malls around Southern California. Next week, we will be having interviews with AP on Tuesday and then a big photo shoot in between trainings on Wednesday with Men’s Journal.

Obviously, all of this exposure is great for our team and great for the sport. The last few weeks we have seen this awareness and demand for our team grow tremendously. However, we have to make sure that it does not become a distraction. I believe that the team has handled it well to date. I will definitely keep my eye on this process and make certain that the time demand does not interfere with our goal. We have to stay on track and maintain our focus. Each and everyday counts and we can not afford to waste one day of our preparation.

I am proud of the guys. They certainly deserve the recognition they are now getting. We are building more awareness and hopefully as we get closer to London there will be many more water polo fans cheering Team USA on to the Gold!

See you at the pool.

Coach