Age Group Girls at ODP Camp

Foothill Club Water Polo has been developing talented athletes for over a decade. Many of the club’s former athletes continued their water polo career not only on the collegiate level, but internationally as well.

USA Water Polo and its Olympic Development Program (ODP) was created to identify and develop these talented players to represent USA Water Polo. ODP is a systematic approach to athlete development through a training program that focuses on both the technical and tactical components of water polo.

The last camp for the Coastal California Zone (CST) developmental team was held on Sunday, November 5, at Diamond Bar High School. Seven young ladies from the 12U and 14U teams; Jessica Brady, Megan Holcomb, Hailey Andress, Madelyn Guard, Elisabeth Ramirez, Skyler Radovics and Kayla Demski made sure their talent did not stay unnoticed and were there to represent our club.

The athletes had a long day starting at 9 a.m. with some dryland stretching, in water warm up and a 200yard freestyle testing. Once the nervousness settled after the swim test, the session continued with some defensive drills and lots of passing. After a short, 30 minutes break the athletes were right back in the water to improve their skills at three stations with different focuses.

“It [ODP] really helps with fine tuning our fundamentals and it is great to meet new friends from the same sport,” said Skyler Radovics, player on Foothill’s 14U girls team.

To finish the day, scrimmages took place 3-5 p.m. to give the players the opportunity to showcase their talent and the new skills they learned earlier in the day. All seven Foothill players did outstanding at the camp and showed what being a Foothill athlete is all about.

The list of the 24 selected athletes, who will participate in the National Championships in March, 2018 will be announced by the end of November.

Good job ladies!