St Peters competes at first Club Nationals

The 2018 16&U Girls Club Nationals are underway in Hobart and for the St Peters Lutheran College, it's an exciting opportunity to keep at their first Club Nationals competition. 

We caught up with coach Jack Bell just before the side travelled to Hobart to discover more about water polo at St Peters.

How long have you been coaching with St Peters? 

Pete and I started coaching with St Peters in 2015 after a tough couple of years for the side. They lost their head coach two years earlier and the program wasn't in great shape when we started. After our first season, it was really great to see so many kids turn up. I think we had almost double the number of kids show up to trials, which was awesome! Since then, the program has grown every single year, which has been fantastic. 

What age groups do you coach at St Peters? 

We started out with the 16s and Opens age group. The plan was to focus on the Opens but have our 16s training with the Opens and learning everything they are going to do in the Opens. Once the 16s join our Opens team, they would have already spent a year training with us, so they know what to expect and how we want them to play. This year we have taken on a bit of a larger role, we're coaching the 16s, 17s and the Opens. We've got a good group, almost 30 girls, that we are coaching, which has been really great. 

We've also started coaching the juniors, which goes all the way down to the U12s. In terms of depth and participation, it's really good and that's what we care about the most. We've also got some of our most experienced coaches coaching the younger grades. We found that it worked a lot better to them the basics well at an early age and we take it from there when they get to the 16/17 age groups. 

Are you seeing a strong pool of juniors coming up through the ages? 

Yeah, are juniors have got the basics covered really well. If we look at the results, our 18Bs won their competition last year and I believe our 16s finished second, which is our best result since we started. We've been coaching this group now for three years, the girls have put in a lot of hours and hard work and it's really awesome to see them get the results. 

This is first Club Nationals for St Peters, what are your expectations and who are the key players for the side? 

I'm not 100% sure if it's the first time ever St Peters have sent a team but it has certainly been a while. We want to finish inside the top 16, which I think is achievable with the team that we have got. We've done away with individual awards and we're really focused on the team of 13. Everybody plays a crucial role, whether they are in the pool or not. So, everybody is a key player for us.

Are there any teams in particular that you are looking forward to playing? 

It's the girls first experience at a National Competition. Everybody is really excited to play every team that they possibly can. I know that is vague but they have been really incredible and are always wanting to learn more, play more and do more, trying to get as much experience as they can. 

Will Pete and yourself be coaching the team in Hobart? 

Unfortunately, Pete will be on placement during the competition and won't be able to make it. He has been heavily involved with the team in the lead up to Hobart. He is gutted to be missing out but he is really excited to about the upcoming season. 

It sounds like you will be coaching and managing 13 very excited girls! How will you manage the non-playing side of the tour? 

Yeah! Pete and I have been on tour with the Queensland Breakers, so when we started with St Peters we sat down and put together a document of all the things that we do at a competition that makes everything easier and better. This includes a whole bunch of different stretches, ideal meals, what to eat between games, after games, recovery, and food that will keep you going for a little longer. So, we've refreshed that and we think that will be a huge advantage for us. 

Good luck to Jack and the St Peters side. Keep up to date with all the results and fixtures here.