July 3, 2007

Entry by Senior Co-Captain Jason Rechel
For other entries, please click here.

After a few days of hard work in the pool it is evident that we have improved immensely since arriving in Hungary. Our team defense has become stifling; yesterday in the second leg of a doubleheader (we won both games against a very good Slovakian team on their home turf) we held our opponent to only five goals. The first Hungarian coach whom we worked with stressed a heavy press defense and we are beginning to learn and utilize this strategy. As the pains of working out twice per day begin to lessen somewhat, we are able to find second winds of energy to allow us to finish games strong. The Hungarian team in Eger we are practicing with is very talented and we have yet to beat them, although we have come closer with each attempt. We will continue to practice and scrimmage hard as we prepare for a tournament on Saturday here in Eger featuring teams from all across the world.

The pool in which we have been training in Eger is legendary. It is solely fed by a spring of fresh water in the bottom of the middle of the pool, and the bottom of the pool consists of large rocks. It is extraordinary to look at and play in. When we visited the water polo museum in Eger earlier in the week we realized just how legendary this pool is when we saw countless pictures of Hungarian teams (and national teams) playing in front of a packed house at our spring water pool. A book, which we signed, recorded the many numerous US National Teams, collegiate teams and high school teams that have made their "pilgrimage" to this ancient pool in Eger that was built over 70 years ago.

The most significant observation that can be taken away from this trip so far is the culture of water polo. Everywhere we go it is evident that the amount of money present is significantly lower than anything we are used to seeing in the United States. Despite this drop in potential funding, far more pools exist than I have ever seen before in small areas. In Eger alone, which is only the seventh-largest town in Hungary, there are two massive pools across the street from one another, and a complex of four Olympic-sized pools across town. All of these are used almost solely for water polo. In the middle of housing projects and run-down streets in Slovakia there are four pools within a two-block radius. The pools are designed this way so that polo players of all ages can train and play simultaneously and we constantly see 5-6-7 year olds passing and shooting amongst themselves or with their fathers. Swim practice and water polo practice occur throughout the day, rec-swim and public pool time are set aside for young people to train and become better at the sports that these countries love. The kids here have much more of an opportunity to learn and play water polo than we have in the United States. The kids and coaches who are rich with polo information make it easy for us to leave with some of what they know.