Mavericks win 16U Waterpolo 2019 National Championship in Calgary

The 2019 NCL season came to a close this past weekend in Calgary with 18 teams playing for a chance to be crowned 16U and 19U National Champions. CAMO, Fraser Valley, Mavericks and Saskatchewan won the National Championships in the 19U Women, 16U Girls, 16U Boys, and 19U Men's categories, respectively.

The 2019 National Finals was held over a 3-day period at the Repsol Sport Centre, with 38 games being played to determine the National Champion in each age category. This year's finals featured a lot of parity, with many close games, and the championships in doubt to the very last second.

The 16U Boys competition used the same format as the girls' category. West Coast Warriors and Fraser Valley represented the Western Conference, while the East stayed the same as last year with Mavericks and Montreal Machine qualifying.

The Mavericks came into the event as heavy favourites and did not disappoint in the round robin as they went a perfect 3-0 and won all of their game by 8 or more goals. Their advancement to the gold medal game was a testament of their high powered offence. 

The battle for the second spot in the gold medal game was a rematch of the Western Conference finals, with the West Coast Warriors facing Fraser Valley. Fraser Valley had beaten the West Coast Warriors two out of the last three games and were looking to continue the trend. The West Coast Warriors had other plans as they scored six goals in the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead into the opening break. Despite a comfortable lead, the Warriors did not get complacent, continuing to expand their lead as the game moved along. Most Valuable Defensive Player Adam Carter contributing four goals along with a solid defensive outing to help lead his team to a 15-8 win and a date with the Mavericks in the gold medal game.

The gold medal match featured back-to-back champion Mavericks and relative newcomer West Coast Warriors. The West Coast Warriors qualified last year as the Spartans but finished in fourth place. 

With a chance to go from 4th to 1st this year, the Warriors defence started the game on fire as they only allowed two goals in the first against the Mavericks' top scoring offence. 

In the second the Warriors grabbed a quick goal to take the lead and put some pressure on the Mavericks to get their stifled offence going. 

Mavericks had faced almost no scoreboard pressure all season long, so it was fair to wonder how the defending champions would respond. 

It didn't take long for that question to be answered as Mavericks would go on a four-goal run to take a three-goal lead. The West Coast Warriors showed their mettle by responding with a three-goal run of their own to tie the game, but from there the Mavericks were able to reach a gear that the Warriors simply could not match. Most Valuable Goalie Luka Jankovic would only allow four more goals the rest of the way and the offence would score 12 more to remove all doubt as they would go on to win the gold medal game 18-10. 

The win marked the Mavericks third straight championship as well as an astounding 75 games unbeaten streak.   http://waterpolo.ca/News3838.aspx

Final ranking for 2019

1. Mavericks

2. West Coast Warriors

3. Montreal Machine 

4. Fraser Valley

16U Roster for 2019

1 Jankovic Luka
2 Kamga Henri-Malcolm
3 Athanasiou Konstantinos
4 Masters Aiden
5 Vrbaski Sergije
6 Alex James Gregory
7 Rouby Mahmoud
8 Todorovic Lazar
9 Patel Krishan
10 Kavagoe-Glavatskyy Vladimir
11 James Gregory
12 Polyutov Dennis
14 Aboudaoud Karim

Coach: Nishand Damani                 
Assistant Coach: Avlijas Fedja

The 2018-2019 NCL season is off and running after 62-game opening weekend

The fifth year of the NCL got off to a fast and furious start with sixty-two 16 and under games being played this past weekend in Regina and Dollard. Seven months of NCL competition now lay ahead for the record forty-six 16U and 19U teams attempting to win a National Championship this season.

In the 16U boys’ division, the early view of the Eastern Conference, only eight of the eleven competing teams opened their season this weekend, so just so much can be gleaned from the first few games of play. 
With that having been said, the two-time defending champion Mavericks squad are looking extremely tough once again. 

The Mavericks have gone two consecutive seasons without losing a game, and that streak continued into the 2018-2019 season with a 3-0-0 record in Montreal. The marquee matchup of the weekend was the Mavericks match vs. the two-time defending bronze medalists from the National Finals, Montreal Machine. The match was a tight contest, with perhaps the key moment happening late in the 2nd quarter. After Machine had scored three straight goals to close the gap to 8-7, Karim Aboudaoud scored with just eight seconds left in the half to push the lead back to two. That goal seemed to change the momentum going into halftime, and in the 3rd quarter, Mavericks shut out Machine, while adding two goals of their own, to give themselves enough breathing room heading into the fourth. 

The next major events on the NCL schedule are the 19U weekends in Surrey (November 28-December 2) and Markham (December 7-9) where the majority of the 19U teams will get their NCL campaigns underway.

NCL Standings:

Year:

    2018-2019  2017-2018  2016-2017  2015-2016  2014-2015 

Age Group:

    Please Select  16U Boys  16U Girls  19U Men  19U Women  MLWP Men  MLWP Women 

    Please Select  Eastern Conference  Western Conference 

	GP	W	D	L	PTS	GF	GA	+/-	PP	PK
Mavericks	3	3	0	0	9	71	24	47	0%	0%
Ottawa Titans	6	3	0	3	9	57	85	-28	0%	0%
Montreal Machine	3	2	0	1	6	40	24	16	0%	0%
Dollard	3	2	0	1	6	38	42	-4	0%	0%
CAMO	2	1	0	1	3	25	18	7	0%	0%
St-Lambert	2	1	0	1	3	26	23	3	0%	0%
Shadow	4	1	0	3	3	34	46	-12	0%	0%
Toronto Golden Jets	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0%
South West Stingrays	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0%
Capital Wave	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%	0%
Mavericks DS	3	0	0	3	0	21	50	-29	0%	0%

National Water polo 16U Champions 2018 are the MAVERICKS!!!!

The water polo Canadian National U16 Championship celebrates the 14 year old Konstantinos Athanasiou, and the Mavericks who prevailed 8-6 to Pacific Storm at the final game of the Final-4 held in Montreal.

The 2017-2018 National Championship League (NCL) season came to close this past weekend in Montreal with the playing of the 16U National Finals. Mavericks captured the National Championships in the 16U Boys.

Spectators at the 2018 Nationals Finals were treated to three days of intense competition, teams played to determine who would claim the title of National Champion.

The Finals featured a little bit of everything; perfect seasons, upsets, rivalries, shootouts, last second heroics. There was seemingly no time to catch your breath over a whirlwind weekend at the Olympic Stadium and Claude-Robillard in Montreal

.

The 16U Boys competition also was contested using a round robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the gold medal game. Pacific Storm and Spartans represented the Western Conference, while Mavericks and Montreal Machine qualified from the East.

Mavericks, the defending National Champions, would finish tops in the round robin, going a perfect 3-0-0 by defeating all three of their opponents by identical four goal margins. The key for the Mavericks in the round robin, much like the regular season, was their ability to get hot and go on goal scoring runs that would put the game seemingly out of reach in a matter of minutes. 

Against Storm in their opener, it was a three-minute stretch at the end of the 3rd quarter/start of the 4th quarter that saw them turn a 3-3 game into a 7-4 game. Against Machine, Mavericks scored the first eight goals of the game to put the game out of reach from the start, and versus Spartans, Mavericks had a run of four goals in four minutes to open the game and to close the game. Mavericks was outscored 8-5 in the other 24 minutes of the game, but those 8 minutes alone were enough to ensure a 13-9 victory.

The 2nd spot in the National Championship game came down to Pacific Storm against Montreal Machine. Machine, who’s slow start had doomed then against Mavericks, also got off to a slow start against Storm, falling behind 4-0. Machine was able to right the ship earlier in this game, reeling off four straight of their own to tie the game in the 3rd quarter. Machine was never able to pull in front of Storm however, and the Montrealers would fall behind by one goal three more times in the 3rd quarter. Over the course of the 4th, Storm was able to keep Machine off the scoresheet until Liam Milne provided the crucial insurance goal to give the BC boys a two-goal lead. The goal would prove critical when Machine was able to add a later marker; but there was simply not enough time for an equalizer, and Storm was off to the finals.

The bronze medal game was between two of the newer NCL clubs, who both have had great success in their early years. The Montreal Machine were the defending bronze medalists after having qualified for the National Finals in their first year of play. Spartans were looking to match the Machine’s feat, having qualified for the Finals in their inaugural year of play as well. The round robin match between the two teams had ended in a tie after Spartans scored three goals in the last two minutes to tie the game. The bronze medal game once again saw Machine holding a large lead late in the fourth quarter, ahead 8-4 thanks in large part to Liam Masley’s four goals. Spartans would start their comeback once again with two minutes left, pulling within 8-6 with still over a minute to play. This time the Machine defense would hold up, and Montreal was able to win their 2nd consecutive 16U bronze medal 8 to 6.

The gold medal game was a rematch of the 2017 National Finals between Mavericks and Pacific Storm that was an absolute thriller that saw Mavericks emerge victorious 14-13. The gold medal game would once again see Mavericks go on one of their patented runs, using a four-goal streak late in the first quarter and early in the 2nd to pull ahead 4-1. In this game though, Pacific Storm would not let that Mavericks run do them in, responding with a four-goal run of their own to put themselves ahead 5-4. Mavericks were able to tie the game at five, but Storm responded quickly with a strike of their own to retake the lead at 6-5. Storm was not going to be pushed aside.

Mavericks were the highest scoring team in the 16U NCL this season, scoring nearly 400 goals, but one overlooked fact is that Mavericks were also the best defensive team in the 16U category, giving up just 91 goals. In this game, with Storm holding Mavericks to their lowest goal scoring total of the season, Mavericks defense along with MVG Matej Mandic would be a difference maker, holding Storm to their lowest goal total of the season as well. The Mavericks did need a little offensive to win the title late in the game however, and while Storm was shutting out the rest of the Mavericks, team captain Patrick Almasi was just too strong on the day. Almasi would score the last three goals in the game for either team, flipping a 6-5 Mavericks deficit into an 8-6 victory that clinched a 2nd consecutive National Championship for Mavericks, as well as MVP honours for Almasi. The win also extended Mavericks 16U unbeaten streak to an incredible 50 games.

Results

1st Leg, May 24 2018 

Pacific Storm- Mavericks 6-10

Spartans-Montreal Machine 7-7

2nd Leg, May 25 2018

Spartans-Pacific Storm 5-9

Montreal Machine- Mavericks 5-9

3rd Leg, May 25 2018

Montreal Machine-Pacific Storm 7-8

Spartans-Mavericks 9-13

Bronze Medal Game

Montreal Machine – Spartans 8-6

Gold Medal Final Game

Pacific Storm- Mavericks 6-8

Final Results

1. Toronto Mavericks

2. Pacific Storm
3. Montreal machine

4. Spartans

http://www.waterpolo.ca/News3666.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/PatrasNauticalClub/posts/770758569801982?notif_id=1527576730372571&notif_t=page_post_reaction

https://sportin.gr/article/protathlitis-ston-kanada-o-patrinos-konstantinos-athanasioy

http://www.waterpolonews.gr/%CF%80%CF%81%CF%89%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%BB%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%AE%CF%82-u16-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BD-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%AC-%CE%BF-%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%AF%CE%BF%CF%85/

http://www.pisina.net/%CF%80%CF%81%CF%89%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%BB%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BD-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B1-%CE%BF-%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%85/

2018 U16 National Finals set for Montreal

After six months of intense competition, the NCL season will come to a close this weekend with the 2018 National Finals in Montreal. Four teams from each 16U category and five teams from each 19U category will descend on Montreal to try and claim the ultimate NCL prize, a National Championship.

The 16U competition will start on Thursday night at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The four teams in each of the girls and boys competitions (the top two teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences) will play a three-game round robin to open the tournament. The top two teams at the end of the round robin will play for gold, with third and fourth playing for bronze.

At the 16U boys level, the Mavericks will be looking to win back to back national championships. They enter Nationals as the top team from the Eastern Conference, riding an unbeaten streak that has lasted over two years. Mavericks have three dynamic scorers in Patrick Almasi (100 goals), Lazar Todorovic (76 goals), and Sergije Vrbaski (74 goals), who are all top ten in the goal scoring race.

Montreal Machine’s 16U boys enter the tournament as the second team out of the East and are looking to build upon their third-place finish last year. Machine have their own prolific goal scoring threat in Leno Salamon, whose 102 goals during the regular season led the 16U division. Machine lost a tight 12-11 game to Mavericks in the Eastern Conference Finals and will hope to be able to return the favour at the National Finals.

On the West side, Pacific Storm’s 16U boys come into the tournament as the top team from the West. They lost to the Mavericks in the gold medal game last year and are looking to take that one final step up the podium this time around. They also have a high scoring offence which includes top ten scorer Connor MacMillan (70 goals).

The Spartans round out the 16U boys competitors, earning a place in their first ever National Finals by virtue of their silver medal at the Western Championships. Spartans enter the National Finals in the underdog role, as they are the only National Finals boys’ entry who were seeded outside the top two before the start of the conference championships. Spartans know they are more than capable of topping higher seeded teams though, as they proved in their run at the Western Championships

The 14U Eastern National Championships set to begin in Montreal

After an exciting weekend that featured both the 16U Eastern Conference Championships and the 14U Western National Championships, this weekend the 14U Eastern National Championships take center stage in the NCL. Eight boys’ teams and six girls’ teams will be competing at Claude-Robillard in Montreal for a chance to win the coveted title of Eastern National Champions.

The 2018 Eastern National Finals will see the best 14U teams in Quebec and Ontario competing for the championship. Teams qualified for Eastern Nationals through their finishes in the provincial championships. On the boys’ side, CAMO, Montreal Machine, and Dollard qualified from Quebec, while Mavericks Black, Ottawa Titans, Shadow, Mavericks Red, and the Toronto Golden Jets qualified from Ontario. In the girls’ division, Dollard, Montreal Machine, and Saint-Lambert are representing Quebec, and Mavericks, Capital Wave, and Ottawa Titans qualified for Ontario.

Both the girls’ and boys’ competitions will begin with a round robin. The boys have been split into two pools of four, seeded based on the teams’ placements at the provincial championships. Teams will play three games in their pool, with the top two finishers in each group after pool play advancing to the semi-finals. On the girls’ side, the six teams will play a full five-game round robin over the course of Friday and Saturday. 1st and 2nd in the round robin will then meet on Sunday with the gold medal on the line.

On the boys’ side, the Montreal Machine are the defending champions after capturing the title in their first-ever appearance last season. Machine defeated Mavericks Black in the 2017 Gold Medal Game, another in a series of fantastic games these two clubs have played against each other at the 14U and 16U levels over the past two years. There could be another rematch this year, as Mavericks Black are the #1 seed from the Ontario Division and looking strong once again. CAMO will certainly have something to say about that, having finished ahead of Machine in provincial play to claim the #1 seed from Quebec. Mavericks Black (1st Ontario), Machine (2nd Quebec), Shadow (3rd Ontario), and Toronto Golden Jets (5th Ontario) make up one Pool, while CAMO (1st Quebec), Ottawa Titans (2nd Ontario), Dollard (3rd Quebec) and Mavericks Red (4th Ontario) make up the other. With some many strong teams entered, it’s sure to be a fantastic competition for the boys’ championship.

The 2018 14U Eastern National Finals will see 38 games played in three days at Claude-Robillard. The event will be a showcase of the next generation of water polo players, and WPC encourages any and all to come out to attend the event. Please see the NCL schedule for full details on dates and times.

16U Eastern Conference Championships this weekend in Montreal.

The 16U boys Eastern Conference is by far the largest category in the NCL this year, with 13 teams competing in the conference. When looking at the 2017-2018 regular season as a preview of conference finals, the conference can be split into different segments. The first segment is the conference leaders Mavericks, Montreal Machine and Dollard Black. 
Each of these teams has defeated the other ten teams in every game they’ve played amongst them; additionally, of the four games the three teams played against each other, three ended in ties. The only victory was a Montreal Machine victory over Dollard Black that clinched Machine the 1^st seed in the Quebec Division. The 2^nd segment consists solely of the Ottawa Titans, who finished as the 2^nd seed in the Ontario Division and inhabit a middle ground in the conference. Ottawa has also defeated the other nine opponents in the conference in every game played against them but has been unable to pick up any points against the teams above them in the standings. The closest Titans came was a 6-7 loss to Machine. The final segment is the remaining nine teams in the conference Shadow, CAMO, Hamilton, KW Inferno, Saint-Lambert, Capital Wave, Toronto Golden Jets, Laval Tritons and Dollard Gold. In order for any of these teams to qualify for the National Finals or win a medal, they would need to win at least two games against the top four teams, a tall task. 

At the top of the bracket are the defending champion Mavericks, who enter the tournament as the number one seed from the Ontario Division with a record of 16-2-0. The Mavericks have not lost a game since the 2015-2016 season, and their unbeaten streak now stands at 42 games. They will face the winner of KW Inferno and Saint-Lambert in the quarter-finals, and then a matchup with Dollard Black could await in the semi-finals. In the teams’ only regular season matchup, Mavericks scored a tying goal with a half a minute to play to earn a draw. 

The Montreal Machine headline the other half of the bracket, matching the Mavericks undefeated record at 16-0-2. Machine will face the winner of Laval and Hamilton in the quarter-finals, with a possible matchup against the Ottawa Titans in the semi-finals. If that matchup does come to fruition, it will be a rematch of last year’s quarter-finals, when Machine upset the higher seeded Titans on their way to a National Finals berth in their first ever NCL season. This year, the Titans will be hoping to return the favour and take out the higher seeded Machine. 

The Toronto Golden Jets (3-2-13) and Capital Wave (5-0-13) will have the hardest road to the National Finals, as they will have to play each other in the only game of the first round. The winner of that game will face CAMO (3^rd in the Quebec division) in round two, and then would have to reel off two more wins to earn a spot at the National Finals. The other second-round games will be Saint-Lambert (5-1-12) against the KW Inferno (6-2-10), Dollard Gold (1-0-17) goes up against Shadow (10-0-8) and Laval (2-0-16) vs. Hamilton (8-2-8). 

With a total of 33 games scheduled in Montreal, this weekend promises to feature exciting water polo games for the local fans. Please see the NCL schedule for full details about the 16U Eastern Conference Championships.

Team Ontario & Water polo Canada tryout-testing Next Generation Athletes

Water polo Canada and Ontario water polo invite all Greater Toronto Area athletes who were identified on the Long Lists to attend a standardized testing session on April 28th, 2018 at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre Scarborough.

Constantine Athanasiou is one of the youngest athletes that made the Long List of the best athletes in Ontario.

1) General Long Lists

Ontario water polo, asked all clubs to identify athletes with strong provincial and National Team potential that are born between the ages of 2002-2004 for boys, and 2001-2004 for girls. These lists help us have a gauge of the athletes that are in the province. "We were surprised to see the number of athletes that were identified, but are happy to see so many people put forward. We used these lists as Team Ontario long lists for this summer’s Team Ontario programming".

2) NextGen Athlete Identification

Water Polo Canada has tasked different people to work with coaches and clubs in various regions to collect data on these athletes. Ontario has been split into two regions, and Nish Damani has been tasked to work in the GTA, and Andrew Robinson has been tasked to work in the Capital Region. Water Polo Canada has identified a few standardized tests that they would like to see included, and have given the liberty to the regions to make some of their own. Nish Damani and Andrew Robinson will be working together to create identical standardized testing in both the GTA and Capital Region, which will ultimately lead to the collection of data for identified athletes in Ontario.

 

The date for testing in the GTA is April 28th, 2018. The date in the Capital Region has not yet been set. All athletes who are on the Long Lists will be invited to the testing sessions (regardless of if you will attend a Provincial or National Team this summer). Capital Region Athletes should not be attending the GTA session and the session is not a tryout for Team Ontario. The purpose of the session is to gather data for the long run!

  

3) Team Ontario Selection Process

Team Ontario selection will be carried out through the following steps. NextGen testing will not be used for selection this season.

The Mavericks are the Ontario Waterpolo Provincial 14U Champions 2018

The Ontario Provincial Championships were held between April 13- an April 15 at Scarborough Pan Am sports centre.

 A competitive structure for 11 boys teams that determined the teams that will qualify for the Eastern Canadian National Championship Finals in Montreal on May 11 to 14.


The top 5 boys teams and qualify for National Championships.

Having already clinched a spot for the Eastern National Waterpolo Championships in Montreal next month, played in an amazing semi final game with the Shadow team that went all the way to a penalty shootout to decide the Mavericks win 11-9, our team qualified to the final game, and fight for the Ontario Championship with the Ottawa Titans.
What a final it was! a nail biting game that kept everybody on their toes up to the final minute. The Mavericks won with the score 6-4.
The Mavericks U14 Boys are the Ontario Provincial Champions!! Great work boys! 
Up next for U14 is the Eastern Nationals in Montreal May 11-13th.

Final Provincial ranking: 

1. Mavericks 1
2. Ottawa Titans
3. Shadow
4. South West Waterpolo
5. Kitchiner-Waterloo
6. Mavericks 2
7. Golden Jets
8. HAWPC
9. Capital Wave
10. Mavericks 3
11. Ottawa Titans 2

The Mavericks 1 roster: 

Mavericks 1
Jankovic	Luka
Athanasiou	Konstantinos
Ayiotis	Sam
Gluscevic	Mihailo
Hahn	Andrew
Matsialko	Paul
Miekus	Thomas
Pjano	Filip
Polyutov	Dennis
Radulovic	Nikola
Rajic	Lazar
Rouby	Mahmoud
Samardzic	Aleksandar