NCL gets 2019 off to a rolling start with 74 games held over four days in Calgary and Gatineau

The Eastern Conference featured a major competition, as the 16 and under girls’ and boys’ squads gathered in Gatineau for a three-day competition.

The Mavericks’ boys added another three victories to their impressive streak, and are now 11-0-0 on the season, sitting 12 points ahead of 2nd place Montreal Machine. 

Machine had a perfect weekend as well, going 2-0-0 to improve their record to 7-0-2. Machine’s only two losses in the season were to the Mavericks, and they look like a strong bet to capture the 2nd seed at the Eastern Conference Championships.

After Mavericks and Machine, there is a list of seven teams of which any could conceivably end up as the number 3rd seed by the end of the season. The Ottawa Titans currently hold the number three spot, buoyed by a 3-0-2 record in Gatineau. 

Titans sit on 18 points (6-0-5) from 11 games played, but many teams behind them have several games in hand and could jump over Titans in the months ahead. 

The biggest mover of the weekend was no doubt Capital Wave, who went 3-2-1 at the Centre Sportif de Gatineau. Wave, who had earned just one point in their first four games, grabbed 11 points from their six games played this past weekend to jump from 11th to a tie for 5th in the standings. Owen Pilson, Adrien Wera, and Alexander Luckett served as a three-headed attack for Capital Wave over the weekend, with Pilson scoring 14 goals, and Wera and Luckett each adding 13 of their own.

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	11	11	0	0	33	242	67	175	63%	81%
Montreal Machine	10	8	0	2	24	132	64	68	38%	75%
Ottawa Titans	11	6	0	5	18	116	140	-24	28%	54%
Shadow	11	5	1	5	16	95	116	-21	41%	65%
Toronto Golden Jets	7	4	0	3	12	79	69	10	44%	63%
St-Lambert	11	4	0	7	12	116	120	-4	27%	63%
Capital Wave	10	3	3	4	12	72	94	-22	5%	64%
Dollard	6	3	0	3	9	64	74	-10	59%	64%
CAMO	6	2	1	3	7	64	87	-23	42%	40%
Mavericks DS	11	1	1	9	4	63	158	-95	25%	56%
South West Stingrays	8	1	0	7	3	46	110	-64	21%	64%

 

Maverick Boys had a perfect weekend in Etobicoke to top of NCL standings

Every 16 and under and 19 and under NCL team has now officially begun their 2018-2019 NCL season after 23 games were played over the weekend at the Etobicoke Olympium in Toronto.

 The Maverick squad reeled off another five victories at their home pool to run their record to 9-0-0 and vault to an impressive 12-point lead over 2nd placed Montreal Machine in the 16U Boys Eastern Conference. Mavericks have played more games than anybody else in the conference, so it’s possible their lead will shrink in the coming weeks; but they have made themselves strong favourites to lock up the number one seed for the 2019 Eastern Conference Championships.

Elsewhere in the conference, the Toronto Golden Jets got their season off to a strong start, going 3-0-1 in Etobicoke and climbing to 4th place in the conference. The top 5 seeds in the East will receive a first-round bye for the Conference Championships, and the Jets’ fast start has put them in a position to claim one of those coveted spots. Leading the way offensively for the Jets have been Bora Kaya and Dario Lucic, who potted 18 and 16 goals, respectively, for the Jets over their opening four games.

There is only one NCL event left before the Holiday Break, but it should be a fun one, as the Major League Water Polo season opens in Edmonton. The Calgary Renegades, Edmonton Tsunami, and Saskatchewan squads will gather at the Kinsmen Sports Centre to kick off the race to the 2019 Senior National Championships, being held in Markham, Ontario this March.

All-Star Team

GK: Luca Jankovic, Mavericks / Teodora Mikic, South West Stingrays

• Bora Kaya, Toronto Golden Jets
• Dario Lucic, Toronto Golden Jets
• Sam Hachem, Montreal Machine
• Sarah August, South West Stingrays
• Thomas Sapozhnikov, Shadow
• Ali Moradinejad, St-Lambert

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%

Water Polo Canada Regional Development Centres (RDC) 2018-2019 Season

Water Polo Canada is implementing a sustainable high performance development strategy focusing on the growth of Regional Development Centres to ensure long-term system alignment.

Water Polo Canada will continue to develop Regional Development Centres and other HP initiatives for athletes across the country to build sustained international success.

The Regional Development Centres are built on Water Polo Canada's overall High  Performance Development strategy that emphasizes:

Sustainable High Performance Growth

• ·         System Alignment
• ·         Curriculum and Education
• ·         Enhancement of the Daily Training Environment

The objective of the RDC's is to respond to critical performance gaps of our high performance athletes in order to build sustained international success.

The following areas have been identified by Water Polo Canada's High Performance Staff as athlete performance gaps at the international level.

Responding Performance Gaps

• ·         Improve general levels of fitness
• ·         Increase technical abilities
• ·         Increase offensive creativity and efficiency

Water Polo Canada will focus on using the RDCs to address  these  specific gaps and support the overall development of our athletes.

Water Polo Canada provides competitive water polo opportunities for clubs (National Championship Leagues and competitions).  WPC also endorses High Performance strategies that provide the platform for athletes to make various National Teams (Age Groups and Seniors).

Coaches invited the following athletes who will attend the RDC open weekends from  (Oct 13 2018-Jun 15 2019) where they will be assessed by the RDC staff. 

Aboudaoud	Karim	2004
Anthanasiou	Konstantinos	2004
Archer	Mason	2000
Groza	Stefan	2004
James	Alex	2003
Kavagoe-Glavatsky	Vlad	2003
Knezevic	Nemanja	2000
Le	Ethan	2003
Malcom	Henri	2003
Marinov	Kyril	2001
Masters	Aidan	2003
Mekni	Adam	2004
Nebytov	Amir	2000
Nemes	Alex	2004
Nevills	Alexander	2001
Patel	Krishan	2003
Polytov	Dennis	2004
Radulovic	Nikola	2004
Rouby	Mahmoud	2004
Ruzic	Marko	2003
Sapozhnikov	Thomas	2004
Seslijas	Luka	2004
Shekarof	Ben	2004
Tanasijevic	Bor	2001
Todorovic	Lazar	2004
Vrbaski	Sergije	2003