It won’t be long before Selkirk joins Winnipeg as a place where young athletes can learn and play water polo.
The new Red River Water Polo club has begun offering Learn to Water Polo sessions at the Selkirk Community Pool to introduce the sport to local youth.
The club held its first session on June 19, with seven participants between the ages of nine and 15 learning the fundamentals from experienced coaches and players. The 90-minute session focused on ball handling, passing, shooting and swimming.
“It went really well,” Red River Water Polo president Carolee Buckler said Monday. “The kids had a lot of fun, there was interest. We don’t have huge numbers yet, but we’re hoping that we’ll be able to grow it over the summer and also into the fall.”
Buckler said participants travelled from as far away as Gimli to attend.
Beyond introducing newcomers to the sport, the club hopes to rebuild water polo in Selkirk, where the community once had one of Manitoba’s strongest high school programs through Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the program disappeared, leaving local players to travel to Winnipeg for competitive opportunities.
Buckler said the club is focused on giving today’s youth the same opportunities previous generations enjoyed.
“There used to be a very strong water polo presence in Selkirk prior to COVID,” she said. “There was an actual water polo team in Selkirk in the school league, and they won provincials a few times. One of our board members is a former high school player himself from Selkirk, and so he played competitive water polo in Selkirk and was on the Selkirk school team.
“He’s very passionate about the sport and wants to see it happen again in Selkirk. He said he made a lot of lifelong friends through it and developed skills that have helped him in his current life today. He’s now working, so he wants to see kids in Selkirk and surrounding communities have the same experience that he’s had and wants to bring a school water polo team back to the high school and incorporate this into the new club.
“We’re excited about that because the more kids playing water polo in Manitoba, the better. It helps grow the sport and gives kids opportunities to compete with others across Manitoba, not just in Winnipeg.”
Buckler said one of the first steps could be re-establishing a recreational high school program before eventually expanding competitive opportunities.
The club also plans to launch a community team for players from Selkirk and surrounding areas called the Selkirk Channel Cats, while continuing to offer Learn to Water Polo sessions for newcomers.
“We just want it to be a welcoming entry point into organized aquatics and introduce participants to water polo in a fun, accessible environment, especially because water polo did exist in Selkirk before, so we want to bring that back,” Buckler said.
