Power Shots and Wet Passes

Former college water polo champ Kirk Ouellette is passing on his love for the sport to the Club’s youth swim team.

Kirk Ouellette paddles out to the middle of the Sky Pool while palming a brightly colored water polo ball in his outstretched right hand. With a flick of his fingers, he propels the ball at an overturned float perched on the edge of the pool. It bounces off with a thud.

“After you catch the ball, point your shoulder at the goal and throw it like a baseball,” Ouellette tells a group of 25 youngsters, including his two children, bobbing up and down in the water before him. “That’s how you generate power.”

Club Member Ouellette, 45, began teaching water polo to the Mudsharks swim team during monthly sessions last year. “Beyond just having some fun, the swim team learns skills like treading water, sculling and swimming with their heads above the water,” he says. “These skills benefit their overall feel and confidence in the water, and can help their competitive swimming performance.”

As a member of the McMaster University water polo team, the Canadian won the Ontario university championships three times and earned all-star honors his final season. His wife, Agnes, also played the sport originally known as “water rugby” as a student.

In 2014, Ouellette met up with his former teammates to compete in the 40-plus age division of the FINA World Masters Championships in Montreal. “We held our own,” Ouellette says of the team’s performance.

Unable to find a water polo club in Tokyo for their children, Isabella, 13, and Daniel, 9, the Ouellettes approached Mudsharks coach Simon Hadlow and the Swim Committee about starting lessons. While the Sky Pool doesn’t meet the standard depth of 1.8 meters for water polo, Ouellette says it is suitable for children.

“My kids already play water polo at a high level with kids their own age and it was a chance [for me] to get directly involved and help them progress,” he says. “With [the Club], we didn’t have to go far to start.”

Last year, his kids took part in a water polo festival in Montreal, where Isabella played goalie on an under-13 team from Hamilton, Ontario. “It was a lot different than I expected,” says Isabella, who joined the Mudsharks six years ago. “There were so many rules you have to remember and I didn’t really know any of them, except you don’t hold the ball with two hands.”

Her father says if the Mudsharks water polo program progresses, he would like to eventually organize games with local teams. “Swimmers do well once they learn some skills,” he says. “If we can do it more often, find a few other teams to play, maybe we’ll take it a little more seriously.”

Mudsharks swim team online registration
Mar 7 | 10am

Words: Nick Narigon
Image: Benjamin Parks