One of the sports in the Western Bay of Plenty that has literally come from nowhere and ended up a real nursery of the sport in the country is water polo.

Until the BOP Polytechnic pool was built in 2002 there simply wasn't water polo in Tauranga. In 2003 the Tauranga Water Polo Club was officially formed. The addition of Baywave has provided two excellent pools to grow the game.
The Tauranga Water Polo Club grew a large base by promoting flippa ball, an introduction program for Year 3-6 primary schoolchildren, as well as establishing junior leagues. In my quest for learning about sport in our region I recently talked to one of the real enthusiasts in Tauranga water polo, who provided me with a newsletter update ‘what's happening in local water polo'.
‘Tauranga teams have winning start,' was the headline.
The Tauranga U18 Men's and U16 Women's Water Polo teams had winning starts to their Northern League campaigns. The U18 Men, with NZ Senior men's representative Joe Kayes back in the pool in Tauranga togs, defeated a determined Waikato team by 16-8, while the Girls U16 team won easily over their Waikato counterparts, 14-4.
In the Men's U18 game, things were a little rusty in the first quarter as it was their first competitive game of the season. But with five national age group reps in the team - Joe Kayes (NZ Men's team) Jarrod Wilson (NZ U18 team), Mitchell Harris and Ryan Hayes (NZ U16 team) and Danny Kayes (NZ U15 team) it was just a matter of time before the goals starting coming. And with Tauranga Senior Men's players Hayden Rabel, Logan Walsh and Dylan Smith also playing, plus the experienced Roman Coates and Ryan Preston and North Island Tae Kwando champ John Hansen, the Tauranga team is aiming high this season.
'Waikato actually played very well and they have some talented boys over there, particularly their number 10, Mau Morgan, caused us some trouble,” says team manager John Hayes.
'We lose Joe and Jarrod to the World Junior Champs soon, but luckily we don't have any games during the time they're away,” says Hayes.
Hayes's son Ryan, also a talented rugby player, will miss the nationals though as he is away with Tauranga Boys College on their European tour.
'We also have two players out with serious injuries, Nathan Smith and Anthony Murphy, but they're recovering well and we hope to get them back in the pool as soon as possible,” says Hayes.
In the girls game it was a case of just far too much class. The Tauranga U16 team boasted three national reps in Rebecca Parkes, Natalie Peat and Charlotte Eglinton, plus the well-performed Jordyn Gregory.
'We had a simple strategy for much of game” says coach Kurt Wilson, 'which was to clear space around centre-forward Parkes, get the ball to her and let her dominate her marker and score. This worked really well and we got a few easy goals almost immediately, till they started to double mark Rebecca. That's when the speed of Peat, Eglinton and the rest of team out wide becomes invaluable as they often just swam away from their opposites and scored,” says a satisfied Wilson.
The girls U16 team loses Rebecca for two weeks - she is off with the NZ U16 Women's team to Hawaii soon, with her parents Rob and Trish part of the parental tour party. The U16 Boys A and B teams have yet to have their first game in the Northern League.
At the Clubs recent AGM, a new committee was voted in with Daryl Jensen from Pongakawa, taking over the Chairman's role from founding Chair Paul Kayes.
My thanks are extended to Paul and the team at Tauranga Water Polo Club for sending me the excellent copy for this story.