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Swansea Canoe Polo Competition

The Dapto Bats represented Dapto High School admirably on August 27th at the Swansea competition, organised by the Hunter Valley Canoe Club.  Mr. Mackey drove us up to Blacksmiths Beachside Holiday park on Friday evening, and once in our cabins it took until about midnight to get to sleep due to the excitement of the event the following day. 

Our group consisted of: Mr. Mackey, Jenna and Emily Mackey, Shane Jacka, Wayne McManus, Mark Merlo, Dalibor Vujic, Matt Green, Peter Lennon, Mitchell Jones and myself.  Due to the size of our group we were asked to make up two teams (Bats 1 & 2), as there were fewer teams there than expected.  We were happy to oblige, just as we had done at the Pavlova Challenge in Sydney.  There were no separate graded games, but we had to play all other teams.  The trade-off was a special rule whereby the leading team had to lose one player for each further point scored once they reached 2 points ahead.  This gave the trailing team a player advantage and a better chance of scoring against the stronger players.  Our opponents were very supportive of us and gave us frequent coaching, even though they were playing against us at the time.

The top scorers were Wayne McManus, Peter Lennon and Shane Jacka, with some great skills being demonstrated by all players.  Mark Merlo performed his first "textbook" assisted rescue when he was capsized by an opponent.  We won one game when we played Bats 1 against Bats 2, but came close in several other games.

Winning (while it would have been great) was not our main focus in entering the competition.  As we are still a young team in experience we are very appreciative of the opportunity to compete against other players whenever we can.  While a very competitive sport, most players are very happy to encourage and coach beginners to get into and enjoy the game.  Mr. Wilson