News:

08-19    SLAP Fall session begins today :

The SLAP Fall session starts today. Please check check the practice pages for times and information. During the Fall session SLAP will hold practices for 3 groups: The Women's Team, the Junior Team (grades 5th-8th) & new this Fall, the Piranhas (grades 1st-4th). Game schedule will be posted in early September.

07-29    Annual Kickball Game:

New this year at the annual kickball game is the end of the year BBQ. We start at 6:30 am. All are welcome. If your last name is A-I please bring a side dish to share, J-R please bring a dessert to share & S-Z please bring drinks & paper products (napkins, utensils, paper towels, plates, cups).

07-28    A, B & Women's Team Information:

All games the week of 7/28 are at Marquette High School. Please check the game schedule section for times.

07-17    SLAP A & SLAP Women Tournaments:

The game schedule for the Clayton Senior Men's Open and the Parkway Women's Tournament have been posted.

07-01    SLAP B Falls in 2nd Game:

Recap by JB & Aaron Well our second game wasn't as good as the first. We lost. We went back and forth from winning to loosing multiple times. Our player of the game, Bret, is the reason we almost won. He went in when the score was 8-4 and scored 3 goals. That same day, we practiced being hookers (hooking our & releasing for the ball). And nobody remembered this in the game. There was a wonderful speech given to us by JB quoting Baby Shrew's (Travis) grandpa. Also Travis really needs to be part of our team and show up on time to our games. And not half way through. Many people scored, Bret with 4, JB, Aaron, and Travis with 2, and 1 from Andrew and Tom. Our next game is definitely a win with new player Sebastian. A special thanks goes out to Josh because he was a team player and missed his game so he could stay with us till the end. Even though the two awesome captains JB and Aaron could have managed the team by themselves.

06-25    Letter from Fr. Dan:

During the week of June 16-20, SLAP was honored to host Fr. Dan Rogacweski & 6 of his players from St. Pius X High School in Atlanta, GA. Georgia is on the verge of recognizing water polo as a state sanctioned sport & Fr. Dan, who is an alum of Lindbergh High School, wanted to take his players on a training trip & chose St. Louis and to work with our team. We were honored to host them and enjoyed their company. Below is a letter of gratitude I received from Fr. Dan:

Miguel, It was an uneventful (thankfully), if wet drive home. I will say they were awake longer than I expected. It was O'Fallon before all the eyes were closed and all of the heads were down. I cannot thank you enough for a terrific week. The week exceded every expectation I had. The kids had a great time. They learned a lot, some of which I hope they remember in the fall. By Friday they were all tired and sore, which is what I expected them to be. They really appreciated how welcoming and hospitable all the players were. My players were so complimentary of you and Josh and all of the guys in the pool . I could not have duplicated this experience on my own. Thanks so much for your generosity and your team's generosity in letting us be a part of your practice. I don't know what the next year will bring but I know that if I offer to do this again I will not have a shortage of eager and willing participants. When you are passing through in the Spring let me know what you need and we will do our best to return the favor. Fr. Dan

06-25    SLAP A Falls to Lions in Season Opener:

Recap by Michael Schonhoff Alas, defeat&SLAP A lost its season opener against the Junglecat Lions on Wednesday night. The Lions jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter as some of us SLAP players were feeling a little rusty. However, the rest of the game we played them pretty evenly and we ended up losing by 5 or 6. For our first game it wasnt bad, but there are a few things we need to work on: passing under pressure, communication, and anticipation to defense. The Atlanteans (from Atlanta, not Atlantis) added some extra bodies and helped keep us indefatigable. But they left on Friday and shall be dearly, dearly missed. They will hold a special place in our hearts forever. Senior captain veteran driver/2m-defender Matt Zaggy returns this weekend and his skills will help. Hopefully, we will be able to bounce back from this lost and beat the Leopards next week. We shall try to do what British tennis player Chris Everett Lloyd talked about: If you can react the same way to winning and losing, thats a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life, and theres going to be a life after tennis thats a lot longer than your tennis life. If we switch the word tennis with water polo then we can really learn a lot from this quote. So lets not worry about our losing; lets be happy.

06-20    SLAP B Wins Season Opener:

Recap by Aaron Adcock & JB

Ok first off, the player of the game is going to be Max, our fantastic goalie. We didnt help out on defense as much as we should have, but Max picked up the slack for us. As the first game playing together, we played pretty well. We even played well with the Atlanta team, who we met the day before. Baby Shrew decided to show up in the beggining of the third quarter, but ended up playing well. Aaron Adcock led the team in scoring with 5 goals and JB Garfinkel followed with 4 goals. Andrew Deimer scored 3 goals, Brett with 2, Forrest with 2, and Carter with 1. Our next game will be even better with returning players such as Martin Zenk and maybe Baby Shrew will decide to show up for the whole game. The two captains JB and Aaron played an amazing game together. This was a very easy team and we need to be ready for the next game. We don't remember the final score, but everyone played good. We will all get better when we get used to playing with each other more.

Info

St. Louis Area Polo is divided into 4 levels of play: Senior A Team (High school Varsity ability & older), High School B Team (High School Junior Varsity ability), SLAP Women and Junior Team (8th grade and younger). The Senior A & B Teams are made up of water polo players from several area high school teams (Clayton HS, DeSmet Jesuit HS, Kirkwood HS, John Burroughs, Parkway West, Parkway North, Lafayett, Ladue and U.City HS) as well as recent HS graduates playing collegiate club. The club is open to both male and female players of any age or experience. Beginners are more than welcome! The Junior Team has been successful in it's first 2 years and has helped introduce players younger players to the sport. The Women's team is for girls only and is new to SLAP program. While most of the girls compete with the Senior or Junior team, the Women's team is dedicated to helping promote the sport to girls and give them a chance to play exclusively with their peers. The Junior Team and Women's Team is coached by Corey Miller (Ladue HS) & the Senior Team is coached by Miguel Figueras (DeSmet Jesuit HS) and Josh Bell.

History

Slap has a very rich and eventful histroy. The program began in the summer of 2001 as a pick up team playing out of Heman Park in U. City. The program was started by then U. City asst. coach, Miguel Figueras. The program was expanded to include a Winter/Spring season working out at U.City High School. The team began traveling to Carbondale, IL to participate in the Annual Paul Bell Invitational. The summer of 2002 the team moved to the outdoor pool at Clayton Shaw Park and began the tradition of traveling to Des Moines and participating in the Clayton Senior Open. In 7 years the team has expanded from 10 players to over 70. The team has sent players to play at the following colleges: Grinell College, Lindenwood College, Mercyhurst College, United States Military Academy, University of Arizona, University of Missouri, University of Dayton, St. Louis University, Washington University, Yale, St. Francis College, Colorado College and Xavier University. Players from the following high schools have played with Slap over the past 7 years: Clayton, DeSmet, Eureka, John Burroughs, Kirkwood, Ladue, Lafayette, Marquette, Parkway North, Parkway West, Summit, SLUH and U. City.