| Mathew
Venner - High Expectations
As you might
expect for a member of Canada's junior national water polo
team, Mathew Venner places high expectations upon himself as a
player.
The Grade 12
student at Surrey's Earl Marriott secondary school has
participated in swimming, rugby and volleyball, but it's water
polo that really commands his attention.
"It makes you forget about everything else in life that
isn't related to water polo," Mathew says.
He got his
start five years ago with Surrey Orcas, after deciding he
wanted a sport that offered a wider array of challenges than
swimming.
It took just
one game to convince him he'd enjoy the switch. "I
thought that this sport was 100 times better than
swimming." The following year he was persuaded by veteran
provincial coach Ian Mitchell to join Pacific Storm, where he
found himself enjoying an even higher level of intensity and
commitment to improving his game.
If he were
describing the sport to someone unfamiliar with it, he'd
describe at as "handball in water" and he says
getting excited about it is as simple as attending a
high-intensity game or tournament such as the BC Open.
Looking back, he already has a headful of treasured
experiences.
Mathew scored
a goal in Canada's bronze medal team at the Junior Pan
American Games in Montreal in summer 2006, toured
international water polo hotbed Hungary, and celebrated both
youth and cadet national championships in 2005.
He has also
contributed some of his own time to the promotion and
development of the game, coaching younger players for the
North Delta Sunfish water polo club.
So far, his favorite recollection is Canada's dramatic
comeback against Columbia in the Pan Am bronze final -
"The intensity of the game was at an incredible level,
and the memorable part was the five-goal comeback,"
Mathew recalls.
One of
Mathew's long-term goals is to make the senior men's team and
help it win a berth in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London,
England. He expects to take another step down that road in
June when he will join the national team training program in
Calgary, and he's looking to get into the engineering program
at the University of Calgary.
Contact:
Cheryl Wilson-Stewart
BC Water Polo-PR
Telephone: 604.737.3148
Email: pr@bcwaterpolo.com
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