| Brook
Ruffo
It's a
long-accepted axiom in sport that speed kills.
Unless you're a self-effacing water polo enthusiast like
Surrey's Brook Ruffo, anyway.
The
17-year-old honor role student at Fleetwood Park secondary
school is recognized by teammates as committed, loyal and
energetic - all qualities that have made Brook one of Canada's
top young water polo players.
But fast? Not
the way Brook figures it. Asked to reveal something about
himself that most people would never imagine, he said
"I'm one of the slowest players on my team."
Brook started
out in the game with Surrey Orcas eight years ago, at the
urging of his parents, when he found that straightforward swim
competitions and practice didn't provide enough of an edge to
keep him interested.
"I was
bored of swimming and wanted to quit, but I wanted to stay
active in the water," he says bluntly. A jolting loss in
his first-ever water polo game only made him more determined
to excel. "We got destroyed; and yet I still loved every
minute of it. Afterwards I was looking forward to the next
practice so that I could get better for the next game,"
he recalls.
Four years
ago, Brook ramped up his involvement with the sport, joining
Pacific Storm and has enjoyed considerable success in the
elite B.C. water polo club's cadet and youth programs. He
loves the fact that the long hours of training are rewarded.
"As long
as you have the desire to get better you can go as far as you
want," he says. As well, he enjoys being a member of a
close-knit group of players who keep one-another motivated. He
has shared with teammates a gold medal at the 2005 cadet
national tournament, and was a member of the youth team that
made it to the gold medal game at the youth nationals in 2006.
The 2006
national youth championship final was memorable, but
bittersweet. "Even though we were down by a few goals
everybody on the team kept each other motivated and we
continued to play as hard as we could. We played as a team
better than we ever had before. We continued to close the gap
between the scores but ran out of time and left with
silver."
In his spare
time, Brook occasionally coaches and referees with the Orcas.
He'd like to earn a youth gold medal before moving on to
university, where he anticipates his path of studies will
include science and medicine, and eventually, a career as a
doctor.
He's
confident that anyone who is new to the sport will be quickly
won over, as he was - just "watch a high level game
between two evenly matched teams."
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