Water polo is a tough sport, requiring a rare mix of stamina, strength, aerobic fitness, and the desire to win several dozen wrestling matches per game. Played in water too deep for feet to reach the bottom, the ball can only be touched with one hand — unless you’re the goalie. Participants need to swim or tread water for long periods of time. Despite these challenges, and a well-established reputation for roughness among water polo players, a newly formed team of older Islanders (ages 50 and up) is loving the sport — and encouraging others to join them. Summing up the joy the new sport brings to her, founding player Cindy Trish explained, “It brings out my 10-year-old self.”
Water polo for older adults (50 and up) was launched by Jim and Cindy Trish with a lot of help from Jen Passafiume, the Y’s aquatics director, who arranged for space and the special equipment required for the sport, like ear guards that protect players from serious injury. Cindy, who is also the executive director of Healthy Aging M.V., fell in love with the game when she watched a friend’s granddaughter play at Harvard. Cindy’s husband Jim played water polo in college, so she recruited him to coach the older polo players.
More than a dozen players have shown up regularly to play water polo at the YMCA pool. But on the cold and stormy Thursday night of Easter week, when many were huddled down at home or on the road traveling for the holiday, only six showed up. Players were game, and went at it anyway. Acting as referee — and sometimes coach — was water polo veteran Jim Trish. He stayed on the pool deck, whistle dangling from his lips, arms waving to indicate a foul. Dropping the whistle for a moment, he pointed at one player and urged, “Get Cindy to show you how to dribble.”
The remaining five players — all women, at least three of them over 70 — went at it, two against three, for four “utterly exhausting” seven-minute quarters.
Despite water polo’s reputation for roughness, the Vineyard players agree the greatest challenge so far is learning to laugh without drowning. Their games are filled with giggles, verging on uproarious laughter.
Nonetheless, the reputation for roughness endures. According to water polo Olympian and Hall of Famer Natalie Benson, “Played in deep water, much of the action takes place out of sight of the referee, and it is well-known players will do anything they can get away with in water polo.” When it comes to what happens under the water, anything goes. Punching, kicking, and scratching are all frequent parts of a water polo game. There are penalties when someone intentionally punches someone, or has malicious intent, but penalties only apply when the official sees it.
The Times asked players to comment on the “anything goes” aspect of their games played in the Y pool:
“Ha, ha!” commented Jana Bertkau. “It is certainly a vigorous sport. Most of us are newbies and just learning. We wear flotation devices to help us stay afloat. So far no one has done any serious damage to anyone else. We laugh a lot as we hustle around the pool, and try to steal the ball from each other. We don’t have the expertise or skills to do anything nasty. And the ref is watchful and instructs us when we are doing something wrong. So our mentality is: ‘Let’s have a good time,’ and not ‘Anything goes.’”
Cindy Doyle appreciates both the camaraderie and the competitive aspect: “I’ve never played water polo before, and it is ‘competitive’ (a nice word for rough), and there are skills you have to learn that are very different from swimming laps. First I had to learn the rules, and then how to catch the ball with one hand — very tricky. Next, I had to learn how to guard the players on the other team so they couldn’t make a goal. I’m just learning about punching, kicking, and scratching, techniques that are very useful when guarding. So far no one has drowned!
“The most important skill I’ve had to learn is how to laugh (which we all do a lot) without choking on a mouthful of water! Water polo is really fun, and a great way to meet new people. To learn each other’s names, we pass the ball back and forth to warm up, and practice saying the name of the teammate you’re tossing the ball to.
“Now that I think about it, I’m not sure whether it’s the swimming or laughing that makes water polo so tiring!”
Cindy Trish is already active, but water polo is her go-to sport: “I love to be active, so it’s not hard to find things I enjoy — swimming laps a few times a week, walking two to five miles every day with the pupster, playing tennis twice a week, golfing once a week, lifting weights, rowing machine, and more. I’ve always been active, and don’t anticipate that changing. That said, water polo does take us to another level. The competitive nature of the game makes me want to swim faster to the ball, so it is a great workout. I think most of us occasionally find ourselves out of breath, and pushing ourselves harder than we would in an individual workout. Most of us also wear one of the belts to help keep us buoyant. It is a mixed bag, as it slows you down when you’re swimming, but does give you a bit of lift when catching and throwing the ball. We are all pretty beat at the end of the hour.
“The game does allow for a level of aggressiveness we don’t typically have in our day, which I think we enjoy. Teammates turn fierce in the water, and find this a great release. We are also quite vocal with our ref, denying that we caught the ball with two hands (a no-no), and looking for ways to get into each other’s faces. We are still learning on how we can push it (grabbing each other, dunking each other, etc.) without getting called by the ref, all with good-natured fun.”
I joined this group once over the winter and I had an absolute blast! Coming from the “polite” sport of tennis, I wasn’t prepared for the level of physical contact until I got dunked! Then it was “GAME ON”! I encourage any women over 50 to try it.
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