Beach water polo Cup 2013

[LBHalos17]

The seventh-annual Cup tournament was held in Alamitos Bay last Saturday.  It's an all-day event, running Sat-Sun with all kinds of age-groups.  Every year, we've played a "marquee match-up" vs. a team from the Fire Department.  Usually, the Fire team is short on players, causing them to draw from the seasonal Lifeguards whose shift is just ending..  Leading to a game of old Cops (several of us who are actually alumni-Lifeguards), vs. the young and in-great-polo-shape Guards.

 

We usually play a best-of-five-games; first to five goals, wins.  We have yet to beat "Fire", but have come close every year.  This year, we had five Officers show-up to play (including one making a dramatic last-second entrance; diving-in from the Police boat).  NO one from the Fire Department showed-up, so we played the seasonal Guards/random guys and girls.

 

I'd like to say it was fun, but I couldn't feel my toes or other body parts..  Even when I took a shot to the nose (I'm the goalie for the PD team).  I was impressed with our over-40 team, playing to a 2-games-each draw.  We decided it was WAY too cold to continue...

 

We rolled to Rileys afterward to compare war-stories and cuts and bruises.  After shivering for an hour during dinner, most of us decided to head home and try to get our core-temperature back to normal (for me, that took an extra hour after about a 1/2 hour hot shower...

 

Anyway; it's a lot of fun playing (everybody either played polo at Long Beach State WAY back, or is currently playing there or at City College, including the two gals who jumped onto the "Fire" team).  Gotta fight to stay in some sorta shape these days....

 

I'm posting a video of our game from a few years back; the web-site can be found googling "beach polo cup 2013" if you wanna find a great sport for your kids!