Olivia Richards Makes Victorian Water Polo Squad

The following is a reflection from Olivia Richards, 11 Jenkin, who was recently selected to compete in the Victorian Water Polo Squad for Under 19 girls.

Trials for Victorian 19U Water Polo team were held the weekends either side of the March long weekend just before Coronavirus put a stop to all sport as we know. As trials had been completed Water Polo Victoria felt it was important to announce the team even though we are not able to train and competing is very very unlikely.

I play with Essendon Water Polo Club during the State Championship season with games being held at MSAC on a Tuesday evening. Training for Essendon is on a Monday night at Victoria University in Footscray.  Last year I was in the Victorian 16U Team and trainings for that was on either a Saturday or Sunday, so during the winter it is usually 3 trips to Melbourne a week.

I have been playing water polo for 4 years and started in Bendigo after I saw the local team training after I had done squad swimming. I really love swimming but missed the team togetherness that I got when playing netball, so I thought why not give it a go?  After missing out on the 14U Victorian team I wanted to improve my skills and decided to join a Melbourne based club so I could play weekly against the best players in the State.  Essendon has been a really great and welcoming club and I have made some really good friends and learnt a lot. During the 2019 State Championship season I played State League 2 and we won the premiership which was fantastic.

I would ultimately love to play for Australia and go to the Olympics but that will take a lot of work - at the moment I would just be happy to be able to get back in the pool and play for Essendon again once the current pandemic settles.