On Saturday 10th May 2014, the Habs Under 14 team travelled up to Walsall for the ESSA national finals. Little did we know that by lunchtime, we would be National Champions!
We passed through the group stages with ease, beating both KES and King’s Grantham convincingly. Our semi-final was against Bolton school, who have until recently dominated school water polo along with Manchester Grammar.
After a tough start, with Bolton getting a goal in after a minute, Habs worked hard with Aril Pandya making fantastic saves and Michael Miller being able to repeatedly punish their goalkeeper with his rocket shot thanks to the efforts of the team working hard together. The final score against Bolton was 6-2 and this meant that we would play Trinity school in the finals.
The final match was against Trinity school from Croydon. After an inspirational team talk from Joey and Will, Habs were ready to go. Goals from Alex Jones, Michael Miller and a few crackers from Will Sammons followed. Adam Kohler and Joey Gardner-White, along with Paras Shah, Matt Rosenfeld and Dan Gilbey (who also scored a few brilliant goals earlier in the tournament) all defended fantastically. Yiannis Pistokopolus, Dan McCabe and Adam Talib all made their debut national performances and did very well indeed, helping Habs to win the match 7-2.
As soon as the game had finished Mr. Stiff and Mr. Jovanovic were both promptly thrown in to join the team to celebrate in the water!
This tournament really shows the efforts of Mr Jovanovic and Mr Stiff, who have worked so hard to train us and make us able to win this year. The whole team are really grateful for their efforts.
We can also see how much Habs water polo has developed this year, with all 3 age groups qualifying and Habs winning the U16, and now the U14 tournaments. It is also encouraging to see the south of England begin to dominate, with two London teams in the final, where Northern teams are more commonly seen. This is a fantastic achievement, so congratulations to all those involved and thanks once again to Mr Jovanovic and Mr Stiff.
The team was: Aril Pandya, Joey Gardner-White, Will Sammons, Michael Miller, Adam Kohler, Alex Jones, Paras Shah, Dan Gilbey, Matt Rosenfeld, Dan McCabe, Yiannis Pistokopolus and Adam Talib.