Kids becoming coaches, with HaBaWaBa in their hearts

You can fall in love with the HaBaWaBa International Festival to the point of returning even when you’re no longer a child. That's what happened to some young waterpolo lovers participating in the 15^th edition as coaches, after having been at HaBaWaBa years ago as players.

“I played in 2016 with the United Water Polo Club" says Lindsey Harris, coach of the Los Alamitos Aquatic Foundation, that came from US participating in the U12 tournament. "I remember the parties - she tells -, the dancing, sharing a room with another girl: 6 boys were across the hall, but they were always in our room messing around with us. I found a different waterpolo from America, but very fun. Then I also remember the exchange of T-shirts and gadgets: the players from other teams wanted to have stuff with the America's flag on it. Now I am living this experience as a coach, but I tell the kids how much fun I had. I see the same joy in their eyes”. Sportiva Sturla from Genoa, Italy, has a whole troop of former HaBaWaBa players: coach of U12 Lorenzo Bisso, Matteo Provvedi and Marco Doretti for U10. “What I remember most is my team - Lorenzo states - the coaches especially, Davide Martinello and Alberto Bodrato who are still at HaBaWaBa nowadays. I remember the importance they gave to the rules to follow and how excited we kids were for what we were going to experience in this tournament”.  "Marco and I played together at HaBaWaBa - Matteo says - then together we were part of Sturla senior team, and now we're back together with these kids, who make us have fun”.  

Ettore Bodrato, class of 2007, is the very young assistant coach of U12 MySport from Genoa: at HaBaWaBa he played with Camogli and MySport. "Now I would like to get back in the water, throwing and playing together with the kids. Of my experience as player I remember an outdoor game in the rain Dune pool, it was exciting. And then us kids eating lunch and dinner all together: ‘eat your vegetables’, the coach used to repeat”. The coach now is his father Alberto, who asked Ettore to return with him to Lignano Sabbiadoro this year. "I have to be careful not to get emotional - Bodrato senior confesses, Sharing this important part of my life with him is very nice, HaBaWaBa is a family thing, also his brother Eugenio came here several times”. Federico Carrozza, Zero9 coach and former HaBaWaBa player with Acilia, is already on his second coaching appointment in Lignano. Finally, we have Stavros Xanthopoulos, who even won HaBaWaBa twice when he played for Vouliagmeni as a child. He became a coach and made sure that Ilioupolis, his new very young club from Athens, participated in the Festival at all costs. "We are here because I hope the kids have as much fun as I did. Then, if we also should get a trophy…”.   

Visualizza questo post su Instagram

Un post condiviso da HaBaWaBa Official (@habawabaofficialif)

***

  Click here for further infos about HaBaWaBa