Why Illawarra Water Polo?

Illawarra Water Polo was founded in 1979, but water polo has been played in the Illawarra since 1894! The club has been on a constant upward trajectory in the last decade and in fact, we are now at the point where we can field representative teams in state tournaments. Last year, we fielded our first junior teams at the NSW country club championships since the early 2000's. Our teams played incredibly well, even managing to take home the gold in the U14's boys division. 

The senior competition currently consists of 6 teams (3 uni and 3 uni based teams). We cater for beginners all the way through to ex national league players. We also take our senior representative teams to carnivals throughout the year. So far this year, we have been to the U22's state championshis and Canberra Cup. We also hope to field teams in the NSW Masters and the NSW Country Club Championships this summer.

Although we are privileged enough to be able to field strong representative teams, our main aim is to facilitate the play and practise of a game (water polo) in a way that is fun. We also pride ourself on the development of our players, which is made a reality due to our committed coaches: Pete Rolfe (ex national league player for Cronulla and Wests and experienced coach), Kate Morris (high school teacher and ex national league player for Cronulla), Naomi Foxall (ex national league player for Wests), Zoltan Krizsan (has been coaching with Illawarra since juniors started in 2015), Jack Cockington (ex national league player for Cronulla), and Jimmy Berry (high school PDHPE teacher and experience water polo player/coach).

Thanks to Water Polo NSW, we are able to give our players a range of different experiences. We have played at such venues as Wollongong Harbour (although we are based at UOW pool), and last year, we were lucky enough to have some Australian players come down and coach our juniors for the day. Here is a picture of 2021 Olympian Tim Putt coaching our juniors.

Our junior program (ages 7-16) runs from October-April, and our senior program runs all year round. Our senior program is split up into 3 seasons (Autumn, Spring, and Summer), and involves a 5 team mixed gender social comp. Within those 6 teams, 3 of them are UOW based teams and the other 3 include anyone aged 16+ . Although the sport is quite challenging, those who show up to training and games each week are seen to improve drastically throughout the season. It is the perfect sport for swimmers who want to keep fit in a social and fun way.

Here is a picture of our Autumn 2021 senior champions, the Rattlesnakes.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@illwp.com.