Queen Margaret trio on target to achieve goal

KENT BLECHYNDEN/The Dominion Post

GOING PLACES: Stephanie Ross, left, Rosa Hanna and Charlotte Logan, have been named in the New Zealand junior water polo training squad and are hopeful of making the world junior championships.

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A start in flipper ball, a scaled-down form of water polo for juniors, has vaulted three Queen Margaret schoolgirls towards next year's world junior championships.

Rosa Hanna, Stephanie Ross and Charlotte Logan, who all began playing the kids' version of the game while attending primary school, were last week named in the New Zealand junior water polo training squad.

The world junior championships are in Italy next year.

"I started playing flipper ball in year 5 and 6, and it just went from there," Logan said.

"It's one of the reasons water polo is so popular. Kids just love being in the water and it's not as aggressive as water polo, so it's a good start."

The dedicated trio need to impress coach Richard Claridge at a series of training camps this year before he cuts the squad of 22 into a team of 13 players.

Other Wellington schoolgirls named in the same national junior squad last week were Sacred Heart's Brydie Pye, Kate Enoka and Katarina Serepisos.

Logan, 15, has always cruised into representative teams. She made the school's senior team while still a year 9 student, and four years on, is one of the side's most experienced players.

Last year she attended the Hawaiian invitation tournament which she described as the "best experience of my life."

She has been drilling her freestyle stroke which she believes will boost her chances of selection.

"I've got to be able to sprint faster against the older and bigger American girls," Logan said.

"I had to change everything in my technique. I was working with Steve Francis at the Karori Swimming Club, but it was really hard trying to change everything, and then going into a game and still having to sprint."

Hanna, Queen Margaret's sports captain, is one of four goalies vying for the junior world championships team.

She takes the responsibilities of that role and around 15 hours of training each week in her stride.

"My sister, Ella, represented New Zealand, and I followed her into the sport," Hanna said.

"I went to her games when I was little and I was always training with her."

Hanna still has time to play other sports. She has been enjoying handball this term, but gave basketball away.

"I reckon handball really helps. You have to be able to shoot one-handed, so it's a bit like water polo."

Next month Hanna, Ross and Logan, and team-mate Maxine Glogau will spearhead the school's challenge at the national secondary schools water polo championships at Huia Pool.

They want to improve on last year's fifth place, and to give Lower Hutt rival Sacred Heart College, and the slick Auckland teams Diocesan and Westlake Girls' a run for their money.

Logan and Hanna's busy season doesn't end there. They will travel to California in June with the New Zealand youth team for the global world championships.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Alice   #1   05:32 am Mar 18 2010

Oh my gosh! I was looking at the news and I saw my cousin Charlotte! I hope her and the other girls do spectacularly!

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