From the GHS coaching Staff

ATHLETIC CLEARANCE PROCEDURES
Schedule your physical NOW!! All players need to be cleared to participate before they can practice. Download the paperwork that must be filled out and turned in PRIOR to you coming on the team.

ALL PLAYERS: Team suits will be ordered in the fall. If you wish to purchase a team suit you must provide your suit size to the coaching staff. E-mail Bob Zirovich with the information as soon as possible.

ALL JUNIORS & SENIORS and MEMBERS OF THE VARSITY TEAM: If you haven't already done so, talk with the coach, along with the captains, about your cap number. E-mail Bob Zirovich with your desired number as soon as possible.

CAPTAINS: Being selected as a team captain for the Nitro water polo team is a huge honor and responsibility. Team captains will be selected before the first league game in January.

TIME TRIALS: Time standards for each team will be posted on the water polo home page as soon as they are determined.

EACH PLAYER'S RESPONSIBILITIES
Being a member of the Glendale water polo team is an honor, not a right. As a member of the team, you must understand that with the honor goes additional responsibilities and opportunities. You are not just a student at Glendale High School. You represent Glendale water polo. Your focus must be at a higher level than most of the students at Glendale High School. You must participate and be ready to perform, while at the same time perform in the academic classroom. We expect more of you and we want you to except more from yourself. As the expectations grow so do the responsibilities of each and every member of the team. It is up to you. The players who have gone before you have established an impressive tradition of excellence. The future is up to you. As a member of Glendale water polo each player has various responsibilities. These responsibilities include but are not limited to:

**Maintain academic excellence. Players who receive academic reports indicating need for improvement will be assigned to a study hall instead of practices and will not participate in games until they are caught up. Maintaining good grades is each player's first responsibility.

**Be a POSITIVE TEAM member. It is the responsibility of each player to be a team member and support the team in any way possible.

**Attend ALL scheduled practices. This is a requirement for all team members. In the event a player needs to miss a practice, it is the player's responsibility to discuss it with the coach prior to missing practice. If you are at school and cannot practice it is your responsibility to be at practice as part of the team. In short, it is each player's responsibility to be present at all practices unless you are home sick. We understand that conflicts will exist, but during the winter water polo season, we want you to understand that ALL players are expected to attend ALL practices, games and team activities. We can work out problems, but it must be understood that it is impossible to build a team where the players are not dedicated to the team.

**Be on time to ALL meetings and practices. It is the responsibility of each player to know the team's schedule and to be at practices and meetings on time.  On time means that the player is ready to start whatever activity is scheduled on time. This does not mean to just arrive on time.

**Attend ALL TEAM activities. Again, this is a requirement for all team members.

**Represent your TEAM and SCHOOL in a positive manner. It is your responsibility as a member of the Glendale water polo team to act in a positive manner at all times.

The upcoming season will be full of excitement and hard work. All players will have the opportunity to play, to improve their skills and be part of the Glendale water polo program. The team has a great deal of potential for success.

THE TEAMS
We will have 2 or 3 teams depending on the number of participants. Players will be assigned to a team based on 100-yard freestyle time, demonstrated ability, commitment level and commitment history and grade level. Also during the course of the season, the coaches will move players from team to team based on the need of the overall team in general. The future of Glendale water polo lays in the improvement and dedication of all the players not just the varsity team. Each team will have a demanding schedule. Playing water polo at Glendale High School is not easy. It is hard work. There is a pay off for those players who, each day and over the years, continue to push themselves to even higher levels of play. We are one of the hardest working teams in CIF-SS Division IV water polo.

Players will be assigned to one of the following groups: Varsity, Junior Varsity or Novice

Your coaches are dedicated to winning the Pacific League championship again, qualifying for the CIF playoffs and to building a strong future for Glendale water polo. Glendale High's tradition includes Pacific League championships and the area's top team in 2000 and 2003. Through the years, we have had several players awarded All-CIF, All-Area and All-Pacific League honors and who have gone on to play in prestigious college programs.

In past years our teams have been ranked among the top teams in our division. We always want to challenge for the championship. This level of excellence causes us to demand excellence from each other.

You are expected to perform with excellence in both athletics and academics. More is expected from you than any other group of students at Glendale High School.

Glendale has had a tradition of excellence. Excellence without arrogance. Each of you is part of the tradition. Just ask the players who have graduated from the program and you will find a tradition that goes far beyond GHS.

During my years of coaching, I have found that teams and individuals who are successful are the ones who deserve it. You rarely win or lose by accident. The Phases of the Program Guideline was designed to help you get ready for the winter performance season. It was designed to push you to your limits as a player and a team member. For those of you who met the challenge you are now ready to take on the roles of being a member of the water polo team. I hope you are ready to make it happen, to do things right, to play championship water polo and to excel in your academics classes to the best of your ability.


WE BELIEVE THAT SUCCESS IS A CHOICE?

Success is your choice. I believe that we can all accomplish a lot more than we do. The steps that will help us achieve our goals include the following:

Build self-esteem - Self-esteem is vital to achieving. You must not only feel good about yourself but feel you can perform and can accomplish great things. Self-esteem is directly linked to deserving success. If you have established a great work ethic and have begun the discipline that is inherent with that, you will automatically begin to feel better about yourself. It's all interrelated. You must deserve victory to feel good about yourself.

Set Demanding Goals - Hard work is not always fun, but it's the price you must pay to be more successful. You must constantly keep your eye on your dream and must constantly be telling yourself that your hard work and effort is one day going to be worth it. The key is for you and the team to keep creating demanding goals, goals that will allow you to reach your full potential.

Always Be Positive - You must block out negativity. You do this by realizing that the negative people around you are an incredible drain on your desire to be more successful. The more trying the times the more positive you must be. You must adapt to change and condition yourself to see it as an opportunity to improve.

Establish Good Habits - With good habits, success becomes second nature. Don't let bad habits make it easy to fail. You must have a purpose for each day. This purpose establishes your discipline and makes you more focused. Do your homework! Your competitor is. Work harder than your competitor.

Master the Art of Communication - Communicating is less about speaking than it is about listening. Avoid having to be right all the time. The goal is to communicate as a team.

Learn from Role Models - Learning form others can often help you make up for your lack of experience. The key is to look for traits in people that can help you be more successful. Take advantage of the fact that you can learn from the mistakes of others. Learning what not to do is often as important as learning what to do.

Thrive on Pressure - You must prepare yourself for pressure. The more you prepare the better qualified you are to handle pressure situations. Pressure often brings out extraordinary results. If you learn how to embrace pressure and make it work for you, it can be a fertile climate in which accomplishment can grow. If no one is demanding a superior performance from you, demand it of yourself.

Be Ferociously Persistent - Anyone can be great and perform to the hilt for a day, a week or even a month. But if you want to be successful over the long haul you must be willing to stay on course. Paying the price of hard work makes you less willing to surrender.

Learn from Adversity - Accept adversity for what it is, and start finding ways to confront it. Take immediate action. You must find the solution and go after it with all the vigor you can muster. You must reemphasize your plan of attack. You must become even more positive, for one of the natural by-products of any kind of adversity is negativity. It instantly starts to sneak in. The more you allow negative behavior to linger; the longer you can expect to have adversity in your life. Adversity will usually start to resolve itself when you begin to take action.

Survive Success - There is no end point to your dreams. It's not enough to become successful; the trick is to become more successful every year. Never forget what you did right. It's important to carefully examine the steps you took to become more successful. You'll be reminded that it wasn't just luck or good fortune that helped you achieve, but hard work.