Two of our junior teams – Hillingdon Penguin and Latymer Penguin – took part in the London Swimming Under 12 Development tournament at Whitgift School in Croydon on Sunday 24th November. Sue Seagroatt, team manager for Hillingdon Penguins, takes up the story…
When selecting the Hillingdon Penguin team we left out two of our key players as they were too experienced to fulfill the criteria for the tournament, and for two-thirds of the team it was their first experience of competing. It was also a first tournament as coach for Mickey Tritto.
We won our first game against Lewisham – I expect you’ll be seeking revenge next time, Gábor! However, we were pleased with the narrowest of defeats 3:4 to our sister team from Latymer Penguin, a good result as they were very a strong side and went on to win the tournament. We showed particular resilience in this game, coming back from behind to level the scoreline at 3:3 before narrowly missing out. We also played Croydon, Kingston and Otter.
Coach Mickey’s focus on positioning really paid off as, from the outset, the team kept their shape well and we saw some impressive marking.
Mickey said, ‘A huge thank you to all the players and parents for going to Croydon so late on a Sunday night. I was very pleased with everyone’s performance, especially considering how new the team is. We have amazing potential and I look forward to seeing how we improve.’
Mickey enjoyed his first experience of coaching a team at a tournament. ‘I’m really happy with the performance. It’s a shame the score lines don’t reflect it, but a good learning experience for all. It will be great to see where we go from here.’
Thank you very much Chris Martin, Gábor Széll and London Swimming for organising the tournament.