Walter Paolo's training
philosophy is successful... here's just one story.....
(from Victoria Times Colonist, October 2000)
Olympic connections have
local water polo club bursting with pride
By Cleve
Dheensaw
Times
colonist sports staff
And you
thought it was only that It's A Small World song from Disneyland that
infuriatingly hangs around long after the moment. If Slim Dusty's
Waltzing Matilda from the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics closing ceremony is
still jangling around in your head, imagine what it's like for Saanich Water
Polo School head coach and technical director
Ferenc Vindisch.
The Saanich club - run by Ferenc Vindisch and wife and general-manager
Gabi Vindisch - has close connections to an incredible 20
gold-medalist athletes from the Sydney Olympics. "We're on such a
high," says Ferenc Vindisch. "We're so pumped that we don't even know how
to absorb all this."
Simon Whitfield, Canada's triathlon golden boy from Sydney and big water
polo fan, is secretary of the Saanich Water Polo School
(SWPS). Whitfield's swim coach, Neil Harvey, is also swim coach for the
SWPS.
Three of Vindisch's former youth players from his native
country -
Tamás Kásás,
Bulcsú Székely and Attila Vári
- were
members of the gold medalist Hungarian Men's Water polo team in the Sydney
Olympics. "I phoned them yesterday and we shared memories," said
Vindisch, who coached the three from ages 10 to 14 and who plans to have the
trio come to Victoria for a clinic in February.
Then
there's the 16 members of the Sydney Olympic Gold-medalist Australian
Women's Water Polo team, which were hosted by the Vindisches and their SWPS
players during a training camp in May at Saanich Place. And this
golden aut umn continues unabated for the Saanich club. The mentor for both
the Sydney Olympic gold-medalist Aussie Women's and Hungarian Men's team
coaches (Denes Kemeny and Istvan Gorgenyi) is
Rezso Gallov,
the former federal minister of sport for Hungary and godfather of Hungarian
Water Polo.
Gallov
also happens to be Gaby Vindisch's father and will join SWPS coaching staff
later this month at Saanich Place. Any more of an Olympian Hungarian
connection and they'll have to change high tea at the Empress to high
goulash. "It's been a golden touch for this very fortunate little
Water Polo school in the heart of Victoria," says Gaby Vindisch.
It comes
with a long-term purpose. Much as he helped spin Olympic gold in Sydney for
Hungary through the trio of youth players he developed, Ferenc Vindisch is
predicting up to four emerging splashers will be ready for Canadian colors
at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
|