Maple Ridge teens selected by Water Polo Canada

By Ashley Bhan - Maple Ridge News
Published: October 06, 2011 1:00 PM
Updated: October 06, 2011 1:50 PM

A couple of Maple Ridge water polo players had the honour of representing Canada during the 2011 Pan American Youth U17 Championships held in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August. 

Matt Halajian and Danika Kotylak, selected by Water Polo Canada, played on the men’s and women’s teams respectively.

The tournament was held from Aug. 4-13 and saw teams from the U.S., Brazil and Venezuela competing.
Canada had a strong showing from both teams.

The Canadian women’s team went undefeated to win gold, while the men’s side tied for third place with three other teams and ended up fifth overall. That was enough to secure the last qualifying spot for the Junior Worlds Water Polo Championship in Australia in 2012.

“Ideally, you want to bring home a medal, but we lost a few matches by one goal. The United States ended up losing the gold medal to the Brazilians by one goal,” Halajian said. “I would have liked to come home with a medal, but it didn’t work out that way.”

This was the second year in a row Halajian has represented Canada. Last year he travelled to Toronto and Serbia with the national team. This summer he’ll be heading to Europe with Water Polo Canada to take part in tryouts for next year’s squad.  Even though he didn’t win a medal, the 15-year-old Halajian gained valuable experience that will help him down the line.

“It was all very exciting. Just having the opportunity to play for the national team in amazing, but to get go to Puerto Rico and play against the U.S. and Brazil was incredible. I learned a lot and, at times, it was challenging,” he said. “Our hotel was right on the beach, so every morning we’d be up doing dryland training at 9 a.m. and jogging on the beach, and then we’d have to play a game at 3:30 p.m. But it was really fun.”

Halajian and Kotylak were two of the youngest players on their squads and both ended up playing in the starting line-ups for each by the end of the championship tournament, a major accomplishment for young water polo players.

Both players began their water polo careers at the Haney Neptunes Aquatic Club and are currently based in Langley, playing for the Fraser Valley Water Polo Club.


Haney Boy Makes Canadian National Team

Our very own Aidan Elphick-Miner was named to the 1996-1997 Canadian Mens Youth National team!  Aidan started playing water polo for Haney at the age of ten and after four years of hard work it has finally paid off! 

After two years of combining Fraser Valley's u14 elite program and our very own Haney Neptunes program Aidan has come in to his own as a very dominant hole set for his age.  I can proudly say from watching Adian grow and mature that there is no other young man that deserves this accomplishment as much as him. 


Haney Neptune Athletes keep working as hard as you can, follow your dreams and the world stands in front of you!

Cody Dodds
Haney Neptunes Aquatic Club
Water Polo
Head Coach

Neptunes battle for spots at Provincials

Scott McKenzie
The Times

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The Fraser Valley Regional Synchronized Swimming Regional Championships were held at the Maple Ridge Leisure Wednesday, where members of the Haney Neptunes and Langley Flippers competed for spots at the Provincials.

The event started out with individual examinations by the regional judges, with Haney swimmers putting up the best scores in all of the age groups.

Kate Campbell was the run away winner in the Division 1-2 Beginners category with a score of 48.9, and was followed by Caitlyn McInnis who scored a 40.4.

In the Division 3-4 Beginner's category, Rebecca Todd scored a division-high 47.5.

There were only two swimmers in Division 1-2 Intermediate, but Haney's Anika Rich beat out Langley's Bethany Foot by almost five points.

Faith Philips and Tana George were standouts in Division 3-4 Intermediate, with Philips just edging George by less than a point.

Division 5+ Intermediate was also dominated by Haney, as Talana Madu, Sasha Walker and Morgan Mackay took the top three spots respectively.

In the Advanced division there were only two swimmers, both representing the Neptunes.

Madison Gwynne's 55.4 just beat out Kathleen Read's 54.4. The second half of the day was the routine swims, in which both the Neptunes and Flippers competed in both duet and team events. Haney's division three swimmers scored 44.6 in their "Madonna" routine, beating out Langley's "Ghostbusters" theme.

Haney's Intermediate's scored 53.8 in their Mariah Carey routine, outswimming Langleys score of 45.2
The Neptune's advanced swimmers swam to "All that Jazz," a theme borrowed from the movie "Chicago."
Haney scored an immaculate 54.8 for that routine.
Next for both teams is provincials, which happen later this month in Trail.

© Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times 2008

Indiana's Kelsey Campbell Named March 16 Western Division Player of the Week

March 16, 2009

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Indiana University's Kelsey Campbell (So., Maple Ridge, British Columbia/Maple Ridge) scored six goals and handed out four assists with six steals in a 2-2 weekend at the Loyola Marymount Tournament to earn the March 16 Western Division Player of the Week award.

Her best game of the week came against No. 18-nationally-ranked California State University-Bakersfield as she tallied two goals, four steals and three kickouts drawn to lead the No. 19 Hoosiers to an 8-6 victory. She sealed the victory for Indiana in the closing seconds of the game nailing a put-back marker with under a minute to play to ice the win for the Hoosiers.

Against No. 10 Loyola Marymount University in an 8-6 loss, she scored twice with a pair of assists, a steal and a drawn kickout, before racking up pairs of goals and assists in an 14-3 victory over California State University-San Bernardino. In addition, Indiana fell to California State University-Northridge 8-6 last week.

For the season, Campbell has 17 goals, 10 assists, 19 steals and 14 kick-outs drawn as she has raised her career statistics to 54 goals and 51 assists following a 17 goal and 19 assist season as a freshman.

Click here for the original article - Kelsey is a former Neptune and Neptune Coach