Author Archives: Colin Wenstrand

Last update: August 24, 2021

AUGUST 24, 2021: We have officially been approved to begin Fall Water Polo next month. Because the effort to restructure our 501c3 status has been delayed in Sacramento, we will run Fall water polo as another THS Water Polo fundraiser. Here are the particulars:

DATES: Mondays & Wednesdays, 9/8 thru 10/27
TIME: 6-7:30PM
LOCATION: Steve Feaver Aquatic Center at Turlock High School
USWP: All athletes and coaches must be registered with USA Water Polo. 2021 USWP memberships used last Summer are still good thru December 31, 2021. Register with USWP here. For those wanting to play Winter Polo come January will need to renew with USWP for 2022.
REGISTRATION: Register for Fall Ball by completing this google form
COST: $175 donation for the 15 practices – Checks payable to *Turlock High School* with Water Polo on the memo line.

JUNE 17, 2021: Tonight marks the end of Session 2. Both Sessions 1 and 2 have been outstanding with over 30 enthusiastic athletes! If you are not yet in high school and interested in trying water polo, we have three more sessions to go beginning on Monday, June 21 (Session 3), Monday June 28 (Session 4) and Tuesday July 6 (final Session 5).

MAY 10, 2021: Due to the pandemic and our current state with the reopening process, we are not able to operate this summer as a traditional club as we did in Summer & Fall of 2019 and Winter 2019-20, pre-pandemic.

For Summer 2021 Turlock High Boys Water Polo is offering a series of weekly three-day introductory water polo clinics for pre-high school aged boys and girls, both new and returning to water polo at Turlock High’s Steve Feaver Aquatics Center.

Unfortunately, we are not able to run a “united” high school boys program for Turlock and Pitman boys. Both schools will/may run their own independent summer conditioning in preparation for the Fall ’21 high school season.

The post-pandemic plan is to return to the traditional club model by Fall 2021 (for pre-high school) and Winter 2021-22 (pre-HS and high school). By Summer 2022 the goal is to be back to the same comprehensive club model we had in 2019, offering youth water polo at all levels including introductory clinics and sending teams to the national Junior Olympic championships for boys and girls.

MARCH 7, 2021: Turlock United anticipates a return to action with our 2021 Summer Program. Details are still being worked out, but the plan is to offer a Pre-High School coed and High School Boys program in the evenings. An email went out to membership on March 8, 2021 offering some of those details. We will post info here as soon as we get approval by TUSD for water space.

JANUARY 3, 2021: T-United remains hopeful that we will be able to return to offering youth water polo in Turlock at some point during 2021.

AUGUST 31, 2020: We hope everyone is off to a great start to this unique school year.

MAY 19, 2020: Due to the virus, TUSD has announced it is closing all facilities to outside user groups for the duration of Summer 2020. This means that unfortunately we will not be offering any summer programs. TU hopes to return to action in the Fall for our pre-high school mixed group.

APRIL 19, 2020: With the schools remaining closed for the foreseeable future TU anticipates not being able to run Summer Program.

MARCH 20, 2020: With the schools closing due to the virus, our 2020 Summer Program appears to be in jeopardy. Please check back for updates.

MARCH 1, 2020: Summer Program information is becoming more clear. Practice begins April 28 for pre-high school mixed. For high school boys, practice will begin on May 12 after CIF-SJS Swim Champs.

FEBRUARY 10, 2020: Thank you to all athletes and their families who participated in Winter Program this last December, January and early-February. Yesterday was our final competition date and the conclusion of Turlock United’s first Winter season. We will take a break during Spring for HS Swim season and resume pre-season Summer Program practice late-April/early-May.

JANUARY 5, 2020: Winter Program practices resume this week with our first tournament for HS Boys next weekend and the first tournament for Pre-HS 14U and 12U on January 25 & 26.

NOVEMBER 25, 2019: Fall Program ‘19 is a wrap. These kids had some amazing growth over these last couple of months. We’ll take Thanksgiving week off and return for Winter Program on December 3.

JULY 16, 2019: Summer Program ‘19 has concluded. We had a great finish to the summer season as we had five squads competing at the Santa Cruz Classic where our 16U squad dropped a tough one in the Finals. As a first-year program, Turlock United had 80+ kids participating in our pre-high school and high school boys program and between 18U, 16U, 14U and 12U, T-United competed in nearly 100 summer games and scrimmages. We look forward to seeing the payoff during High School polo season. In the meantime, Fall Program will begin on September 17th for our pre-high school mixed kids.

Congratulations to our All-CCAL players!

For the 2019 season, Turlock United had 11 players receive All-CCAL honors.

CCAL MVP: Drew Folly, Jr (T)
Goalie of the Year: Garrett Willson, Sr (P)
Defense Player of the Year: Billy Marchy, Sr (T)
1st Team: Matt Reis, Sr (T), Sean Bernard, Sr (P), Joe Carlsen, Sr (P), Jackson Thomas, Jr (T)
2nd Team: Taylor Ward, Sr (T), Dylan Newsome, Jr (T)
Honorable Mention: Peyton Selee, Sr (P), Michael Tobin, Jr (T)

Catch local high school polo this Fall

In addition to the Fall Open Pool program for pre-high school mixed players, all pre-high school boys and girls are encouraged to attend and watch as many high school water polo games as they can. Local weekday games and weekend tournaments are not only great fun to watch, they are also excellent opportunities to learn from the next level. Tournaments are particularly good as there are several games usually lasting all day.

2019 Local High School games & tournament events:

Sat, Sept 7: JV girls tournament, Modesto area pools
Sat, Sept 14: JV boys tournament, Modesto area pools
Sat, Oct 5: JV boys tournament, Turlock High & Pitman High
Wed, Oct 9: THS @ PHS Harvest Splash (Round 1), Pitman High
Sat, Oct 12: JV girls tournament, Turlock High
Sat, Oct 12: Varsity girls tournament, Pitman Pool
Sat, Oct 19: Varsity boys tournament, Modesto area (and possibly Pitman Pool)
Mon, Oct 28: PHS @ THS Harvest Splash (Round 2), Turlock High
Sat, Nov 23: North v. South Senior All-Star Game, Turlock High

Pitman High Water Polo: Girls Info | Boys Info

Turlock High Water Polo: TurlockHighWaterPolo.com

Inaugural Summer Program is a wrap!

Summer 2019 wraps up, Fall Program to begin in September

It’s hard to believe that we are wrapping up Summer Polo tonight. A HUGE THANK YOU to all the coaches, players and parents who helped Turlock United become a reality this year. As a program, our main goals include helping student-athletes become better individual players, better teammates and overall better people while simultaneously offering a place for aspiring coaches to gain experience and to develop their skill set. Again, thank you to everyone who played a role in making T-U happen. While we are super excited for the high school season to begin in a few weeks, we can hardly wait for our Winter Program to begin in December.

While some may be disappointed that we won’t be traveling to Orange County next week for the US National Junior Olympics, we certainly have not wasted any tournament opportunities this summer. Our records show that Turlock United – spread between 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U and 10U – participated in a grand total of 85 tournament games this summer from May 19th thru July 14th. And while JOs would be fun, for a first year program, this level of commitment by our community as a whole, has far exceeded our expectations. For 2020, however, JOs will be hosted in the Bay Area so we will plan to make another run at qualifying and participating next summer.

Last weekend marked the completion of Turlock United’s inaugural Summer Competition Program. T-United sent five squads to the 10th Annual Santa Cruz Classic with our 16U Boys playing themselves into the finals of their division. And while Morgan Hill proved a bit too experienced against TU in the title match, our 16s showed great character and competitive spirit in such a high-level game.

FALL PROGRAM: The 2019 Fall Program will offer Pre-HS Mixed on Tuesdays in September and October.

WINTER PROGRAM: The 2019-20 Winter Program

T-United will be offering a more comprehensive Winter Program for both Pre-High School Mixed, HS Boys, and *hopefully* HS Girls (hopefully, pending athlete interest and coach interest and availability). This program will run December, January, early-February with the following tourneys: mid-Jan in Sac, late-Jan in Clovis, and early-Feb in Orange County (end-of-season Kap7 Invitational).