Making Waves

Woden Waves was formed in 2020 after the construction of Stromlo Leisure Centre and accepted as an associated club of Water Polo ACT on the 10th June 2020. 

2021/2022 Review

The Woden Waves joined the ACT Water Polo family in November 2021 and it has been a fantastic ride since the very first ball drop!

We have had a massive year including some major highlights;

• Entering our first teams into the ACT competition including 12s boys and girls teams and 14s boys and girls teams. This was expanded to include 16&U boys and girls teams in the winter competition.
• Attending the NSW Country Championships in Wagga.
• Attending the NSW 12&U festival in Orange.
• Entering the Canberra Cup.
• Our first ACT representative players!
• We even made a grand final, congratulations to our 14&U boys!

We are a new club and when forming the club, we were amazed by the amount of support given to us from within the Water Polo community. Individual people and clubs have helped with advice, support and with financial contributions so we had caps, we had balls and we were able to welcome players with open arms.

A big thank you to Canberra Water Polo Academy and Nordek Water Polo Club for making financial contributions to the development of our club. Also, thank you to all the other clubs and Water Polo ACT board for their assistance in our first season and always being positive about our involvement. A big thank you to Stromlo Leisure Centre for their continued support and access to such a beautiful facility.

We hope to continue to be a positive influence on the Water Polo ACT community for many years to come.

2022/2023 Review

2022/2023 was another huge year for the club! We went from three teams in 2022 to sever junior teams from 12s through to 16s. Our membership more than doubled and we also put together a social adults team involving parents, coaches and ex-players from the Woden/Weston region.

We signed our first official partnership with Orange First Aid and had all coaches and a number of players complete first aid training. This allows us to hold the title of the safest Water Polo club in the ACT. Thank you to Scott for your kind sponsorship and we hope to continue to grow the relationship further into the future!

We were also supported financially by the hard work of Olivia Sammons and her band of volunteers who coordinated the Woden Waves BBQ this year at home games and Canberra Cup. Over $4000 was reinvested into the club due to all their hard work! Thank you to Olivia and her family for the massive contribution!

We had a number of athletes selected in Water Polo ACT representative teams who attended tournaments in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. The opportunity to develop, learn and travel is there for our athletes if they wish to get involved, something as a club we continue to promote!

We as a club have also participated in a number of tournaments including the Battle of the Beaches, Canberra Cup, WATERPOLOOZA and in the coming weeks, NSW State Championships for the first time ever. We look forward to the NSW Junior Country Championships returning down south in 2024 as well as attending the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships in Brisbane.

Our workforce continued to grow with additional coaching staff, managers, table officials, referees and pool controllers contributing towards the ACT competition over summer. We are proud to be contributing so much already as a young club and will continue to expand our development opportunities as stated in our Strategic Plan. Thank you to all our volunteers for all the work you do!

That’s right we have our first strategic plan, not only our first, but the first for a Water Polo club in the ACT. This plan helps to outline our path forward during the next phase of our existence to help us achieve all our goals. With the establishment of a Woden Waves board, one of our first steps will be to map out how we will achieve our initiatives and what will be our focus of 2023/2024.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the players and parents who are the life blood of our club and are what makes our club great! Woden Waves is an amazing club to be a part of and it’s all thanks to your contributions! Thank you!