ESTEVAN — Jennika Linthicum of Estevan will represent Canada on the international water polo stage at the Pan American Championships in May and August.
First, she has been selected for the 17U women’s national team. She will fly to Montreal on May 11 to meet up with her teammates, and then they will head to Los Angeles for five days of training against teams from the California metropolis. Team Canada will then travel to Medellin, Colombia, for the tournament, which takes place from May 19-26.
She expects the stiffest competition will come from the U.S., Brazil and Argentina, but Colombia, Mexico and Peru will also be competing with good teams.
Linthicum has also been selected for her own age division of the 15U women’s national team that will travel to Bauru, Brazil in August and September. This will include training and the Pan-Am competition.
“This will be the first multi-water sport games that include diving, speed and artistic swimming, along with water polo," Linthicum said.
Since it's North and Â鶹´«Ã½AV American countries competing, the top teams will qualify for the world championships.
Linthicum was selected based on her performance in National Championship League (NCL) games.
"They're split into western and eastern conferences," said Linthicum. "We have local tournaments throughout the year that are present in your own conference."
The NCL events in December and February are used for scouting and largely influence the Pan-Am Games selections.
Linthicum started playing water polo at the age of seven with the Estevan Sharks program's minis division. She loved the team aspect and competition. The Estevan club is coached by parent volunteers with the support of Water Polo Saskatchewan. Her first coach was Chad Knoll, who remains a coach with the club. Linthicum was also coached by her father Neal for four seasons.
She was invited to be part of the High School Excellence Program with Water Polo Saskatchewan. Last fall she moved to Regina to attend high school at Campbell Collegiate, and is training with the Armada water polo club and Team Saskatchewan in Regina.
The training and coaching have been really good in Regina, she said. It's a hard schedule and it's tough to keep up with. Mondays and Wednesdays boast a 90-minute practice at noon and at night, while Tuesdays and Thursdays include a 90-minute gym session and a two-hour night practice. Friday has a 90-minute midday practice, and Saturdays have a two-hour practice and optional one-hour gym time, with a night scrimmage that isn't required.
"The coaching is definitely a high level here. I would say we probably have one of the most strict, youthful and well-known coaches in the western division," said Linthicum.
Her head coach at Water Polo Saskatchewan, Cyril Dorgigné, is originally from France. He moved to this province and decided to remain to coach Team Saskatchewan, and Linthicum said Dorgigné is one of the reasons for this province's success in the pool. She added they have a really good staff.
This season, she has competed with both the 16U and 18U women’s teams in the NCL with Team Saskatchewan. Tournaments are held across Western Canada throughout the season. Both teams recently competed in Western Finals. The 16U team finished fourth and the 18U came home with silver. Linthicum was named one of the all-star team members for the 18U division despite only being 15.
The U17 tournament will be live streamed on YouTube through Water Polo Canada. Friends and family will be able to watch Linthicum and Team Canada compete.
