Pilot project at Sirens ASC giving fruit

The completion of the Pool was fundamental to attract families and ultimately children to try out these two sports. Dr. Lino Vella who has been at the top seat of Sirens ASC for 40 years expressed his satisfaction at the recently launched project of merging water polo and swimming training sessions for children.

Dr. Vella was speaking earlier today at a Media Conference called at the Club’s premises. He said that this initiative took off thanks to some individuals from the Nursery committee of the Club who came up with the idea of joining forces and set up a joint Waterpolo and Swimming committee which is now having a huge success which was witnessed by the present media with the Pool full of youngsters practicing the two sports disciplines under the guidance of various coaches.

Ivan Riolo who comes from a Basketball oriented career both as a player and as an administrator is one of the masterminds behind this project. Mr. Riolo said that the main target of the Sirens ASC “SwimPolo School” is to encourage boys and girls to take up both sports simultaneously and to keep them motivated in both activities. Riolo also explained that it will take some time for the Sirens Swimming team to be competitive at a National level but he insisted “Once we equal other established Clubs like Neptunes and Sliema in the amount of training especially in Winter we will be competitive”. He also remarked that all the coaches engaged with Sirens are qualified coaches.

Apart from Davina Mangion who is the Head coach of the Swimming team, the Club also has ex San Giljan coach Marco Risso helping out with the Waterpolo section along with Dejan Sineonov, Dorian Pisani and Julian Xuereb.

In fact Sirens have officially announced that the Club will be introducing Winter Swimming classes with the aim to follow closely their elite swimmers in order to prepare them in the best possible way for the ASA National Swimming Championships.

Oliver Tanti PRO of the project team at the St.Paul’s Bay Club said that the Club will organize a Swimming Marathon on the 27^th August 2011 with the aim to raise funds for the SwimPolo School. It is estimated that over 200 participants will take part in this Marathon as already 177 applicants have registered officially.

Sirens ASC announced also that an effort in underway to re-establish again the women’s Waterpolo team. This team is currently being trained by the ex-Neptunes Youth coach Sandro Bianchi.

When asked to comment about the Senior Waterpolo team recent inconsistent results, Club president Dr. Lino Vella said that Sirens is passing through a transition phase. “We want more young players to be introduced gradually in the senior team but sometimes you have to balance things out. Our original target was to make it to the final four to be able to do it for the play offs, we hope we can make it”