Kentucky held their tryouts for bench minor team in Lexington last Saturday. Players from Louisville and Lexington were present. While most of the focus was watching players during regular pick-up games, each player also completed timed “suicide” style drills with and without the ball to demonstrate ball control and speed. Chris Simpson, who was named the Kentucky team captain by Bloomington Bike Polo, announced his picks for the eight members of his team Sunday night. Nick McClean, Matt Bailey (currently of Louisville), Jared Baize, Kyle Hord,
Colin Keinath, Tiffany Morrow, Jessi Connors, and Ben Wood were chosen to complete the Kentucky team. A team statistician has not yet been announced.
After the announcement, Simpson commented, “And just to say it this was really f***ing hard to do I wish they were teams of 12! I put Tournament experience in with this, that is a big plus knowing other playing styles. Also factored in how much you practice/show up to pick up.”
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Saturday, April 7, 2012 – Sunday, April 8, 2012 Bloomington, IN
A midwestern state versus state bench minor tournament.
The format will be (world cup style) group play. Two groups of four, you’ll play round robin against the other three teams in your group. Top two from each group will play the top two teams from the other group, while the bottom teams will similarly play each other. *see diagram posted below*
Matches will be two 25 minute halves with a 5 minute halftime.
Teams of nine. One captain/coach (playing), eight players, and additionally one non-playing statistician. Feel free to declare/bring alternates but only 9 active players are allowed on the roster. It is up to the sole discretion of the captain to determine who is on the team. That captain can choose to have tryouts, a vote, a drinking contest, whatever, so long as you bring nine players from your state and one stats nerd. Though it is not a requirement, i hope the captains strive to include players from all the cities in your state that play polo. For example, i know chicago could easily fill their team with nine of their own but there’s two other polo-playing cities that i’m sure would love to be included. Again, it’s not mandatory, but if at all possible please try.