Sport combines rugby and socccer By Kelly Landy published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Sunday, March 13, 2005  The girls may be outnumbered 3 to 1, but in the third South Florida International Age Group Water Polo Tournament last month in Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach they showed they could be counted on.  The girls under 19 Florida Coast squad was the only team to remain undefeated, beating the No. 1 seed Szentesi Vizilabada Klub of Hungary to finish first.  The Hungarians then took second and the Owl Water Polo Club of Lake Worth placed third.  Alison Mantel, 16, has played for Florida Coast for a couple of years. In sixth grade, she dropped basketball and volleyball to concentrate on water polo.  "I think it's given her a lot of dedication and respect for her coaches and other players," said Kathy Mantel, Alison's mother. "It's definately a team game."  The Florida Coast boy's under 19 team defeated the Hungarians, but didn't place in the top three. Instead, the Hungarians took first, defeating the South Florida Water Polo Club, 10-7.  Washington placed third.  In the under 15 competition, the Hungary boys took first, while USA "Red" took second and third went to Florida Coast.  And on the girls' side, Hungary also won with the Miami Riptides in second while Puerto finished third.  The games were played Feb. 18 - 20 at the Coral Springs Aquatic Center and Deerfield Beach High School, taking place a week before the sanctioned high school water polo season opened in Florida.  In three years the South Florida International tournament has grown from six to forty teams, representing six states, Hungary, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.  John Meiners of Wilton Manors played varsity soccer at Cardinal Gibbons his freshman and sophomore years, but quit to focus on water polo, which is not a sport at Gibbons.  "I met the coaches sons, Drac and Janson, in seventh grade," Meiners said.  "I went to one of the practices and I just fell in love with the sport.  I've been playing ever since.  I stopped playing soccer because it was getting in the way of my practice for water polo.  I wanted to concentrate on just one sport."  Alexander Proscurshim of Boca Raton shared similar sentiments.  "I participated in football, wrestling, cross country, swimming and basketball," said Proscushim, a senior at Spanish River. "If you really want to et in shape it's the best sport."  Bruce Wigo, former executive director of USA Water Polo and the boys' South Florida coach, organized the tournament.  "Not everybody can be on the football or the basketball team and not everybody likes those sports," Wigo said. "Water polo is a great aquatic sport.  If you like to play with a ball, you know how to swim and like contact sports - this is the sport."  Overseas, water polo is a professional sport.  "If you want to play in the NBA of water polo, you go to Italy or Greece," said Wigo.  "The US has players playing in those countries, with some getting six figure salaries."  The matches are 50 minutes with constant swimming, wrestling and grabbing.  "Physiologists who've studied the sport have called it the most physically demanding of all sports because it requires so many different skills - the cardiovascular fitness of cross country skiers, the hand-eye coordination of the ball games, the contact of wrestling plus you have to be a good swimmer."  "There are a lot of similarities to rugby and a lot of similarities to soccer.  Water polo historically, is a combination of the two games.  It's got some of the contact of rugby with some of the rules of soccer."  John Vargas, who coached the Men's water polo team at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2003 and now coaches Stanford, came to town to watch the tournament and scout potential recruits.  "I think they've done a great job promoting this tournament and bringing in quality teams," Vargas said. "Once you bring in quality teams then everybody wants to come.  It's fantastic to have a tournament of this quality on the east coast."