Marco Polo
I've backlisted this entry to Thursday the 24th, because that's when I meant to post it. In the midst of all the packing and hanging out and shenanigans that usually accompany the Thursday before a lot of people go home, though, I forgot. To continue the Sneak Peek theme of the week, here is my President's Corner article for the upcoming issue of Wesley's newsletter, The Flame. It offers up some final reflections on Tour and the innertube water polo mythos:
Wow, what a Tour! This is always an exciting time of year for Wesley. It always seems that after Tour, everyone gains a lot of energy for our ministry, and we always ride that energy through to the end of the year. This year is no different, and it seems like the Tour energy is still a huge part of our group. It痴 made recent Wesley events, like a free alternative Christian rock concert we hosted, a thrilling success. I, for one, am very excited about ending year on such a very high note. As for the Tour itself, I hope you enjoy reading the journal entries contained in these pages as much as we enjoyed living out the week that they describe.
Some of the other energetic Wesley events lately have been our last few innertube water polo games. Many of you probably participated in this sport at one time or another over the years at Wesley, and you certainly have heard about our recent success in the pool in the Flame痴 last issue. Since then, three of our five teams have gone on to take a third, second and first place finish in each of their respective leagues. Not only does this add to the tally of Wesley intramural championships and demonstrate the strength and pride we take in our intramural program, the game of innertube water polo � in my opinion � embodies a large part of the spirit of Wesley competition.
Take a look at the fundamentals of the sport. It痴 a (pardon the pun) watered-down version of actual water polo, a game that has its origins in rugby (not, as some might think, from the horse-powered version of polo, which most likely originated in Asia). Each member of the team must wear a funny-looking swimming cap and sit on an innertube during the duration of play. Most contact is eliminated by the fact that you can only tackle a player by dunking their tube. In short, it痴 a fun game to play, and � in my case anyway � it痴 hard to take it too seriously. I think that痴 why Wesley usually excels in this sport. There are ways to bend the rules, but for the most part, for a team like us that likes to play by the rules and have fun doing so, our playing style is generally rewarded.
And that痴 why I say it embodies Wesley痴 spirit in our intramural play. We may not always be the best team in the league, but we always strive to have fun playing the game. Far too often, we値l see other teams break down in rage and frustration just because they池e losing. There are plenty of bad sports out there. I値l admit that our teams can even get frustrated in the heat of the moment, but we have the kind of unity and sense of spirit that prevails after the game is over. It痴 the same sense of family that ultimately pervades the rest of Wesley and makes it such a great place to be.
So, I値l close with congratulations to all the water polo players and their fans for such a successful season. Let痴 keep the momentum going in other areas of Wesley for the rest of the year!
The energy and excitement around Wesley really has been contagious, so I'm definitely looking forward to a fun few weeks as we wrap up the semester. And that, kids, should be the last entry about Tour and water polo for now.
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