Izzo says ASA will head to schools to attract more youngsters to sport
Women’s waterpolo national team coach Aurelien Cousin was a proud man this week after seeing his U-18 selection earn a prestigious 14th place in the European Championship held at the National Pool in Tal-Qroqq.
The women’s selection caught the headlines with some resilient performances that saw them record victories over Ireland, Ukraine, and Romania, and further confirm the huge margin of potential this team has.
Speaking to The Times of Malta, Cousin said that ASA and his technical staff had been working with this group for the past two years, and it is satisfying to see that all the hard work put in by the players is finally starting to reap the desired dividends.
“I am really very happy with the effort of the players,” the French-born coach said.
“The tournament has been very positive for us and it was great to see the character and the resilience put in by a very young team.
“We have been planning on this young team for the past two years, and slowly, slowly, we have been putting together a solid structure for the girls.
“Now, after two years, we are starting to see positive results, which is obviously great for them, but the road is still very long and there is still a lot of work to be done. But, certainly, we are heading in the right direction.”
Cousin said that this week’s result should be used as an added motivation to aim for higher objectives.
“We knew that this group of players had a lot of potential,” Cousin said.
“That is why we have set a four-year strategy to ensure they can maximise their talent and build a solid national team around them.
“After such an excellent result, I hope all the girls continue to work hard so that we continue to grow as a national team.
“The aim has to be to try and aim for a higher ranking, but no doubt we couldn’t ask for a better start.”
The Malta coach admitted that one key ingredient in helping the team further develop is to have more players who opt to continue their careers away from our shores and the former national team player said that he is ready to help them fulfil their ambition.
“If a player manages to win a contract abroad it means that they have the potential to continue their careers with a foreign club,” Cousin said.
“I hope that in the future we have more girls who decide to go and play abroad.
“The setup here in Malta is what it is, and the ASA and I need to work more to attract more young players to the sport.
“Now we have a very good young team and the goal has to be to start working on the next generation of players. This is because when this group is 20 to 24 years old we need to have another crop of U-18 players who can join them and help us to raise the level of competitiveness.
“If they want to go abroad, I will surely help them as I have a lot of contacts abroad, and hopefully they can live their dream as well.”
Cousin said that one key factor so that the women’s game continues to grow is that clubs understand more the benefits of investing in the women’s game.
“There must be more investment from the clubs in women’s waterpolo,” he said.
“The clubs need to understand that even if it is a financial burden, having female players is equally important as having male players. As ASA, we need to understand how we can help the clubs to develop their women’s waterpolo setup.”
ASA president Karl Izzo was also very pleased with the result achieved by the U-18 women’s national team and said that the result will add more fire to the governing body to step up its work to provide a stronger base for the women’s game.
“This result is a testament to the huge investment the ASA is making in the women’s game,” Izzo said.
“To manage to place 14th from 19 teams is a great achievement and that is all down to the excellent work done by my coaching staff, spearheaded by Aurelien Cousin and Kayne Lanzon, who are showing great professionalism.
“We have worked very hard in the past months with these players when they were in the U-14 and U-16 age groups, and there is more to come.
“A four-year strategy for the women’s game has been prepared. Caroline Schiavone has been appointed as the co-ordinator of the women’s teams, and is supported by Claudio Azzopardi.
“We are planning to go into the schools to attract more female players to start practising waterpolo as it’s important to have a bigger base of players to choose from.
“This result takes more significance when one realises that we had seven players in this group who are still under the age of 16 years. One area we need to work on is the physical power of our players, as there were matches that were lost in the latter stages but we will be working on that.
“I am pleased with all the work being done, and no doubt we are on the right track.”
