Water polo youth Meppel to Eredivisie: ‘PSV will visit soon’

Plenty of fanaticism at water polo club De Reest in Meppel. There is hard training, because next season the youth team Under-15 will take on a completely new challenge.

Trainer Richard Kamphuis proudly looks into the pool at his boys. “These guys who are in the water here, we will play with them next week in the Eredivisie: the national level.” The Meppelers, all aged 13 or 14, will work in the competition until the age of 15. “We will see if we can meet this challenge together. We will soon receive the largest associations in the Netherlands here in Bad Hesselingen. That is fantastic.”

The association has been doing well for a long time. Even in times of corona, the number of members increased. This results in a crop that is no longer at home at the regional level. “They have become champions,” Kamphuis continues. “Then you are talking about results of 25-0. Matches in which they are in the water with one less player in the second half, to make it somewhat fun for the opponent. You notice that there is not much more in the region. can be obtained.”

The club has one flaw. Where other Eredivisie teams can train five or six times, De Reest will stay with two evenings for the time being. Swimming pool Hesselingen cannot offer the team more space. “The bath is fantastic”, says Kamphuis. “But many different target groups want to use it. That makes availability complicated, it is always a matter of adjusting and measuring what the possibilities are.”

Because the youth teams of major clubs such as PSV Eindhoven and ZPB Barendrecht have almost ten times more training hours, expectations have been tempered. “I think we lose everything,” says Kamphuis with a cheerful twinkle in his eye. “That will happen. But I would rather they lose everything than that they win everything as easily as last year. Perhaps we will lose such a match against Barendrecht with 25-1. Six months later we will play against them again, then it will be it might be 18-1. Then we get a win over ourselves. That’s what it’s about for us.”

The club emphasizes that it is not just for Meppel. The whole of the Northern Netherlands should benefit from it. “There are two players from Emmen in training today. There are also players from Heerenveen and Groningen,” says Fabian Compagner of the technical committee. “The project to play Eredivisie is not only aimed at ourselves. We also want to be able to offer clubs in the region a base to play Eredivisie level for once.”

One of the players who takes up the adventure is 14-year-old Jente Visscher. “I thought it was special and did not expect that I would ever play in the Eredivisie,” he says proudly. “But I like it. We already played a practice match recently, that was fine.” But the young attacker also knows that a lot still needs to be done. “We still have to train a lot, also at home. Because only training at the club, that is not enough for you.”

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