Whats Happened:

Brisbane Grudge Match

A bighearted thankyou goes to the Brisbane Tritons for having us for the latest Rainbow Grudge Match. Players spent their holiday weekend up in Bris-vegas to play against the locals, joined by Melbourne Surge for a day of polo and much deserved sunshine.

We send a big congratulations to the Triton Team Rose for taking out the competition!

AGM and Winter Awards

Another season, another Burdekin session! We are inspired by the involvement at the AGM with many members invested in the future of our community, especially the attendance from our newly graduated booties.

The Stingers want to send  a thankyou James Wade for graciously volunteering as our treasurer for 2 terms, your service and dedication has enabled the club to navigate,survive and thrive the lockdown of the pandemic. James has been a major factor in expanding our training opportunities to our members at Gunyama along with managing to secure our new goals and clock.

We welcome the incumbent Joshua Sprake, who is a long time member and current Queen of M7-1. She’s not bossy, she is the Boss. Likewise a round of applause to Dylan Vitucci for being re-elected as Vice President, the only time she is helpless is when her nail polish is drying (which is undoubtedly always the sparkly one), after that watch out for this Stinger!

Whats On:

Introducing our W2 Division 1 Team

Stingers are also thrilled as all hell to introduce our newly established W2 team! The team is a combination of returning national players, national league players and international players. “We’ve never all played together before, but this year we all decided to come back and challenge ourselves” says coach Kayla, who will be playing in the Division 1 competition. “[We] are on the forefront of something exciting for this club” she says. 

Above all this is a fantastic opportunity for players to return and continue to participate in the sport we all love and extend the fabulous Stingers community. Moreover, with the under-representation of W players in all levels of sport, we are proud to put together a powerful and talented team (including a few Mums in the mix!) who will contend in the higher level of the game. The team will get the Stingers tentacle in the door as a competitive force in the water polo league.

W2 games are on Saturday afternoons (conveniently just after training, just saying) and we’d love to see you in the grandstand with planned choreography and a bespoke song. We'll put a post up on our FB page when we can get a crowd together for lunch and cheer squad in one of the upcoming rounds.

Ordinary Executive Nominations

Without the dedicated work of our volunteers, our club will not function. Thank you Alexander, Dean and Audrey for your outstanding contributions as Ordinary Executives over 2022-2023! If you're keen to get (more) involved with the running of the club, we would love to have your help as an Ordinary Executive.

Ordinary Executive Members are by no means ordinary! They represent the views of members and help make decisions that are in the best interest of the Club as a whole. In addition, they contribute to running key activities such as social events, competitions with sibling clubs, or other opportunities. These positions are appointed on 12 month terms and ideally include one W Metro, one M Metro, and one Non-Metro member.

We’d be particularly excited to hear from members keen to dabble in things like communications (internal and external), member engagement, and organising social events. The time commitment is very manageable (there is quite a bit of flexibility depending on your interests, skills, and what is going on in the rest of your life), a regular commitment is preparing for and attending Executive Team meetings (generally once a month, lasting 60-90min, and mostly online).

If you have questions or would like to learn more about what the day-to-day might involve, any of the Executive Team would love to chat, please get in touch!

For the formal details on the Ordinary Executive Member position, check out the roles and responsibilities document.

If you would like to nominate, please email secretary@sydneystingers.org.au with your nomination and a short note about your interest in the role and things you’d like to help with by Sunday 12 November (end of day). The Executive team will choose the candidates that best represent the Club and round out the skills of the group after nominations close. If there are multiple candidates we will make arrangements for the club to have a say in choosing their representatives.

Parramatta Pride Picnic 

Our volunteers attended the Parramatta Pride Picnic thanks to ACON and Paramatta Queer Forum. These opportunities give us vital visibility to areas of the wider sydney community where we wouldn’t normally get exposure to. 

Mardi Gras Fair Day Manager Needed!

Stingers will be heading to Fair Day 2024 to promote the club to the community and recruit the next generation of Booties, but to do so we need an awesome Manager to put our best foot forward! Please check out what’s involved, and reach out to Caitlyn McLoughlin (recruitment@sydneystingers.org.au) or Tom Cooney (secretary@sydneystingers.org.au) if you’d like to help out!

Metro Summer Season

Summer season has just started with Stingers entering a record 6 teams in the Metro competition. Stingers are passionate players and we are thrilled to see such participation from our members. We have entered 3 teams each in the M and W competitions and welcome a good portion of our new booties into the Metro League for the first time. 

Lifetime Membership Awards

The Exec are now open to taking nominations for Lifetime Membership Awards, set to be announced at our end of year awards in December. Lifetime Members is the highest honour we can give to a Stinger, reserved for those who have made significant contributions over at least a 10 year period. If you would like to nominate someone, please see the details in our RevSport page. 

Registrations *still* Open

There is still time to get yourself registered for the next waterpolo year. See your email for instructions. If you have any questions you’d like to ask, please contact Club Secretary, Tom Cooney at secretary@sydneystingers.org.au.

Stingers On Tour

Keep an eye out for your teammates as Stinger set out for world domination! We'll be battling it out in the pool and attending these events:

• Gay Games in Guadalajara, November 2023
• Melbourne Grudge Match 11th February 2024 (during Midsumma). 
• Fair Day, 18th February 2024
• Mardi Gras Parade, 2nd March 2024
• IGLA in Buenos Aires, November 2024 (coincides with Pride events in Argentina)

General Information:

• If you have Facebook, please join our Stingers Members Page, where you can keep up to date with announcements.
• See the Member Zone for club information
• Check out the Club Calendar for upcoming events and the training plan, you can also subscribe to the calendar on your phone using the link provided
• Grab exclusive merch available on the Stingers Shop at bargain basement prices!

Fun Fact:

Grammy nominated musician Sean Paul, think “Temperature” and “Get Busy”, was on Jamaica's National Waterpolo Team from 13 to 21, with his Grandfather being on the nations very first team and his parents competitive swimmers.