Staying motivated to play after 42 years - UTS Balmain Water Polo Life Member Ann-Marie Miranda

What keeps you motivated to continue playing Water Polo for almost half a century?

“I just love it, enjoy it, the adrenaline rush, (friendships) and being a part of a team. A lot of the girls we play against now are the ones I’ve been playing against for 40 years so that’s always fun too.”

Ann-Marie Miranda is one of the longest serving community members in Water Polo. She is the UTS Balmain Water Polo Secretary and was inducted as a Life Member last year.

“It’s a great family club and it’s really good to be a part of,” she said.

Throughout her playing career, Ann-Marie has had notable achievements representing Scotland and the United Kingdom in 1988/89 and selected in the Australian University team in 1995.

Ann-Marie continues to stay motivated with Water Polo; having played the sport for 42 years and Balmain for almost 20 years.

 “The friendships you make, the tradition and just the sport itself is just exhilarating. It involves everybody and certainly different skills that you can take away from it. “

It’s her enthusiasm and love for the sport that keeps her involved with the game. There is no question that she has made an incredible impact.

At UTS Balmain, she encourages volunteerism throughout the club in building a strong social Water Polo community.

“What we encourage at Balmain is we train our young ones up to be able to come and give back, so not only do we train them to coach players (should them be train them to play), we also coach them how to coach,” she said.

“We offer them opportunities in a non-threatening environment to coach young teams and mentor them through coaching metro competitions. We always say it takes a village to run a team or a run a club.”

If you want to see Ann-Marie in action, her Balmain L4’s team will be taking on Ryde Black L4 tonight at 9:30pm at Ryde Aquatic. Also, don’t miss the action happening around our other Sydney Metro Competitions over the course of the week.