{"id":353899,"date":"2019-02-24T18:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T01:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=353899"},"modified":"2019-03-19T14:44:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T21:44:15","slug":"on-the-record-with-alex-donis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-alex-donis\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Record With Alex Donis, Coach for Hialeah Storm and Hialeah High School Water Polo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Swimming World is down in Coral Springs, Florida for the annual\u00a0South Florida International Tournament<\/a>. Offered by\u00a0<\/em>Michael Goldenberg<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0his daughter\u00a0<\/em>Elina <\/em><\/strong>and extensive coaching staff from\u00a0the South Florida Water Polo Club<\/a>, this annual age group tournament\u2014started in 2003 by <\/em>Istvan Csendes<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>Jim Shoemaker<\/em><\/strong> and <\/em>Bruce Wigo<\/em><\/strong>\u2014draws teams from all over the East Coast as well as from the Bahamas, Calgary, Chicago, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rome and other locations.<\/em><\/p>\n

HIALEAH, FL. The water polo club scene in Miami is as vibrant and diverse as the city that sustains it, with seven clubs recently participating in the 17th South Florida International Water Polo Tournament. All may lay claim to the Magic City\u2019s multi-cultural identity, but perhaps no team is as truly embedded in the city\u2019s fabric as the Hialeah Storm.<\/p>\n

[At South Florida International Water Polo Tournament, Emphasis is on \u201cInternational\u201d]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Based in a\u00a0Northwestern exurb of Miami, the Storm are a truly public club, part of an innovative and extensive aquatics program<\/a> offered by the City of Hialeah Park District out of the Milander Aquatic Center. What makes the Storm so distinctive is that the program has been overseen since 2007 by Alex Donis<\/strong>, a devoted Miami native and Nelson Dominguez-Avila<\/strong>, a former Cuban national team member who represented his country in the 1976 and 1980 Olympic games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Dominguez-Avila represents the sizzle that only an Olympian can bring, it\u2019s Donis who provides the grounding that makes the Storm a staple in national conversations about the growth of polo in South Florida. After picking up the game as a high schooler in Miami Lakes, Donis played two years for Brian Kelly<\/strong> at Iona before returning home, where he finished his degree at Florida International University (FIU), playing club ball for the Panthers.<\/p>\n

A stint as a member of club polo\u00a0under Miami legend Carroll Vaughan led Donis to a coaching career, first as an assistant at Barbara Goleman High School, his alma mater, then to Coral Gables, then to a head coaching position at Hialeah High School, where last year he led the Thoroughbreds to a state title in girls’ water polo\u2014the first time a public high school captured a girls’ polo championship.<\/p>\n

\"donis-hialeah-feb19\"

Donis observing his high school team in action. Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger \/ 3rd & Ocean<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week Swimming World<\/em> spoke with Donis about his devotion to growing the sport in his community, his relationship with Dominguez-Avila and his daughter Paolo Dominguez-Castro, <\/strong>one of the most promising polo prospects since Ashleigh Johnson<\/strong>, and prospect for the sports growth in South Florida.<\/p>\n

– You are a high school coach but it\u2019s all integrated in the work that you\u2019re doing in the city of Hialeah to grow water polo.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s Hialeah High School, so it\u2019s integrated in the community. Our baseball team or our aquatics programs are probably our number one. We\u2019ve had historic baseball programs, and the past couple of years our aquatics program has raised a couple of eyebrows. We\u2019ve won one or two club championships in several categories over several years. The International Tournament we won two years in a row (2017, 2018) for the 16U girls and then before that in the younger categories.<\/p>\n

– How did it happen that Hialeah chose to sponsor a competitive age group polo club?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before I went to Iona I was employed by the city as a lifeguard and I pushed to open the club a couple of times a week. I went away to school and they had somebody else run it who couldn\u2019t handle it, so when I came back we pushed to open it again.<\/p>\n

The person who was organizing the program ran into Nelson [Dominguez-Avila] and heard about his story so he brought him in. I told Nelson about my background and he agreed that we could work together.<\/p>\n

10 \u2013 11 years later that\u2019s still true.<\/p>\n

– So, it\u2019s a bit of \u201cMr. Inside and Mr. Outside.\u201d Where do you fit in this pairing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We’re both Xs and Os guys; it\u2019s just that he\u2019s hindered by the language. I take his directions and translate that into English\u2014while sprinkling some of my own stuff in there, too.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re kind of like Good Cop \/ Bad Cop. He\u2019s been around the game for 50 years\u2014so there\u2019s nothing that he doesn\u2019t know about water polo. And, as much as everybody thinks the game has changed, it really hasn\u2019t. The essence of the game is still the same, and who knows that better than him?<\/p>\n

– Where did you get your passion for the sport?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I played baseball all my life but decided I didn\u2019t want to play anymore. I liked the water so I joined the swim team and I happened to have two amazing coaches. Cathy Redson<\/strong> swam for Auburn. She was a teacher at Barbara Goleman where I went to high school.<\/p>\n

She was working for IBM and decided to quit and take a teaching job just to have better quality of life. She held the 200 and 400 IM records at Auburn for quite a few years and made the 1980 Olympic Trials\u2014which she didn\u2019t go to because of the boycott.<\/p>\n

My water polo coach was Luke Sherlock<\/strong>, a local guy who played at St. Francis in Brooklyn. He knew Paul <\/strong>Becskehazy<\/strong>\u2014two-time national champion at UCLA (1969, 1971). He\u2019s the coach of Miami Beach international.<\/p>\n

\"hialeah-states-donis-feb19\"

Your 2018 state champs – the Hialeah Thoroughbreds! Photo Courtesy: Miami Herald<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve had the privilege to work with the best coaches that we\u2019ve ever had here in Florida. Then, add in the influence of ex-Cuban national team coaches and players\u2014Nelson, Osvaldo Garcia<\/strong>, who was the coach of the 1991 Cuban team that beat the Americans in the Pan American Games. 90% of all the lifeguards on the beaches are ex-players. There\u2019s a big Cuban water polo community and they really take care of each other.<\/p>\n

One of my mentors is Felix Mercado<\/strong> at Brown\u2014he used to be the coach at Ransom Everglades. He actually taught me how to tread water. I bounced around clubs in high school: I played at Miami Beach International and with Felix at Ransom for a little bit. He taught me how to tread water in the old Ransom pool back in the day.<\/p>\n

I connected with Tim<\/strong> Tornillo<\/strong>\u2014he\u2019s been coaching for 35 years at Miami High School. He never played water polo but learned it fairly well. He\u2019s the head of referees for high schools in Dade County. He was my club coach for a while. There\u2019s Dave Tinkham<\/strong>, who\u2019s been refereeing for 30 years. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to be around a lot of really good water polo minds.<\/p>\n

– Just how pervasive is the influence of the Cuban style of play on Miami water polo?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s all around [Miami]. I know Carroll [Vaughan]<\/strong> at Gulliver Prep has had Alain Gullien<\/strong> there\u2014he\u2019s a former Cuban pipeline player who\u2019s been on her coaching staff. She pretty much did the Riptides on her own\u2014there\u2019s been other coaches who started with her\u2014but she\u2019s done a great job over there. Obviously, everybody knows the Johnson sisters\u2014it\u2019s actually the Johnson family. The second boy, Will, he would have been an amazing DI player if he hadn\u2019t of ruined his shoulder in high school. Belen Jesuit won two titles (2015, 2016) and he then went to play at UF (University of Florida) and I haven\u2019t really heard anything since.<\/p>\n

– You mention University of Florida, which has a club team. What are the prospects for the Gators or any other Florida college starting varsity polo?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This summer I\u2019m going to sit down and try to do a marketing job for this. For us to have college water polo in Florida will mean the world. If we did that, in ten years we\u2019d be really close to the level of California, because sometimes our kids start late.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re starting a lot younger than before, but then they stop playing or they go away\u2014because there\u2019s nothing here college-wise for them. In California, they\u2019ll have 4,000 fans at USC vs. UCLA games. That\u2019s awesome! We don\u2019t have that here. The people that watch are the parents.<\/p>\n

\"nelson-donis-feb19\"

Nelson\u00a0Dominguez-Avila. Photo Courtesy: A. Donis<\/p><\/div>\n

We\u2019re trying to change that. Any time we go to a tournament, I tell my younger group that we\u2019re going and they should come and support the team. It\u2019s a way to mimic that exposure that all the other sports have.<\/p>\n

– You can\u2019t just have the Gators go varsity to make polo viable in Florida….<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You need at least four [schools]. If we can open the eyes up of the big schools\u2014maybe not even the big schools. Those medium schools like UCF (University of Central Florida), USF (University of Southern Florida) and FIU together with the big schools. We have some very good players and they\u2019re in their universities and not even playing water polo. Or we lose them to somewhere else because if you come out for water polo you wouldn\u2019t go [to a local school]. Partially it\u2019s getting the numbers in\u2014a good 80% of water polo players in Florida have a bright future, which is the same number the state of Florida pays for them to go to school. Wouldn\u2019t those school like to have that money?<\/p>\n

If you start a program you\u2019re going to get most of those kids to go to your school. They\u2019ll go to where they can play water polo.<\/p>\n

– Is there a strong basis of swimming in the area?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

FIU and [University of] Miami have swimming for women only. The do it to balance out Title IX. [Florida teams] have to have enough teams to make their own conference. They\u2019re not going to spend the money to travel up to the Northeast or West Coast.<\/p>\n

If FIU, for example, were to open a water polo program for girls, we\u2019d be competitive year one with no scholarships. We\u2019ll have 20 girls that you\u2019ll bring into the school\u2014we\u2019re talking about talented players like Paola, the girls from Ransom, the girls from Gulliver. Some of these girls go to big-time private high schools and then they\u2019ll go to Wagner or to St. Francis Brooklyn. You\u2019re spending all this money for an education to go to a DII or DIII school\u2014just because that\u2019s the only place they can go play water polo?<\/p>\n

– But until a couple of Florida schools launch varsity programs, you risk being like Austin College, which joined the MPSF for an affiliation\u2014and doesn’t have any rivals in the state of Texas<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You know why he\u2019s going to get talent? Because they\u2019re playing against the best.<\/p>\n

– What hopes do your boys and girls have by way of prospects for scholarships to DI schools?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We need that first one to do it [make it to a DI school]. We thought we had it with\u00a0Ashley\u00a0Luy<\/strong>; hopefully it can work out in the future. She went to St. Francis University in Pennsylvania; it didn\u2019t work out and she\u2019s back home. That\u2019s somewhat discouraging.<\/p>\n

\"paola-uana\"

Paolo Dominguez-Castro.\u00a0Photo Courtesy: Peter Laurence \/ USA Water Polo<\/p><\/div>\n

Hispanic parents tend to hold tight to their kids\u2014so breaking that culture is very difficult. This year, one of my boys is gonna [do it] because he’s being recruited by Washington and Jefferson, St. Francis Brooklyn and La Salle. I think he has thick enough skin to be able to hold up.<\/p>\n

I went through with it; when you go away you miss home, you\u2019re miserable. These kids don\u2019t get to travel a lot\u2014a lot of these kids never got on a plan until they joined our club. I know that Paolo, the first time she ever got on a plane was when she went to Colorado for 12U Rocktoberfest.<\/p>\n

My first time I ever got on a plane was when I went to New York City to see Brian Kelly.<\/p>\n

You need every year one or two kids to go\u2014for example South Florida Water Polo has two or three kids that sign with colleges. They have a history of success, so the kids coming up see that; the parent see that and they\u2019re more prone to push the kids more and for the kids to push themselves, knowing that other people from their club have made it.<\/p>\n

– You\u2019ve described your club as similar to the Commerce club that\u2019s out in Los Angeles.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What Nelson and I have done is\u2014if we can\u2019t travel, we\u2019re going to bring that high-level play here. He\u2019s reached into his contacts, and Tuesday and Thursday nights we have the ex-Cuban National Team players come and play and beat up on our boys.<\/p>\n

Three or four years ago we had five women staying with us from the Cuban National Team. They helped our girls a lot, just getting in the water with them.<\/p>\n

Coach Nelson was on the national team for so long he\u2019s made so many friends all over the world. [Guillen] the coach from Campus Roma, [Nelson\u2019s] known him for so long, whenever we want we can go to Italy or they come to our pool.<\/p>\n

The team from Chicago came the day before and trained with us for a day or two. We’ve had teams from Colombia come and stay for a week. Sometimes we can\u2019t [travel] but he has so many contacts and been around the sport so long that we always have talented team coming here [to Miami].<\/p>\n

\"polo-sfwp-donis-feb19\"

Is there any place in the world more beautiful for polo? Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger, 3rd & Ocean<\/p><\/div>\n

– Given that Miami is perhaps the southernmost big city in the continental U.S., there\u2019s stronger connections to teams in the Caribbean and Latin America than in the North- and Southeast.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Talent is the same. [Navy in] Annapolis, they\u2019re going to be 6-3, 220 lbs. The Puerto Rican kid is going to be 5-9, 165 lbs but they\u2019re both going to be really good players. We use what we can and will play whoever\u2019s coming to Miami.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re flexible and go to every local tournament that we can to keep our kids playing. But, we\u2019re getting tired of this. The parents are bolder, more established and more well-off economically. They want to start expanding [opportunities for competition]\u2014we\u2019ll likely go to JOs this year.<\/p>\n

Our problem is, that nobody goes to Jobs\u2019 Whoever shows up at the zone qualifications gets to go because nobody wants to pay to go to California\u2014unless its Ransom, Gulliver, Florida.<\/p>\n

And in the words of Nelson, I\u2019m not going to spend $1,000 to get [beaten]. he doesn\u2019t believe in learning that way. You can learn, learn, learn and when you\u2019re ready you can go compete. And we\u2019ve proven it; the two or three players that we\u2019ve sent [to California] can compete.<\/p>\n

Riptides have been going to JOs for a very long time, so they have a ranking. If we go in as a new club. we\u2019re going to be at the bottom of the barrel. We\u2019ll probably have to play Stanford \u201cA\u201d or SOCAL \u201cA\u201d in the first game and lose 45-0.<\/p>\n

10U, 12U or 14U is competitive. We\u2019ll probably have to take 18Us. If you start as a new club you\u2019re going to start at the bottom because you don\u2019t have a ranking. Riptides have a ranking\u2014they\u2019re in the middle of the pack\u2014and have a better chance of finishing higher in the tournament.<\/p>\n

So, we just unite and go with them.<\/p>\n

– And how has that worked?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s been good. A couple of years ago the [Riptide] girls won the gold bracket. The Riptides have been very good to us because they financially help some of the kids who don\u2019t have money. And not just the parents. [Coach Vaughan] has done a good job of fund-raising for tournaments. And she\u2019s been able to take some of our kids and help them out financially to play in different tournaments.<\/p>\n

\"ashleigh-johnson-cover-700x500\"The sport is not expensive; all you need is a bathing suit and jump in. But, entry fees, travel, food, [local] transportation.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re a tight-knit community. Even though there\u2019s many people who would love to come and help, it\u2019s really just been him and me. His brother Oriel is involved\u2014he\u2019s family, he\u2019s another Olympian, he comes in and helps out with the goalies.<\/p>\n

When we first started, we were basically the support group of the doctors. We got all the eight, nine, ten year olds who were overweight. \u201cThe doctor says he needs to do a non-weight-bearing exercise because he needs to lose weight.\u201d We would take anyone.<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re providing swim lessons right next to [our polo practices]. My group is right next to the swimmers; if I see a kid [swimming] who’s jittery or they run around and look athletic\u2014and they can swim a length!\u2014I put them into my lane.<\/p>\n

– And now you\u2019re drawing athletes who have legitimate Olympic prospects, including\u00a0Paolo Dominguez-Castro.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When Paola was young, Nelson was worried. We looked for ways to streamline the recruiting process. “Why can\u2019t we break the mold and make [coaches] come here?” he said. There\u2019s schools popping up all over the U.S., and this is going to continue because polo is the fastest growing sport in America.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh Johnson<\/strong> got in\u2014breaking all the racial barriers\u2014and she was accepted. Jackie Robinson<\/strong> broke all the racial barriers but his teammates didn\u2019t really like him until later on in his career. When Nelson changed because [Ashleigh] was embraced\u2014she was named Swimming World Magazine<\/em>\u00a0Women\u2019s Water Polo Player of the Year\u2014not only that, beating out Maggie [Steffens]<\/strong>, the poster child for the sport in America.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s this girl from Florida that Paola\u2019s played against. That was eye-opening for her dad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Swimming World is down in Coral Springs, Florida for the annual\u00a0South Florida International Tournament. Offered by\u00a0Michael Goldenberg,\u00a0his daughter\u00a0Elina and extensive coaching staff from\u00a0the South Florida Water Polo Club,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":354068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[74447,39795,74448,60190,1247,74396,72333,74456,74222,63407,30816,60917,74443,74450,74444,74445,39337,74221,60192,74451,74446,74453,74452,74449,74454,74223,60895,74455,63467],"class_list":["post-353899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-alex-donis","tag-ashleigh-johnson","tag-ashley-luy","tag-brian-kelly","tag-bruce-wigo","tag-carroll-vaughan","tag-commerce-water-polo","tag-dave-tinkham","tag-elina-goldenberg","tag-felix-mercado","tag-florida-international-university","tag-iona-water-polo","tag-istvan-csendes","tag-jackie-robinson","tag-james-shomaker","tag-luke-sherlock","tag-maggie-steffens","tag-michael-goldenberg","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-milander-aquatic-center","tag-nelson-dominguez-avila","tag-oriel-dominguez","tag-osvaldo-garcia","tag-paul-becskehazy","tag-ransom-everglades-high-school","tag-south-florida-water-polo-club","tag-st-francis-brooklyn","tag-tim-tornillo","tag-wagner-water-polo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nOn The Record With Alex Donis, Coach for Hialeah Storm and Hialeah High School Water Polo - 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