Water Polo - Meet the coaches!

By Elaine Kelly | Posted: Wednesday February 19, 2025

I am delighted to say that, along with the number of boys playing water polo this year, which has almost doubled, our coaching team at OBHS has also expanded, allowing us to run an extra team in the local Dunedin Schools’ Competition and more training sessions for the boys.

Our Head Coach remains Mr. Paul Wagner from Otago Water Polo, who has voluntarily given his time to coach boys at OBHS for the past five years. Mr Wagner still enjoys playing water polo and training the men’s team here in Dunedin. He has a wealth of playing and coaching knowledge to draw on from his time in South Africa and the Middle East.

To coincide with his son starting with us this year, Mr Brad Gilmore has volunteered as a parent coach. Having played water polo himself in school and for North Harbour, Brad has a real enthusiasm for the sport. In the last 4 years, Brad has coached the Year 7 and 8 players at Taieri College advancing their intermediate team to gold in 2024. As an Otago Water Polo coach, he has recently coached the Under 12 and Under 14 Boys teams. Brad is looking forward to supporting water polo at Otago Boys’.

Now that the OBHS pool is back up and running, we can schedule an additional swim fitness session for the boys on a Monday morning. We are delighted to welcome a new staff member to the coaching team. As a keen swimmer, Dr Fiona Thomas has volunteered to run these sessions alongside student coaches Oliver Jamieson (Captain of Water Polo) and Dade Tredoux (Deputy Captain). She will also be the Teacher in Charge of Swimming, so swimming families should feel free to contact her with information about upcoming swim events and boys’ successes. She will ensure these are duly recognised [email protected] 

As usual, Mr Wither, our Guidance Counselor continues to help in a managerial and coaching capacity. We thank all our community, parents, and teacher coaches for giving up their valuable time to help this exciting sport grow at Otago Boys’ High School. If your son is interested in joining us in playing water polo, he should contact [email protected] 

Elaine Kelly, Teacher in Charge of Water Polo

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