Atlanta Rainbow Trout’s 15-member water polo squad played well enough during the recent 2007 International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics Championships in Paris to bring home the bronze medal. (Photo by Matt Hennie)
Trout takes top honors during Paris event Atlanta’s gay swim group brings home medals in individual, team events
THE ATLANTA RAINBOW TROUT brought home the gold. And a little bronze, too.
When the nearly two-dozen members of the gay swim group returned home from the recent International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics Championships in Paris, their luggage was loaded down with medals.
The Trout, for only the second time in the group’s 12-year history, beat out more than two-dozen teams from across the globe to capture gold in the small team division. The 15-member water polo squad took the bronze medal. Several individual members also won medals.
“It’s validation of the hard work that we put in before the tournament,” said Sean Fitzgerald, who coached the water polo team and is a longtime member of the Trout. “It’s really a clean sweep for Atlanta.”
For the water polo team, a mixture of veterans and inexperienced players, reaching the medals round of the tournament marked the first time they went that deep in the IGLA tournament. Since 2002, the team has lost in the quarterfinals, Fitzgerald said. Leading up to the tournament, the Trout was seeded fourth, the highest it’s been ranked.
The team won its first three games, knocked off Montreal-Manchester to reach the quarterfinals and then lost to the eventual second-place West Hollywood Aquatics. In the bronze medal game, the Trout beat Team New York Aquatics.
“We were hoping for the bronze. It was a long time in coming,” Fitzgerald said.
The water polo team will be tested again in October when they travel to the Washington Wetskins Invitational Water Polo Tournament in Washington, D.C., which also hosts the IGLA Championships in June 2008.
On the swimming side, the Trout took the gold in the small team division, which includes teams with 12 or fewer participants. Ten of those swimmers also captured individual medals, led by Michelle Martin as she set IGLA records in two events – the 400 Individual Medley and 200 Butterfly.
“Our women kicked some major butt,” Fitzgerald said.
Fresh from their successful spring season, the National Flag Football League of Atlanta is kicking off a six-week summer season on July 19 that will include about 60 participants.
The league expects to field four teams, slightly smaller than the six-team spring season, and will play games on weeknights, instead of Saturday afternoons. In the past, the NFFLA has assembled its traveling team, the Storm, to play in a non-gay league during the summer as a tune-up for the Gay Super Bowl each fall.
But that league canceled its summer session and coupled with demand from gay footballers, NFFLA pulled together the summer season, according to Chris Whitlow, an NFFLA board member.
“A lot of people in the spring league said they wanted to play this summer, too,” Whitlow said.
League officials compose team rosters from registered participants to provide balance among the teams and to teach newcomers about the game. Registration is $45 until July 9 and $55 after.
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