May 2nd, 2015
The Polo School League made a successful debut Saturday at Grand Champions Polo Club.
Pony Express (Landon Daniels, Benji Daniels, Justin Daniels, Bautista Heguy) won the inaugural round robin tournament with 6-4 and 5-1 victories over The Polo School (Will Jacobs, Sean Yazbeck, Tom Coid, Piki Alberdi) and Grand Champions (Lucas Lalor, Riley Ganzi, Juanse Olivera, Santos Bollini).
“This was really fun,” said Landon Daniels, at 11, the youngest member of the team. “I like the idea of playing with pros, you can learn a lot. I like playing with my brothers. This was one of our better games.”
Benji Daniels of Pony Express keeps the ball away from former 10-goaler Piki Alberdi of The Polo School. Photo by Alex Pacheco
Added Benji Daniels, “We have a great connection so it’s real easy to play together. I would rather play with them than anyone else.”
Each team of players competed with a pro, following the ProKidz format that Grand Champions President Melissa Ganzi developed last year.
“It’s good to have a role model on the field,” Justin Daniels said. “They can guide you and teach you about awareness on the field, where to be and what to do. You can learn by just watching the pro.
“Playing with Bautista was amazing. It was really nice playing with the master of the sport. He made sure we shared the ball and hit the ball to each other. Improving is the main thing especially in kids polo. When you get in the higher tournaments it’s more competitive but here it’s about having fun and improving your polo skills.”
In the first game, the scoring was balanced. Each Daniels brother scored two goals and Coid had two goals for The Polo School. In the second game, Benji and Justin Daniels each had two goals and Landon Daniels added one.
Bob Daniels competed with Heguy in the 2011 U.S. Open and is now enjoying playing polo with his sons.
“It’s very special for me that Bautista was able to come here for a week for vacation and play with kids he has known all their lives,” Daniels said.
“As far as the whole idea of the boys playing with a professional I think it’s very good. They learn while they are playing. The professional tells them things on the field and points things out at the moment that they need to get them pointed out. That’s how they improve.”
Heguy and the other pros had the most fun with the young, up-and-coming players.
“It was fun,” Heguy said. “I think it’s important for players with experience to teach them how to play good and fun polo. I really don’t like the polo they are playing today so I really like to teach them the way of playing, the basics, passing the ball and not playing by themselves. It is a team game and you play with everybody.”
Coid, 16, an up-and-coming player from Great Britain, scored two impressive back-to-back goals against Pony Express. Coid scored in the first 30 seconds of the second chukker winning the throw-in and racing 150 yards to score. His second goal was on a nice run from goal to goal including avoiding a hook from Heguy to cut Pony Express lead to one (5-4).
“This was really good fun and good experience,” Coid said. “We were learning and competing at the same time. It was a good learning curve. We do this a lot in England, it is very common there. It will catch on here in the states.”
Sean Yazbeck, the winner of the fifth season (2006) of Donald Trump’s reality show, The Apprentice, competed in his first polo game.
“It was an incredible amount of fun,” Yazbeck said. “This is the one time I can switch off from work, forget about everything, get on a horse and just play polo.”
Last year Yazbeck took eight polo lessons from former 8-goaler Juan Bollini at Grand Champions and two more this year before his first game. He had never ridden a horse before that.
“I can’t think of a better club in the world to play polo,” Yazbeck said. “I am playing with people at every single level, from my level which is complete beginner to former 10-goalers and up-and-coming young stars. They had such patience telling me where to move and where to connect the ball.
“The nice thing is it’s such a welcoming, warm atmosphere here at the club. No matter what level you’re at they make you feel comfortable. Mark and Melissa Ganzi are the best hosts. Everyone today was always willing to tell you pointers and how to improve your game. This was like an instructional game for me with a 10-goaler shouting over my shoulder constantly, ‘Sean, do this, do that.’ It is the best possible way to improve your ability.”
Yazbeck admitted it was a little humbling watching 11-year-old Landon Daniels come up with some incredible cut shots to goal.
“Absolutely humbling,” Yazbeck said with a smile. “You’ve got some kids here that you know are going to be the high-goalers of the future playing here at Grand Champions.”
Ganzi, USPA Florida Circuit governor and secretary-treasurer of the Polo Training Foundation (PTF), was happy with the first of many Polo School League events.
“The idea is we want to have somebody that can keep the ball moving, coach and have fun; teach the kids to make the right plays and start playing polo with good habits and knowledge of the rules,” Ganzi said.
“We want them to be able to take what they learned today and move forward into their future polo playing,” Ganzi said. “We’re going to be doing this on all Saturdays through May and in the fall.”
2015 POLO ON DEMAND
Grand Champions Polo Club, featuring five world-class fields, has a full schedule of tournaments from January to May. Let our polo experts create a turn-key experience including top pros to bring out the best in you and your team. Lessons are available.
2015 SPRING SCHEDULE
May 7-10, USPA Eastern Challenge; May 14-17, Polo Gear Challenge Cup; May 21-25, The Memorial; May 24-25, USPA NYTS; May 28-31, Santa Rita Memorial.
GRAND CHAMPIONS POLO CLUB
WHERE: 13444 Southfields Road, on the corner of South Shore Boulevard and Lake Worth Road, Wellington, 33414.