The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder

THEY come from the Desert Empire, WEST of Polo.  They came a long ways for a big trophy and it is one they had to play powerhouse indoor polo against teams that have played most of the winter months indoor and who were ready to go. It made no difference to Eldorado Polo Team. They started lat,e but still ended up on top of the heap.

The Desert Rats made it through the Regionals at Santa Barbara and headed east where they never slowed down. During the tournament, they trailed only twice and it was for a total of 60 seconds and most of that was today in the last chukkar.

The game started at 2 p.m.on a beautiful day In Ithaca, NY at the John T. Oxley Arena. He would have been proud of this battle as he always liked to watch good Polo.  And it was very good Polo. A lot of familar faces were in this crowd. From the Culver side, Sir Walter Durett Grandson Devin Vass and Brad Scherer with  son August.  From the land of Ohio /Indi. was Bruce Chandlers son Austin. From the west side of the U.S. was Brianna Galindo, daughter of Carlos and nephew of Hector Galindo. Jesse Bray, son of Graham and Debbie Bray and Patrick Uretz of World Gym stock … Mike and Claudia Uretz.

In the first chukker, Eldorado jumped all over Culver surprising them with quick and deadly throw ins and they seemed to be  off and running. After a short walk at 1/2 chukkar, Culver roared back to trail by 3 at the start of two and won the second, but still trailed at 1/2 time by two.  Brad Scherer (the coach from Culver) must have lit their fire as Culver came out like Peyton Manning in the 3rd and buried the Desert Team (Eldorado) and took the lead after the walk about with a giant 2 pointer.  It looked like they were  on their way, but a last second goal by Brianna Galindo stopped the bleeding at 2 goals down, 16 to 14 and got the momentum back. The final chukkar was a bonafide “let ’em fly” kind of polo scene that would have made John T. Oxley smile. The Desert Rats, with an amazing bit of composure, came flying back like there were on a mission. Patrick blasted past all to score. Jesse smacked the ball down town and hustled down field for the kill and Brianna, who had a badly swollen hand from the first 1/2,  gritted her teeth and made back shots took her man and made all of her penalty shots, with the exception of two and they were 3’s.  After a very nasty injury, Young Devin Vass seemed to have his momentum change with a huge neck shot to get it rolling, but fate was against them as shortly there after it was a broken hangar on a saddle, then their momentum cooled off.  It  was ELDORADO riding off to the BIG ONE. KNOWN AS THE ….

2010 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

BRIANNA GALINDO
PATRICK URETZ
JESSE BRAY
ALT. DANIEL GALINDO

THANKS TO A GREAT MANY PEOPLE … DAVID AND KIM , ALL THE GROOMS OF CORNELL WERE AWESOME AND THE STAFF THAT DEALT WITH IT ALL THE PLAYERS FROM ALL THE ATTENDING SCHOOLS AND COACHES = THE AWESOME LADY IN CONTROL FROM THE USPA AMY.

ALL STARS : KAREEM ROSSER AUGUST SCHERER PATRICK URETZ AND JESSE BRAY

WELL DONE

SEE YA