Orange County Polo Club Hosts Summer “Kick-Off” Tournament
Sunday, June 11th – The Orange County Polo Club hosted their summer season opener. OC Polo’s slogan “Where Fun meets the Competition” was in full force for this tournament. Every match was packed with great competition and great fun for both the players and fans!
The tournament brought in teams from all over Southern California. Poway Polo Club, Lakeside Polo Club, and the California Polo Club from Los Angeles.
The 10:00am game was a real barn burner. OC Polo VS. PoloDudes – Playing for OC Polo were: Elaine Rivest, Heather Schuberth and Shelly Geiler. Marcus Kimura, Cary Burch and Denny Geiler rounded out the Polodude team. This was a real battle of the sexes and the men’s team came out swinging hard. Cary Burch was simply on fire, scoring most of the team’s goals and earning the MVP award. This was truly a team effort as both Denny Geiler and Marcus Kimura were always in position keeping the scoring drive alive! In the end, the women’s team held their own but were edged out of the winner’s circle. Heather Schuberth’s horse “Casino” took home the Best Playing Pony award and both teams walked away with memories of an action packed game.
The 11:30am game pitted California Polo against Poway – California Polo’s team of Jen Martin, Barbara Benson and Jeff Kossak came to play. The Poway team of Russ Sheldon, Nancy Kirchoffer, Steven Paulsen, Scott Kuhlman and Karen Turley were ready to dominate. The game moved quickly for both teams. The match featured some great team play led by Russ Sheldon, Nancy Kirchoffer and Karen Turley with Poway’s two rising stars, Steven Paulsen and Scott Kuhlman driving home the majority of the goals. MVP was Steven Paulsen and Best Playing Pony went to Barbara Benson’s horse “Capitan”.
The 1:00pm game matched up Trabuco Canyon against California Polo – Trabuco Canyon’s team of Chris Karp, Melissa Blauvelt and Heather Schuberth were heavily favored to win. However, California Polo’s Susan Cooley, Julie Riggs and Cambria Smith had other plans. Both teams traded goal for goal. The last Chukker ended just as Cambria Smith scored the game tying goal! Moving into sudden death, superstar Chris Karp from Trabuco Canyon made the final goal. MVP honors went to Chris Karp and Best Playing Pony went to Julie Rigg’s horse “Marvin”.
The 2:00pm game featured a long time rivalry between MunkyPolo and the Tres Amigos. The last time these two teams dueled in the arena MunkyPolo edged out the Tres Amigos in a very intense battle. Controversy surrounded that first match up nearly two years ago due to MunkyPolo’s use of “Extra Bright Yellow” Jerseys with banana scenting. After the initial match up Jim Raeder, spokesman for the Amigos was quoted as saying, “those bright colors and banana smell made it hard to see and also made my stomach growl for a sweet banana, in other words, I was distracted”. The Tres Amigos vowed to avenge their only loss and intensely prepared their rematch strategy. Founding members of the Tres Amigos, Jim Raeder and Mark McQuitty recruited new rising star, David Flowers to round out their comeback team. Meanwhile, MunkyPolo’s Eric Munk, Peter Pitchess and Dave Schuberth prepared by fine tuning their game with a trip to Argentina in December and “legged up” by playing at Eldorado in the spring. The game started with two quick goals by the Boys in Yellow and Red followed by the Tres Amigos scoring 8 unanswered goals. “Shock the Monkey” could be heard over the PA system as the teams entered the arena after the halftime show. MunkyPolo managed a flurry of goals in the 3rd chukker and momentum seemed to shift. However, the very focused Tres Amigos team regained control of the game in the 4th Chukker and ended up spanking the MunkyPolo team. Jim Raeder scored 9 goals earning the coveted MVP award and Mark McQuitty’s horse “Noise” was named Best Playing Pony.