Jack Bowen, head boys’ water polo coach at Menlo School, and members of the water polo team recently held a three-day swim and water polo clinic for members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Redwood City, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto.
“I personally realized how fortunate I was to be a part of [Menlo School’s] program … and have this beautiful pool and this great opportunity to train and travel the state, and I wanted to do more than just continually have ourselves serving ourselves,” Bowen said.
The clinic, in its fourth year, combined aspects of swimming with water polo, teaching the children freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke, as well as how to dribble, pass, and shoot in water polo.
Twenty-six children from the three Boys and Girls Clubs, all between the ages of 9 and 13, attended the clinic, which ran from June 24 to June 26.
Because some of the children, or “athletes” as Bowen always referred to them, had little experience in water, the clinic began with swimming basics and ended with the participants learning the skills and situations of a real water polo game.
It was “really, really easy,” says Bowen, to get Menlo School players to volunteer to coach at the camp — unofficially named the “Be Your Best clinic” after the Menlo team’s motto. With all players volunteering, the clinic had a two-to-one athlete-to-coach ratio.
“These kids, their eyes light up when its time to go to water polo,” says Lailie Ibrahim, athletics director of the Boys and Girls Club of Redwood City. “We leave at around two o’clock to get [to the clinic], so by 1:30 or 1 o’clock, they’re like, ‘Hey when are we leaving, when are we leaving?'”
“I love water polo and this is an opportunity to share that love, while also helping the kids in the Boys and Girls Club,” said Scott Platshon, a Menlo School player and coach at the clinic.
Hells Angels member reaches plea deal in fatal punch case at Shoreline AmphitheatreApril 22, 2026 8:00 am