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ILLINOIS WATER POLO
2005 SEASON
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Player Spotlight
DON LAMBKA
Illpolo.com's All-Illpolo Team
Don Lambka's strong senior
season helped Naperville Central to a second place finish in 2005. He was
named to the All-State third team at the end of the season and was also
selected to the All-Illpolo fourth team for his performance as well. We asked
Don the following
questions in an exclusive Illpolo.com interview:
College choices, major, current GPA?
I'm going to major in athletic training this fall at the University of
Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). My current GPA is a 3.892 cumulative.
When did you start? How? Where?
I started playing water polo when i was 12 or 13 and my neighborhood pool, Farmstead, was putting together a team so I joined up. In eight grade I joined the Maverick Water Polo team for a year and Then I played 4 years of high school polo at Central. I went to the camp at Santa Barbara last summer and went to the Stanford camp before my junior year.
Awards and achievements?
Outside of this years second place finish and my honorable mention, I have only been part of the varsity team for four years at Central.
Personal interests? Music? TV shows?
I like to play Ultimate Frisbee a lot. I've
been know to not show up to work because an Ultimate game is going down. I
don't watch a lot of TV because I really like reading. My favorite book is
You Shall Know Our Velocity by David Eggars but I have been reading a lot
of Franz Kafka lately.
Goals for the future with polo? School? Life?
This year was my last year playing organized polo. I will probably play for fun every once in a while but this season was my last full season. I wouldn't have it any other way, I pushed myself really hard this year and gave it everything i had, I am perfectly content to walk away from it on that note. But I can guarantee my kids will play polo.
Motivation, inspiration?
I 'd say my only motivation is love of the
game. It's the most challenging physical sport I have found yet and I love
the water.
First Season role?
My first season I was what we call a "swing player" where i would play in the jv games but also be on the bench for the varsity games to learn varsity skills.
Soph, Junior year roles?
Sophomore: My sophomore year i was still a swing player but with more emphasis on varsity and less on JV. My junior year i was first sub in or a starter all year and scored around 20 goals.
Stats?
This year I had 72 goals and 63 assists. But i also had a bad habit of getting two ejections in a lot of games and ended up with like 25 ejections, whoops.
Other Comments?
I had the time of my life this season and I couldn't have had such a great time if it wasn't for our team. So I really owe my season to all of them because I'm definitely not good enough to play without them and win.
