ARLINGTON, Va. - Water Polo. It's real and it is gaining in popularity. Think of it as a high energy sport that combines basketball and soccer, but it's played in the pool.
In early December, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Henao and members of the Fort Stewart Adaptive Reconditioning team started adaptive water polo. The rules are similar to traditional water polo, in that teams try to outscore each other by passing the ball among their teammates, across the pool, and throwing it into the opposing team's goal, but it's played in the shallow end so participants can take breaks from swimming. Water polo is a popular sport in high schools, colleges, and is also a sport in the summer Olympic Games and now it's growing at Fort Stewart.
Henao is a Unit Supply Specialist who came to the Fort Stewart Warrior Transition Battalion after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament and developing vision issues from a deployment to Saudi Arabia.
Like playing Marco Polo, Henao was looking for a way to return to duty no matter what. He found one thanks to the WTB and was able to keep his Military Occupation Specialty. A challenging event like water polo keeps him guided in the right direction.
"[Water polo] certainly motivated me to be a better swimmer, plus the low impact aided in recovery of my knee post-operatively."
Adaptive Reconditioning Coordinators at Fort Stewart make this a regular event because the high intensity, low impact team sport, is great for the Soldiers to socialize and increase their physical activity. At the end of the hour, all the participants expressed how much they enjoyed the group and could not wait to play again.
In the most playful of ways, at the end of the day Henao laughed and said, "It's the most fun I have had in a pool without drowning."
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