Balancing act

When one thinks of the sport of polo, you might associate it with the so-called ‘one per cent’ – and, to be honest, I once did too. However, what I’ve experienced over the past two years playing interscholastic polo has been the antithesis of this preconceived notion. Played in a dirt arena more the size of a hockey rink than an outdoor field, the game is a high-contact physical battle of three against three. The distinguishing feature is that the games are all played split-string, with no fancy ponies, so you need to be able to get on anything you tack up and then go out and play. It’s a true test of rider and player that evens out the competition and takes away the benefit of who has the quicker or handier horse. Polo – more specifically interscholastic arena polo – has been an eye-opening experience for me, as it has taken me places and introduced me to people I would otherwise never have had the opportunity to meet or play with.

Born and bred in New York City, I grew up in a family in which neither of my parents rode. I came across horseback riding at the age of

seven, while visiting a family friend who summers on a bucolic island between the North and South Forks of Long Island. From ages eight to 13, I competed as a jumper. Following a day of showing at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, I decided to take a polo lesson with Michael Matz. I was hooked. Polo combined my love of horses with the aggressive, high-speed nature of a contact sport. The next summer, I quit competitive jumping in pursuit of this team-oriented game. About a year and a half later, I joined an interscholastic high-school polo team by the name of Country Farms in Medford, New York. Each member of the team comes from a completely different background. One of my teammates, John Vasquez, grew up in a riding

The Country Farms team at the 2016 National finals in Texas (from left): John Vasquez, Jed Cogan, Stavros Lampkos (substitute) and Chris Jordan

family. My other starting teammate, Chris Jordan, is a fellow city-boy, born and raised in Queens. Other than living in the same area, the three of us share few commonalities. However, our mutual love for polo brought us together and eventually led us to successes that we never could have imagined or achieved on our own. Our coach, Bob Ceparano, was tasked with reining in our teenage minds and teaching us the arena game with the hope of creating a successful team.

Across the United States and Canada, there are 44 Interscholastic Open teams made up of both young men and women, as well as 27 girls’ teams, spread across four geographic divisions. All told, some 300 high-school students compete from September through March to win the USPA Division and National championships. Beginner’s luck is what I believe brought us to the Nationals in my first year on the team, as we were chosen as a wildcard entry following our close defeat at the Regionals to a team based in Toronto. After our defeat in the first round of the 2014-2015 Nationals, the three of us vowed to come back stronger and better the following season. We spent our summers practising religiously – Chris in Texas, John in Georgia, and me in Long Island. Our hard work paid off this season, as we were undefeated in our division coming into the Regional Championship against our rivals from Toronto.

Riding on our momentum and heading to the University of Connecticut arena, we dominated our first game and were set to have a rematch in the finals with the team we’d lost to the previous year. The final game was a close back-and-forth match against Toronto, where we jumped to an early lead in the first half, only to give some of that lead back in the third chukka. We cemented the match in the fourth and final chukka. For the first time in many years, a Country Farms team was the Northeast Regional Champion. John and I won tournament all-star awards, and Chris played his best game all season.

Unfortunately, our fairy-tale season came to an end at the National finals at the ERG arena in Brookshire, Texas. Competing against a strong team from the Western division, we were down by only one goal at the half. But we couldn’t close the gap and our season ended with a three-goal defeat. While this wasn’t the ending we’d worked to achieve, the bonds formed by our two seasons playing together remain, and we look forward to playing with – or against – each other in the intercollegiate game in the years ahead.

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