Board Members:
President - Blake Lucas (Founder) - blakelucas@gmail.com
Vice President - Jim LaTurner
Treasurer - Mike Kuziel
Secretary - Peter Lamar
Captain - TBD
Team Members:
Bill Dolehide - Goal
Matt "Shiney" Krizmanic - Driver
Attila Csutak - Goal/Hole Defense
Scott Johnson - Driver
Mike Kuziel - Driver/Hole Defense
Jim LaTurner - Hole/Hole Defense
Blake Lucas - Hole
Peter Lamar - Driver
Mike Rustemeyer - Driver/Hole
Mike Bergquist - Driver
Matt Broad - Driver
Tom Day - Driver
Richard Gorbett - Driver
Ian Johnson - Driver
Joe Moran - Driver
LIFETIME MEMBER and FORMER CAPTAIN - Kevin Drake
Armada History:
The Armada Water Polo Club started out as a desire to get back in the water by Blake Lucas in 1999. While coaching at Naperville North High School, the need for a summer team for his players to continue to play, Blake started the Naperville Water Polo Club in conjunction with Naperville Central High School and Bill Salentine.
From that beginning, Blake wanted to get back in the water himself, so he devised an adult offshoot of the NWPC called "The Armada." So in August of 2000 the first practice was held at Naperville Central High School on a hot Monday night. For the first couple months of only having only himself or one or two others even showing up, Blake held strong and continued to try to
get the club off the ground. By October of that year, a core of five players started to come to practice consistently. Included in that group were Mike Kuziel, Scott Koval, Kevin Drake, Scott McClow and of course Blake Lucas.
In 2001, the team officially changed the club name to the Armada Water Polo Club and dropped the Naperville Water Polo Club. Over the first couple years an ever increasing group of players began to show up regularly and the club played in its first tournament at Fenwick High School at the Officials Tournament in 2002. The club became a regular in the scope of teams in Chicago over the years and participates in many tournaments throughout the year. As well as switching practices to Waubonsie Valley High School during its open water polo slot, inviting all players, from junior high and above to practice with us. In 2004, the club took a big leap as a team. Two events happened that solidified the club as staple in the western suburbs in the Chicagoland Area. The first was the Inagural Armada Spring Tournament in May. The tournament had six (6) teams at the event and overall the tournament was a success. We had United, Team Chicago, the OC, No Limit, Miami of Ohio in attendance. The second event was the enrollment in the Des Moines Tournament in July. This was the first time the team went outside of Illinois for a tournament. Here in 2008 the team is planning on being in six to seven tournaments, including hosting the third Spring Tournament in June and heading out to Des Moines again.
