Dear readers, after a year of silence, UWR.ZONE is updated again!

Last year we got a Thursday evening session at Duna Aréna, but half of the summer season was off due to the FINA tournaments. As the fall came, and the pools closed due to the economic crisis in Hungary, we were down to weekly one session again on Saturdays. There were no Nationals in 2022, but we participated in the renewed BPCUP. At the end of 2022, I complained that it’s yet another year with the Mayfly-Dolphins team having weekly 3 sessions and us having Saturdays only, we definitely need a more fair arrangement of training opportunities. Furthermore, the state aid was again distributed in a 100% vs 0% manner between the two teams. I actually had a whole lot of complaints, I do think the UWR “committee” only grooms one team, the “national” Mayfly-Dolphins, and don’t understand how the federation can be OK with this for years.

The limited training opportunities and the constant fight for recognition did chip into my motivation I guess, and we were becoming a weekend-team with no goals other than playing and having a fun time. Regardless of how nice this sounds, it’s a slow end for a small team like ours and I knew that. Too many things to tackle, and I’ve felt overwhelmed again and ditched all of our plans to improve The Current and Hungarian UWR. The team’s got my back and we chased the ball every weekend and that was enough for me.   

Then Somogyi Andris passed away. Amazing player, amazing person. He was our opponent, but also a friend like he was one of us as well. We stood in grief and disbelief at the Aréna and I thought this kid was so nice that he always united our divided community. It was a wake-up call, no, a wake-up scream, that our time is limited, and we have things to do.

Hungarian UWR is shaped by us, it is our responsibility to play the best and the most Underwater Rugby possible, if not for others, then for ourselves.