Andrew Woodall started out as a promising Fife swimmer.  Now he is a star of Dunfermline Water Polo Club, is Scotland’s top junior player and is looking forward to an exciting year as a member of the GB team. 

Having just returned from successfully representing GB u-19s at the Cluj Invitational Tournament and a training camp in Romania, he now has his sights set on starring for Britain at a major event in Bulgaria in July.  The next shop window for selection will be at a training get together in Cardiff next month.

Looking further ahead, Andrew would love to appear on even bigger stages. However, he is frustrated that water polo has been ditched from this year’s Commonwealth programme – it was due to take place around the same time as the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October – and he has also, rather reluctantly, all but given up hope of a place in the 2012 Olympics.

“In order to make the team I would have had to relocate to Manchester,” explained the 18-year-old, who is in his first year of an accountancy degree at Dundee University. “The Scottish coach, Ian McCallum, did suggest that I transferred to Manchester University at the end of this year. 

“But I would have had to go back to being a first year student and so I’ve pretty well decided against it.

”But I am hopeful that water polo will be on the Commonwealth programme when the Games come to Glasgow in 2014. I think it is due to take place at Tollcross Leisure Centre in Glasgow the month before the Games. I’ll be 23 and it should be a great event and a chance to showcase the sport.”

Twice voted “Scottish Junior Player of the Year” – the latest award was announced last month - Andrew is in no doubt that he made the right choice as regards a water sport.  The switch from swimming to polo came by chance.

“I was training as a swimmer and had mentioned to a friend that I was going to give up,” he explained. 

The friend was Ali Campbell – who is currently on a water polo scholarship in the US – and he persuaded him to join him at the next Dunfermline water polo session. 

“I loved it,” Andrew continued. “Water polo is far better than swimming. As our coach states, it is the ultimate team sport. Everyone has to work together and one mistake can make all the difference. It is also always so different.

“With swimming, I got sick fed up swimming up and down a pool and staring at a line for two hours. Water polo is so much more active.”

Water polo is also known as a somewhat bruising activity, and Andrew does nothing to dispel the image. In fact, he is delighted to confirm the macho status that is tagged to a water polo internationalist. 

“It is pretty rough, and I play the position where it all happens,” he happily acknowledged. “I’m a centre back which is the main defending position and I have to get really involved in all the tough stuff. “

Having moved to Dundee, Andrew now plays and trains with the University side (“It’s good – but not too high a standard”) and he also joins the Menzieshill Club for a couple of training sessions every week.

Fully committed to making it as high as possible in his chosen sport, Andrew is one of Scotland’s young, unsung heroes who works hard at his skill yet gains with little in the way of publicity and receives no financial reward. 

But as the only Scot in the GB Junior team, he certainly deserves recognition. 
 
EB
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