California Polo Club to Host Arena Championship
By Alex Webbe
The California Polo Club in the Los Angeles suburban Lakeview Terrace setting will be hosting the 2009 USPA Arena Polo Championship on Saturday, November 7 at 3 pm. Limited to only two teams, the cup will be a step toward returning the West Coast’s arena polo supremacy in the 15-goal competition.
“There was a time when we had no trouble fielding teams in the 18020 goal range,” said Rodney Fragodt, co-founder of the California Polo Club, “but this year we were rushed into getting some top competitors into the arena in a relatively short period of time.”
Fragodt recalls the days when the Los Angeles Polo Center had a playing membership of over a hundred players and schools and clinics being offered all week long. Those were the days when professional polo offered 24-goal polo; when 9-goalers were in abundance and when the USPA acknowledged the talents of California-based Joe Henderson, who became only the third 10-goal player in arena polo history.
“The arena game offers spectators an up close and personal look at the game of polo,” Fragodt offered. “It brings the action right into the laps of the fans. The action is non-stop and the contact is constant,” he added.
The championship match will feature two of the West Coast’s top arena players in 7-goaler Billy Sheldon and 6-goaler Domingo Questel, and will mark the beginning of a California Polo Club tradition to present top flight arena polo competition to the sporting community.
The 2009 USPA Arena Championship teams:
Team Oldman/Cooley Team Lender Support Systems, Inc.
Domingo Questel 6 Billy Sheldon 7
Manuel Questel 4 Carlos Galindo 6
Ardisher Radpour 4 Cary Burch 2
14 15
Attendance at the championship match is free and open to the public. A VIP dinner is being offered during the Championship match is $25 per person and by reservation only (call Leo Conzenza at 888-533-2333 for information and reservations).
The California Polo Club was founded in 1995 and is an active member of the United States Polo Association. In an effort to make the thrill of polo accessible to its guests, students and members, the club is dedicated to providing top instruction and varied levels of competition to the residents of the greater Los Angeles area.