If you pass by U of T’s 50m, Olympic size swimming pool during the week, you may overhear the Blues men’s water polo team yelling out reps in French, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese and Serbian.

The sport-a combination of swimming, football and volleyball-has an international past. It first popped up in the global sports scene when it became the first team sport added to the Olympics in 1900.

Founded in Scotland two decades earlier, rudimentary water polo was played with very crude rules and lead to many fatal injuries. It later flourished in Cold War Europe, where Eastern European countries in particular excelled at the game.

Now, in the era of globalization, the Blues men’s team is a reflection of water polo’s eclectic past.

“This team [of 2003] is the most culturally diverse since water polo first came to U of T in the early 1900’s,” said Blues South African manager Quentin Stossel.

Much like the various elements of the human body, this year’s diverse men’s water polo team is stitched together to create one whole.

The legs of the cultural quilt consists of two parts-an ex-Singapore junior national team member, and a first-generation Jewish-Indian goalie. The goaltender has both competed in the Maccabiah Jewish games in Israel, and played for Maharashtra Western Railways team in Mumbai, India.

The team’s guts come from the left-side drivers: an “Italian Stallion” exchange student from Italy, and a medical student from Kitchener, Ont. whose zinging shot helped win the OUA championship last year.

The team’s brute arms are built up with a Macedonian junior national champion, a pair of Canadian national champs, and a Hungarian-Canadian captain. The team’s heart is pumped from the diverse and deep bench of players hailing from Quebec, Italy, Vietnam, China, Iran, and Canada. Finally, the team’s brain and nerves are networked through the head coach, Som Seif, who is Persian.

The Varsity Blues have started the season off well, beating York last night 10-4. Rookie Jake Pottier led the Blues in scoring with five goals.

It remains to be seen if they can defeat Queen’s when they hit the road this Saturday, Oct. 4.