Player Spotlight

Introducing... Nico Pishnery!!! 

It's high time we showcase everyone's favorite teacher! Even though he has no idea when he actually joined the team - he does know why he wanted to join. "I saw people beating people up in the pool at CSU and was all... I WANNA DO THAT!" What we can find evidence of - is that he has been a consistent member since 2012 after spending some time teaching in Peru. He still has held on to (and uses) a good bit of that Spanish learned - both personally and professionally. 

When I first joined the team, they would buddy you up with a person on the opposing squad during a scrimmage and your partner would talk you through the game in real time. I was typically buddied with Nico or Preetha. Preetha would tell me what's going on in the game tell me who to pass the ball to and why, when to shoot, etc. Nico on the other hand would give me a detailed analysis about the latest Honey Boo Boo episode and sometimes other trash TV shows I didn't watched. It didn't help me learn the game, but it certainly kept me coming back! 

His teaching degree (and friendship with Annie P.) allows for a pretty consistent travel schedule. As a member of CWPC - he has attended many travel tournaments even driving a pretty famous (and infamous) team van. What happened to that van according to Nico? "I had to retire the van after too many trips and back seat drivers complaining about the safe driving...." Those far away locations included UNC, Dayton, Atlanta, Cincinnati, just to name a few. But the tournament he really wants to go back to? The internationally hosted Gay Games! (for those that don't know - Cleveland hosted the Gay Games in 2014).  He's already hopped in on a few international practices - including in Munich, Amsterdam, and Croatia.

Nico is a multi tasker. We were site seeing in a super remote area. Nico was driving and all of a sudden he swerved to the other side of the road. There were no potholes or other road obstructions so I inquired. Nico said it was because he was playing Pokémon GO and there was a super rare Pokémon in the road he needed to catch.

Nico has put his heart and soul into CWPC. And even occasionally his body. His eyebrow got split open at a tournament in Akron, pouring blood everywhere. He would often be the first one at practice - starting to set up the pool and bring out the goals by himself. Of course - he's always going to pop out a little early to get some nice hot wings at Merry Arts. When asked his favorite part of CWPC though? Its meeting new people and making new friendships. 

 

Sometime last year, practice was eerily quiet and no one could figure out why until someone pointed out that Nico was missing. We were all so used to his constant screaming;"ooooohhhhs" and "ahhhs"; and general yelling/snarky commentary that it truly left a void. 

In honor of those friendships made -  here's just a small sampling of the friends made along the way. See if you can spot both the current and former CWPC members....

 

 

Thanks for your continued support for the team Nico. Congrats!