When one thinks of Italy, they probably imagine the historical landmarks and art of the Renaissance, the exquisite food, and the unique culture. Water polo may not be the first picture to cross the mind, but the town of Bogliasco is home to the Rari Nantes Bogaliasco, an accomplished water polo club with a 1A ranking in European Water Polo.

This is where local 15 year old Estevan Shark, Taeghen Hack, spent 10 days in February, honing her skills along with the rest of her U19 colleagues on Team Saskatchewan, as well as American competitors.

"It was pretty exciting, actually. It was my first time going to Europe. We went for cross training with the Italian team there, we did training in the morning and then we would do scrimmages at night with them. It was a new experience to see how they played. It was pretty fun there," she said.

"I feel like I became a stronger, more knowledged player."

That said, Hack expressed that there were challenges to overcome as she took in all the information given.

"It was hard to speak to them sometimes. Like, if we wanted to talk to them after practices, it was hard because they all spoke Italian. One girl spoke french, so that's kind of how we all communicated with each other. But they were nice people, they were all super funny. They were energetic actually, that's how I would describe them."

In their off time, Hack added that they were able to explore the area and play the role of tourist.

Hack has been a member of Team Sask for five years, competing in the U16 and U19 National Championship League, and has raked in the medals in competitions across the country.