PTF MALE INTERCOLLEGIATE PLAYER OF THE YEAR Morgan Palacios Cornell University
Polo
has transformed my life in a variety of ways. I am extremely fortunate to have spent over half of my life participating in this amazing sport and enjoying the community that surrounds it. I have been around horses since before I could walk; however, I wasn’t introduced to polo until I was twelve. Growing up I played a variety of sports, but polo captured my heart and became my passion. The connection with the horses and teammates were reasons why I became engulfed in polo. The dedication polo players have and put into their horses has encouraged me to never stop learning how I can improve myself and my horses. My polo adventure began with a ball, a mallet, and a wooden horse. As a twelve-year-old, I had a hard time choosing one sport. I drifted away from fox hunting and jumping to play other sports. Fortunately, I was introduced to the wooden horse which led me to polo. My family was visiting Kelly Wells at Marlan Farm to look at a horse for my younger brother, Taylor. While he was riding, I noticed a strange cage on the side of the arena. I was eager to investigate this odd-looking wooden horse and Kelly said I could try it out. I spent the next hour or two hitting the ball in the cage. I was immediately hooked and couldn’t wait to try this on a horse. The thrill and challenge of trying to hit a ball from five feet above, accompanied by my imagination running wild with thoughts of being able to do this on a real horse sparked my early infatuation with polo. As my interest in the sport grew, my family searched for an instructor to take us to the next level. A family friend mentioned an instructor, Mario Dino, in Saratoga, New York, which was not far from my home. Taylor and I began taking lessons with Mario in exchange for cleaning tack, doing chores, and tacking horses for other lessons. Mario profoundly changed my polo experience. He is one of the most inspirational people I know. From the moment I met him, I could tell there was an infectious positivity about him. Following these initial lessons, he agreed to be our interscholastic coach. We created an interscholastic polo team under Skidmore’s Polo program called EPIC. One of qualities that stood out the most with Mario was his immediate commitment to be the best coach he could be. I remember he downloaded all the top coaching books to listen to in order to coach us to the
“Polo captured my heart and became my passion.”
best of his ability. I’m grateful for this dedication as it became apparent in his coaching style. Instead of yelling constantly from the sidelines or speaking negatively about our plays, he would simply call the team or a single player to the corner and have a quick conversation about improvement or strategy changes. Mario focused on the positives and supported me and my team without regard for the score. Along with his coaching style, Mario never failed to include some polo wisdom from his experiences of working in polo all over the world. Mario shaped my early polo career by providing me with a solid foundation of polo and sportsmanship. When it came time to explore colleges, I was in search of a school that had an intercollegiate polo program that would further my development as a player. I was looking forward to all the opportunities, people, and horses associated with collegiate polo. Cornell was my top choice and where I chose to attend. The coaches in my college career were beneficial to my later accomplishments in intercollegiate polo. David Eldredge assisted me in transitioning from the interscholastic level to the intercollegiate level by pushing me to improve one thing at every practice. Following his departure, Branden Van Loon brought a different coaching style to the program. He provided new methods of learning that allowed me to perfect my skills in the arena and excel as a player. Intercollegiate polo gave me a family while I was away from home. I could always count on my teammates to be there for me on and off the field. The upperclassmen on the team had a welcoming nature that helped me adjust to college life. There were no other people I would have spent my time with; you could always run into a teammate on campus or find a study buddy in the library. My teammates were always there for me when I needed a friend to study with, catch a ride to the barn, or help dealing with schoolwork. This legacy was important to me and I worked to carry it on through my college career and beyond. Graduating last year was one of the hardest experiences. On top of my I/I career coming to a close, we couldn’t experience Intercollegiate Nationals due to the pandemic. These years will always live on in my memories and propel me forward to always be a part of this program as I grow older. I/I MAGAZINE - 2021
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