Central Coast Polo Club
Sept. 6th & 7th


Playa Grande Team Won The tournament - ( Sam Nichols, Heather Schuberth, and Theo Wakefield)


Central Coast Polo Team (composed of Chris Maglio, Francesca Finato, and Bill Carter switching with Megan Towle).

 The Central Coast Polo Club, located in San Luis Obispo, California hosted its 1st Annual Wine and Cheese Tournament on September 6th & 7th to a large local crowd. The club, which recently moved to a new location, is primarily a stepping stone arena facility. The Club was organized to be a backbone to the local collegiate team from California Polytechnic State University. Located on Los Osos Valley Rd., the club sponsors two collegiate teams, a high school scholastic team, and many adult-student learners. The Tournament was a spotlight on some of the talent the club has attracted, and a chance to get teams from down in Southern California up to visit the beautiful Central Coast.
Saturday kicked off with a student game at 1 p.m. The game, umpired by Theo Wakfield pitted team S. Melgar Interprises (represented by Soni Melgar, Eric Munk, and Robin Shen) against team Arroyo Grande (represented by Rosalie Lebow, Robyn Ramsay, Kirsten Arnold, and Jeff Emrick). Game play flowed very well. After four solid, evenly matched chukkars, Eric Munk made the winning goal with less than 15 seconds left to play, making the final score 5-4. It was Robyn Ramsay with three goals total that gave her the MVP award, and Soni Melgar’s horse “Rosa” that was awarded fresh carrots as the Best Playing Pony.

The championship game, which started around 3 p.m. proved to be very exciting and enjoyable to the spectators was between a strong Playa Grande Team (composed of Sam Nichols, Heather Schuberth, and Theo Wakefield) and a up and coming Central Coast Polo Team (composed of Chris Maglio, Francesca Finato, and Bill Carter switching with Megan Towle). In the first chukkar it was clear the Playa Grande Team had come ready to play, and scored five unanswered goals in the first chukkar. In the second chukkar Francesca Finato, a senior at Cal Poly worked hard to hold then to just four goals and scored one herself. After a quick half-time switch Megan Towle came in to play and put two goals on the board with Playa Grande’s seven. So with a respectable final score of 16-4 the teams shook hands and began to chat about the evening festivities. MVP was given to Heather Schuberth and best playing pony was “Slick” belonging to Bill Carter.

After a fun night on the town in downtown San Luis Obispo the Playa Grande Teams split up for a round robin on Sunday. It was the all girls S. Melgar Team (made up of Moni Melgar, Heather Schuberth, and Megan Towle) that defeated the hung-over Playa Grande Boys Team (made of Theo Wakefield, Eric Munk, and Sam Nichols). The S. Melgar Team then defeated the CCPC Team (Cori Ramsay, Francesca Finato, and Robyn Ramsay splitting with Kirsten Arnold).

Overall the weekend was a blast, and next time everyone wants to come on Friday so they can take their horses down to the beach which is only a hour ride or a three mile haul.