Bio


Gabor Toth has 30+ years of experience in water polo with the development and growth focus.

Gabor, a native to Hungary, got his start in water polo with the Cegledi Vasutas Sport Egyesulet (CVSE), and spent most of his developmental years in CVSE. He came from a family where both of his parents were coaches and it was not a surprise that he started to coach too.

When he came to Canada he started to get involved in water polo as a referee and a player, and later started to coach until he went back to Europe. In Europe, he played and refereed in Hungary and England and coached a senior team in England (Hitchin Water Polo Club), and helped to set up a development program. When he moved back to Canada he went back to coaching the Surrey Orcas Water Polo Club where he is currently the Head Coach and Club Technical Manager. He originally introduced the idea of school program to the club although he could not accomplish his plan as he moved to Europe.

Gabor was not just a head coach of the club, but he coordinated and ran the Orcas school program and was involved in the club development. He is also member of the referee organization board of BC (called OTG).

Future Goals:

  • Build an all serving club to serve all needs of Surrey residents (recreational, developmental, and high-performance)
  • Create a well developed league system for all ages in the province which supports recreational, developmental and high-performance athletes in a same time
  • Help athletes and their families to achieve their goals in water polo such as NCAA scholarship or playing aboard

Achievements:

  • Highly ranked teams in Lower Mainland Water Polo League
  • A growing school program in Surrey
  • Couple of successfully run, and organized exchange program with Hungarian clubs
  • Structured and organized refereeing in BC
  • UANA Level Referee
  • Successfully started a water polo development program in the Okanagan Region of BC

Laszlo Oravetz represents the Splash Them Sport Inc. in Hungary and supports the Hungarian operation.

Laszlo is an internationally recognized water polo figure. He spent most of his life in aquatic facilities. He has water polo and swimming coaching certification; water polo referee and evaluator certification and experience in organization of international events (LEN European Championship, FINA World Cup, LEN Championship Final 4) and developmental exchange programs.

Professional life
In age of 6 he was introduced to the aquatic world and he swam for the next 15 years. He was part of the Romanian National Swim Team. He switched over to water polo in his early 20’s and played 7 years as a first league water polo player.

Coaching
Besides playing water polo in the top senior level in Arad, he started his coaching career as a development swim and water polo coach. In the late 80’s he moved to Hungary. He started to work the internationally recognized and famous Hungarian developmental club KSI. Just a few names that he coached over 12 years in KSI: Tamas Kasas, Attila Vari, Tamas Marcz, Adam and Barnabas Steinmetz. In 2000, Laszlo changed club and became the developmental Head Coach of Honved, the famous Hungarian club. Under his leadership the born in 1997 team won every event (Hungarian Development League and Cup and tournaments) they attended between 2008 and 2012. In 2011 the Hungarian Government changed the founding model of team sports, so Laszlo had to face a new challenge. He had to reorganize the development side of Honved. He is the founder of the Honved Aquatic Development Club. Under the new club, Laszlo successfully managed 300 athletes’ water polo and synchronize swimming development. Thanks to Laszlo’s international network his athletes were able to attend international events not just in Europe but in Canada and the USA. Laszlo retired from his full time coach and club manager position in October of 2015. Now he fulfills water polo technical advisory rolls in different organization.

Refereeing
While he coached in KSI he also refereed in the Hungarian first league. After his retirement from refereeing he stayed engaged and still attends first and second league water polo games as a delegate/evaluator.

Personal Life
Laszlo is married and a proud father of a son.
He is fluent in Hungarian and Romanian.