Picking Up Polo
Two barrington High School Students Learn Polo
Whether you’ve been in Barrington all your life, or for only a few hours, one thing is easy to tell: it’s a horse town. From the high school mascots – the Broncos and Fillies – to the once grand and now closed Barn of Barrington Restaurant, to the subdivisions named “Steeplechase” and “Hillshire,” the equestrian influence abounds. This special appreciation for horses began more than 100 years ago, when wealthy businessmen from Chicago began constructing large equestrian estates in what is now Barrington Hills.
Today, the affinity for horses continues to thrive, even among the younger generations. At Barrington High School, recreational riding, and even competitive jumping, remain favorite hobbies for many students. In fact, horseback riding is so popular that it’s almost commonplace. “It’s not really that big of a deal if someone says they ride horses,” senior varsity soccer player Nikko Maher said, “because a lot of people around here are known to own and ride them. If they went to another school, they might stick out a little more.”
Despite the considerable number of horseback riders at the high school, the audience for Barrington’s horse-related “contact sport” variant, polo, is sparse. The number of polo players at Barrington High School sits at two: sophomore Colin Schorsch, and senior Chris Wessel. Both boys are members of the Barrington Hills Polo Club, and products of this club’s nationally-recognized polo school.
The Barrington Hills Polo Club has had a place in the Barrington community since its founding in 1988. For 22 years the club has managed to keep nearly all of its members as amateurs – an increasingly rare phenomenon amid the sport’s changing professional landscape. The club’s president, John Rosene, explained: “A lot of the polo in the Chicago area is becoming Pro-Am, which is where wealthy horse owners go out and hire professionals to play with them on private estates. That’s not what we do,” he said.
Rather, the Barrington Hills Polo Club is the antithesis of what the Pro-Am movement is all about. Dismissing the “stuck-up rich sport” stereotype that polo is so often associated with, the Barrington Hills Polo Club is as egalitarian as it gets. The club’s polo school, which begins each spring, “Is open to anybody,” said Rosene. “We have absolutely no requirement standards. We’ll take anybody willing to sit on a horse – whether they’ve been on one before or not – and we’ll teach them how to play polo.”
The school was created in 1990 and has since been defining the club’s mission. “What separates us from everyone else” says Rosene “is that very few clubs anywhere go out and find beginners and make it affordable and fun for them. We know how to do that,” he said.
The idea for a school started as an effort to bring some fresh faces to the club. The initiative worked, though many of the beginner members were in their thirties and forties. “One of the most difficult things we’ve found is attracting youngsters into the program,” said Rosene. “Part of it is that you’ve got so many other activities kids are doing, and if they’re not already into horses, it’s hard to get them into it. Then you reach a certain age when you have to start college and a career. So it becomes difficult for many young people to make a commitment to polo.”
Players range in age from 14 to 80, a figure that doesn’t seem to bother either Chris or Colin. Nor should it. “We are a very friendly club,” said Rosene, “and they are both great kids, they’re always helping out and giving us older people a hand,” he laughed.
Both Colin and Chris graduated from the polo school last spring and have become talented players. Being the youngest players in the club, and the only polo players at their high school of more than 3,000 students, Colin and Chris bring unique perspectives to all that they do and tell fascinating stories about horses, polo, and school. Their unique sport sets them apart, yet ultimately, it connects them to family, friends, and their community through the people they meet and the lessons they learn.
Colin Schorsch (Sophomore)
Colin discovered polo through an article in a magazine—and not just any magazine—Quintessential Barrington. “I remember reading an article about polo, and it mentioned how you were on really fast horses,” said Colin. Fast horses was enough to spark Colin’s interest, as he had a desire for speed after riding lackluster school horses beginning with riding lessons at age seven. “I remember thinking ‘Wow, that sounds pretty cool.’ So, I told my parents about it, and they called up John Rosene.”
Rosene welcomed Colin into the club with open arms, and in a few weeks had him learning the basics at the club’s polo school. A year later, Colin is playing on a different level. At our impromptu photo shoot at the club’s sprawling “Grass Field” in Barrington Hills, Colin looked like he belonged at the Polo World Cup. Dressed in his white Barrington Hills Polo Club shirt and matching riding pants, Colin would fly full speed down the field, make perfect contact with the small polo ball (not much larger than a baseball), and send a searing line drive 20 meters ahead of him.
“Colin has really come a long way,” said Rosene. Despite our low-key photo shoot, Colin’s passion for the sport of polo was clear for all to see. Perhaps even more evident was his fearlessness. “You gotta have guts, that’s for sure,” said Colin. “You gotta be tough, and you gotta have stamina.” Playing polo, Colin says, has taught him to just go for it – an attitude he carries on the field and off.
Apart from polo, Colin is a musician, playing both the cello and the piano, and was selected to play cello with Yo Yo Ma recently. He loves listening to classic rock, with the Beatles and AC/DC as two favorites. He also enjoys soundtracks from movies like the “Dark Knight” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” But Colin not only enjoys listening to the booming sounds of perfectly orchestrated movie soundtracks, he likes to play them.
When asked how he learned them he said, “Nobody really taught me; I just listened to the first few notes and could figure it out from there.” That kind of musical talent is hard to come by, which is why Colin plays an important role in the orchestra at Barrington High School, and the Chicago Institute of Music – a spot he auditioned for and made, “just for some extra music practice.” Colin is also an outdoorsman, and likes fishing when his busy schedule between music, school, and polo allows. He may only be a freshman, but Colin is already thinking about where is future may lie. “I’ve been looking for a college that has a polo team,” he said. Colin has plenty of time to think about it, and he knows that. For now, he is happy with where he is, and the great polo club he has in Barrington Hills.
“I’ve made a lot of friends here, and a lot of people have been very nice in letting me use their horses.” Being the youngest member of the club doesn’t faze him, although he wishes more high schoolers would join. “For a lot of people, the first thing they think of polo is England and snobby rich people, but that’s not what it is,” Colin said. “A lot of people are into football and hockey and stuff, but we’re into polo.”
Chris Wessel (Senior)
Chris Wessel was riding horses before he was born. “My mom took me riding when I was in her belly,” Chris laughs, “probably not the best thing.” To say Chris started riding at an early age is an understatement. When he was 2 or 3, his mom had him riding in front of her on the saddle, and by age 5, Chris held the reins on his own miniature Shetland pony. Similar to how she got him started with horses, Chris admitted (with a twinge of embarrassment) that his mom was the main reason he started polo.
“Mr. Rosene (Barrington Hills Polo Club President) and my mom are good friends,” he said, “and Mr. Rosene was persistent in getting me to join the club, so last year my mom pretty much got me to do the polo school.” A little push from mom can sometimes be a good thing Chris found out.
“I didn’t really want to do it at first, but as soon as I got on the horse, it was completely different. The horses are a lot faster and a lot more precise,” he said. “They are just so perfectly trained, it’s incredible.” After graduating the polo school, Chris became a full member of the club. “You get a really good mix of generations,” Chris said about the varying ages of the club members. “You learn a lot about people.” Chris has also learned a lot about himself through polo. A while back, he was playing a game at the club’s sand arena in Wauconda, and the other team’s best player had the ball. “I was too afraid to go after him, because if I did, I thought he would just move on and score,” Chris said. “After the game a teammate came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you should really go after him because even if you miss, you tried.’” Chris took the advice to heart, and has learned. “Even if you know you can’t do something, at least go for it and do it. ‘Cause you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Outside of polo, Chris’ interests vary from the occasional round golf to disassembling his “motorbike” as he refers to it. “I have a Kawasaki 230-TTR.
I like to ride it, but I also fiddle around with the engine and stuff.” Laughing, he said “I don’t like to get too into it because I’m scared I’m gonna break it.” Nonetheless, Chris loves analyzing and solving problems, a characteristic that he hopes one day might help land him a job in the field of engineering. “I’m in an engineering class right now,” Chris said. “It’s a pretty cool class, even though there’s a lot of busy work that I’m pretty sure real engineers don’t need to do.”
Between his engineering work, and other classes, Chris still finds time for polo, and enjoys coming out to the “Grass Field” after school. In fact, one of his best polo memories took place there. “I remember we were all filming a commercial out there, and we had all the club members line up and race down the field. Mr. Rosene was riding next to us in his car and his speedometer said 45 mph. That was pretty cool,” he said.
Chris’s favorite part of polo is the speed of it. “When you’re on a horse you can’t think of anything else except playing polo, cause if you do you’re gonna come off an it’s gonna end badly,” he said. “So it’s relaxing, cause everything else in your life just goes away, and it’s just you and the horse, so you’re focused.”
Chris would really like to play polo in college and is looking for a school with a good polo team and a good engineering program. “That would be the perfect match,” he said.