Article from Feb 2016[]
- by VICTOR FERNANDES can be reached at 870-1716 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ETNfernandes.
The disappointment of his native Greece (also known as GRE) 
's debilitating economic crisis follows Panos Tzelatis to the pool every day.
He says success in life, like in water polo, begins with accepting ownership of mistakes in order to correct them.
"I hear my friends from Greece blaming everybody else but them. That's wrong," said Tzelatis, who left home for the United States three years ago to continue a career in a sport that's treasured in that Balkan nation but also has faced financial struggles.
Tzelatis settled in Erie about two years ago to lead a new year-round water polo club -- Erie PA Inter Club, or EPIC -- in a city with a rich history in the sport dating back four decades, and a small but promising group of players looking to revive it.
Discipline and desire, blended with a technical and fundamental approach to learning the game, have developed a club that has grown from about a dozen to 50 athletes who aspire to be the future of water polo in Erie.
"After a game or practice, I always think about my wrongdoings, and take responsibility for everything that happened. That's how I make it better," Tzelatis, 55, said.
Rich past in sport[]
Tzelatis never grows tired of being involved in a sport that once provided him with many opportunities in his homeland. For two decades, he trained multiple European and world champions and several Olympians as coach of the national team and major clubs.
Now, this opportunity in Erie provides a more prosperous life for himself and his 16-year-old daughter, Eleni, a junior at McDowell High School.
"I don't see water polo as a job," he said. "I see it as a passion."
"It's his entire life," said club founder and president Jill Behm, of Millcreek Township, whose youngest son, Calvin Behm, a sophomore at Cathedral Prep, is a rising star for his school and the club. "(Tzelatis) can be very intense, and clearly very passionate about water polo. It's a great, great thing for us in the club to be able to find a coach of his caliber that's willing to put down his roots in Erie."
Tzelatis, who first lived with friends in Pittsburgh after leaving Greece, said he was turned down for jobs in water polo for being overqualified. Prospective employers were concerned he soon would leave for better opportunities because of his vast experience.
EPIC, a nonprofit club that formed in August 2014 with about a dozen athletes from Cathedral Prep, Fairview, McDowell and Villa Maria -- the only local high schools with water polo teams -- needed a coach. USA Water Polo officials recommended Tzelatis.
The club, which pays Tzelatis a full-time salary through each family's $250-per-quarter fee, has grown to 50 athletes, including kids from fifth through eighth grades. Players from college programs at Gannon, Mercyhurst, Penn State Behrend, Grove City and Washington & Jefferson, also participate in the offseason. Tzelatis projects enrollment to reach as many as 90 players this summer.
"I love watching kids developing (as players) in front of my eyes," he said. "Day after day they come to the pool and get better. And when they go and play for their schools, I see the appreciation from kids and parents, which is the best feeling in the world."
High school teams benefit[]
High school coaches support the club, because players begin the fall season with experience. Coaches and players haven't enjoyed that luxury since McDowell boys and girls coach David Schultz ran the Presque Isle Water Polo Club in the early 1990s.
"There's no question that a club team is a great boon to high school sports," said Schultz, who runs the Millcreek Swim Team. "The kids that have come out of his club team, they have great skills. They have great game sense, and they're an asset to my program."
Villa Maria senior and EPIC member Kelly Fehr, an all-state first-team selection this past season, has earned an NCAA Division I scholarship to play for Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa., after only three years in water polo.
As more players like Fehr and Behm develop, Tzelatis said, local schools will have more opportunities to add state championships to the titles won by the McDowell boys in 2000 and the Trojans girls in 2004.
"We're on our way," Tzelatis said. "I see it coming."
Greece and his future[]
Tzelatis wants to be an integral part of water polo's continued growth in Erie moving forward. He resides in Erie on an O-1 visa, or what the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services calls a visa issued to individuals with extraordinary abilities. Eleni moved to Erie last September under her father's visa, which expires May 7, 2016, but is in the process of being renewed.
Tzelatis loves Greece. He has family and friends still living there, including his son, Dimitris, 21, a college student and professional water polo player.
"They tell me I'm lucky," he said, "because people there think about losing their job every day."
He said there once were 15 thriving water polo clubs in Greece. Two remain viable today.
"The last club I was working at was dependent on fees from parents," Tzelatis said. "Half of the parents were laid off. They had to choose (between) if they were going to pay the club or go to the supermarket (to buy food)."
He returns to Greece in June, with EPIC members along, for a three-week trip to help his athletes grow in the pool and in life.
"It's going to be an awesome opportunity," Fehr said. They will see where their coach's love for water polo began, and how the sport turned him into a coach who's "having such an impact on these kids (in Erie). ... He has definitely helped me in so many ways," Fehr said.
Tzelatis feels fortunate, because the club has given him a bright future.
"When I ended up here," he said, "I found out there is a lot of talent, and there are really good people around here who embraced me."