Meet the Players

Mischa is a senior research professor for electrical engineering at the Florida State University’s Center for Advanced Power Systems. He was born 1966 in Vienna, Austria where in 1987 he took a scuba course and so learned about underwater rugby. He was immediately fascinated by this 3-dimensional sport, as it not only requires physical strength and breath-holding stamina but equally so forces the players to quick thinking, since tactical decisions have to me made constantly throughout the game.

Mischa also learned a lot about true team spirit as the players underwater rely on the players on the surface to quickly come down to relieve them, even if everyone is out of air. Between 1988 and 1990, Mischa played three national championships in Austria, where his team landed third place every year. He continued to regularly train in Vienna and play the occasional tournament. In 1997 he started to train with the team in Zurich, Switzerland, where he worked on his PhD until the end of 2000.

In 2001, Mischa and his wife, Maria, moved to Tallahassee, FL. At that time, only two other UWR teams existed in the US. In April 2019, after 18 years of break from UWR, Mischa, Maria, and Joerg, a new friend they made at a local dive shop, started a UWR team in Tallahassee. The team grew well until March 2020 when COVID-19 forced a year-long break. In April 2021, the team resumed training and recruited many new talents. On Oct 1, 2021 the club officially formed as Tallahassee Tarpon Underwater Rugby Club (TTURC) with Mischa serving as club president. In mid-Nov, Mischa, Maria and 5 additional TTURC teammates went to Denver, CO, to play in the US UWR Nationals where they joined forces with the Washington DC Devilrays and came in 5th out of 8.

Hi, I'm Aoife (pronounced EEFA), and I am a Psychology and Social Work student at Florida State University. When I first began UWR, I had never snorkeled or even swam to depths of ~10 feet. With the guidance of my team members and our leaders, I learned to challenge my body and mind, and overcome some of my fears about swimming. UWR has been an incredible opportunity to push myself, while joining a community that has become my family away from home. I hope to watch this community grow and continue offering its support, expertise, and fun to prospective players.

Keith Mille joined TTURC in January 2020. As an avid SCUBA diver Keith was excited to learn the sport and quickly enjoyed the overall cardio work out and breath-hold exercises. One aspect of underwater rugby (UWR) Keith finds most fascinating is the three-dimensional nature of the play. Swimming upside down across the bottom of the pool was one fun skill Keith learned early on to keep a better eye on opposing players from above!

Living in Tallahassee, Keith is also an experienced cave diver, and one distinct difference Keith noticed between UWR and cave diving, is that in cave diving swimming underwater is very calm and slow (so as to carefully move through cave systems with minimal disturbance to cave walls or silty floors). UWR on the other hand is incredibly fast moving with quick decisions, and Keith quickly learned - slower is not better as it is in cave diving! Keith’s breath holding has dramatically improved during his time with the club, and he continues to work on improving his underwater skills, learning new tips and tricks from teammates nearly every practice and Keith looks forward to the possibility of future UWR tournaments across Florida!

I started playing underwater rugby in college, back in 1997. Goalie was a position that came naturally to me. Our team was part of a league, and we also attended several tournaments. I learned diving at the same club later. I left Germany after a couple of years of playing, and have been looking to find a local rugby team ever since.

It was by mere chance that I met Mischa and Maria in 2019. They had played UWR in Austria. We each had considered starting a rugby team in Tallahassee, and now found that, if we combined our skills and efforts, we might have a chance to pull it off – and here we are!

To read more about Joerg's expertise and background in UWR and scuba, check out his blog column, Learn to Breathe with Joerg!

Hi, I'm Caden and I've been playing UWR for almost two years now. I'be been a part of the Tallahassee Tarpon from the start, getting to see and take part in the beginnings of our club. We've recently grown up to the point of doing tournaments, including our most recent participation in the U.S. Nationals in Denver. I love just how unique UWR is, being one of the only sports that's truly three-dimensional. Not only do you have to be cognizant of the people behind and in front of you in the water, but also above and below. Pretty cool stuff. I'm beyond excited to watch the team grow larger and larger, welcoming people of all shapes and sizes, with hopes that someday soon we'll have the most active members in the country. Go Tarpon!

I began playing UWR in July 2022. I’ve always been a “water baby” so to speak because I love anything water related. I’ve been scuba diving for 30+ years and have been a scuba instructor for over 20 years specializing in cave diving instruction. UWR intrigued me and I quickly became addicted to the cardiovascular exercise and the competitive aspect of the sport. It took me some time to get accustomed to the breath holding and fast paced swimming, but everyone was so patient and eager to help me improve. The team members have become like family, and I am honored to a part of this great team.

Maria is a veterinarian technician at Forgotten Coast Animal hospital in Wakulla County, FL. She was born 1967 in Marchegg, Austria, where in 1993 her soon to be husband Mischa introduced her to underwater rugby. While she never went as deep into this sport as Mischa did in those years, she went all in when the Tallahassee team formed in 2019. Not only is Maria a highly valuable teammate during play, she also serves as the treasurer of the Tallahassee Tarpon Underwater Rugby Club (TTURC) and is our dear “mother hen” of the cub.

I started playing UWR in 2019. As a scuba diver, playing an underwater sport translated well. I just had to remember not to breathe from my snorkel when I was at the bottom of the pool! On my very first day, very first play, I scored a goal by just barreling through everyone, which earned me the nickname the “pool dozer.” From there, I have worked on my stamina and breath-holding, which had limited me at first as a player. However, the moment that broke through the wall of breath-holding was when our coach Mischa said: “your team needs you!”. Now it seems like breathing is a second thought when we are playing. When I first started playing, I played the forward position, but since playing in the national tournament in Denver, I have been giving the defense position a try.