For Jackson Schaefer, an upcoming trip to Serbia could be the first step to achieving what his late father aspired to be - an Olympian.

Jackson, a 6-2 Grade 10 student at New Westminster Secondary School, was recently selected to Canada's first-ever 16-and-under boys' national water polo team.

The Canadian boys travelled to the Balkan country in the first week of August to train with the Serbian national youth team before taking part in a 10-team international tournament in the capital of Belgrade.

Jackson's father, Ron, represented Canada on the senior national team in 1979, helping his country win its first-ever medal, a bronze, at the Pan American Games.

A year later, Ron was denied an opportunity to take part at the Olympic Games when Western countries boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow.

Ron passed away suddenly five years ago from a heart attack.

"(My father) never got to go the Olympics, and I hope one day I can go to the Olympics. I just want to be one of the best in the country," Jackson said, adding he wants to help Canada continue to develop into a dominant player on the world stage as well. "I think that is what this Team Canada is all about - to keep us moving up the rankings in world water polo."

Jackson, 14, has been steadily moving up the water polo depth charts since he stopped swimming competitively with the Hyack Swim Club at the age of nine in order to take up the sport.

Last year, he went to the cadet nationals as the youngest bantam-aged player on the provincial squad and had a strong individual outing against a team from Calgary, scoring three times against the older and stronger boys.

"He's not scared. He played well above expectations at the nationals last year," said his Fraser Valley Water Polo Club coach, Kevin Mitchell, who competed on the national men's team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"He's a very hard worker. He loves the sport and he listens. He's coordinated and he's got a good feel for the water," Mitchell said. "He has potential to make the Olympic team program."

That is likely music to Jackson's ears.

He was a little surprised to have been initially selected to a 30-player Western squad after attending national team tryouts in Surrey at the beginning of the year.

At the club nationals in Regina in May, Jackson got an added boost when, following the competition at an East/West team camp, he was named to the 20-member Canadian travelling team to Serbia, despite his club team's 12th-place showing.

"I just think I played a strong camp and did well in swimming and they wanted me on the team, and I'm happy with that," he said.

So, too, is his mother Karen.

Karen is the current president of the Fraser Valley club and is carrying on her late husband's legacy by giving back to the sport he loved.

Later this year, the Fraser Valley club will hold its second annual Bigger than Big memorial water polo tournament in memory of Ron.

The proceeds of the u-16 men's tournament wll provide bursaries to support young amateur water polo players in financial need.

It's her way of giving back says Karen.

"(Ron) just wanted to keep kids in the water. It was one of his passions. It was how we met," she said. "He told me that I was one of the best things that came out of water polo."