WATER POLO: GB captaincy the ultimate honour for Rotherham Metro's Henry Jackson

And, says the teenager, the honour is a dream come true.

Henry, who plays for Rotherham Metro, has been part of the national academy set-up for four or five years.

He’s impressed with his leadership skills as well as his ball skills, making him a natural choice to lead Great Britain U19s into battle at next year’s big event.

“It’s amazing,” said Henry. “You dream about it as a kid, being in a sport at the top level. You always want to play for your country but that added dream of captaining and leading your country out is just amazing.

“To know I am going to experience that is exciting.”

Henry, a member of Metro for nine years, comes from a family of water polo lovers.

His older brother, George, represented GB and his sister, Emma, played for England. His mum, Kate, played for Metro many years ago and two of his uncles are still involved in the sport.

“I’ve grown up around the National Academy set-up,” added Henry. “My brother and sister being in it and me being in it from a young age has helped me understand how it works and what you need to do to get a high level and how much effort and work you need to put in to be at the top.

“We have a stronger team than previous years. Our coaching staff is very good and we have a talented set of players so I think we’ve got a good chance at the Europeans."

Henry and his team-mates are working towards the European Championship qualifiers next match and before then they will get match practice with competitions in Barcelona in September and Brno, in the Czech Republic, in December.

The group originally started with 40 kids from around the country. Numbers have been slowly trimmed down. They are currently running at 25 but will be dropping to around 18 after Barcelona, with the final 13 going decided on just before the European competition.

Henry plays wing and centre-back in the team and, in defence, is in a great position to make calls and control the game.

Although his dad, James, is the team manager, the youngster has been handed the captaincy purely on merit and is highly valued by GB head coach Tim Dunsbee.

“I don’t get involved in any of Henry’s reviews,” said James.

“Being his team manager, I keep him at arm’s length so that there are no accusations of favouritism or nepotism.

“Tim says Henry is the most rounded player and the ear of the other players and that it would be wrong not to select him because he would be the best candidate.

“He had to work twice as hard as anybody else to get that captaincy position and we are all really proud of him.”