17
May
2012
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The Perkasie Pirates, in conjunction with American Water Polo, will host a Spring Tune-Up Clinic on June 2 at Pennridge High School's Aquatics Center in Perkasie, Pa. The cost is $30 for athlete, and all athletes must be members of American Water Polo (AWP) to attend this clinic. Please visit www.americanwaterpolo.org to check on or update your membership. If you wish, you may sign up for AWP ($30 annually) when you arrive at the clinic.
Who should attend?
This clinic is designed for the high school water polo
player (currently in grades 8 to 12) who wants to improve their skills and
their success in a team environment, make the most of their summer club season,
and prepare themselves for the fall competitive season. Please act quickly as the clinic participants will be limited to the
first 50 paid registrations.
What should you bring?
Athletes should bring a suit, workout clothes with
athletic shoes, and a towel. Lockers are available, but athletes must provide
their own locks. Athletes must bring or purchase their own lunch off
campus. There is a Giant Foods Store with a deli, Dominos, a café, and an Asian restaurant immediately adjacent to the campus. Sports drinks will be available for purchase at the clinic.
Your coaches are invited:
High school coaches are welcome to attend to observe and share coaching strategies. Coaches should register at no cost by emailing Ken Vincent at kvincent@pennridge.org.
Your parents are invited:
Parents may stay for any or all of the training and may observe the game from the bleachers.
For more information on the clinic, contact Ken Vincent at kvincent@pennridge.org
For a clinic flyer to register, CLICK HERE
13
Apr
2012
2012 UCSB Water Polo Camp Brochure
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- University of California-Santa Barbara head coach and Kap7 founder Wolf Wigo
will offer the 2012 UC-Santa Barbara Water Polo Co-Ed Camp on June 24-28, July
1-5, July 8-12, August 5-9 and August 9-12 to boys and girls as both resident
and day campers.
The
Santa Barbara Water Polo Camp is designed to help prepare your athletes for the
rest of their water polo career. The camp is designed to have a direct
impact on your overall game. While fitness is a key aspect to a great
water polo player our philosophy focuses on fundamental position and ball
skills. Therefore, the camp will combine fitness, both swimming and leg
strength, coupled with an intense review of all fundamental aspects of the
game. From basic defensive position, to drive shooting to 2m "O" to six-vs.-five
shooting to 2m "D" to five-vs.-six base defensive position. The goalie portion of
the camp is run by Olympic goalkeepers Genai Kerr and Craig Wilson and will
focus on goalie specific movement and most importantly leg strength.
World
Class Staff: Santa Barbara Water Polo Camp staff is made up of Olympians, NCAA Division I
coaches, and U.S. National Team Players. Your athlete will be trained by
the top coaches, providing them individualized instruction, evaluation,
competition, and specialized techniques necessary to refine the athlete's
competitive and physical skills.
* Wolf Wigo-Director (3-time Olympian, Pan American Champion, World Champion, Head Coach UCSB
Men's Water Polo)
* Bradley Schumacher (2 time Olympic Gold
Medalist, World and Pan American Champion, Head Coach SET WPC)
* Genai Kerr (2004 USA Olympian)
* Additional
National Team Players and Division I coaches.
04
Oct
2011
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- American Water Polo will present a free Collegiate Water Polo Information Seminar on Saturday, October 8 at Villanova University beginning at 1:00 p.m.
The seminar will be located in the classroom adjacent to the University's pool and is open to water polo athletes interested in
competing in college, whether at the varsity or club level.
Parents are encouraged to attend as well. Space is limited so please RSVP to office@americanwaterpolo.org or by phone to 610‐277‐6787.
Topics covered will include:
• NCAA rules and regulations
• Differences between club and varsity competition
• How to get into college
• Financial Aid myths
• What to say to a coach
• Recruiting Tips
• Q&A
06
Sep
2011
2007 brought us back to the FINA
World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, where the men, now coached by
Ricardo Azevedo, finished in 9th place, while the Gold Medal was won by Croatia
(with Ratko Rudic as coach), Hungary in 2nd and Spain in third place.
Meanwhile, the women returned to the top rung, winning the Gold Medal followed
by Australia and Russia. The attention next turned to the Pan American Games
held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, where the men won the Gold Medal, followed by
Brazil and Canada, and the women also won Gold, followed by Canada and Cuba.
Thus, both teams were qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing, China, was silver laden for the US, with both the men and the women
just narrowly missing the opportunity to make it a God Medal harvest. The men,
now coached by the four-time Olympic veteran Terry Schroeder, fell to Hungary
in a hard fought match, with Serbia taking the Bronze Medal. The women, again
coached by Guy Baker, lost a heart breaker to the Netherlands with Australia
taking the Bronze Medal.
I guess this brings us far enough
along that what has happened following the 2008 Olympic Games is no longer
history, but a current event. When Chuck Hines first asked me to write
this/these article(s), he said to tell what I had seen in water polo over the years
since 1945. It seems I digressed and made this more a history of the US
National and Olympic Teams. I would like to wind this up with a little bit of
my personal opinion. I still love the sport of water polo, but I am not really
happy with the game as it is being played today. It has become too physical and
too stagnated with all of the players in the front court. This leave almost no
room for individual play and has the teams playing not to score so much as
playing to get a player “kicked out” and giving them a man advantage attack.
The “hole-man” who used to be the
center of the attacks on the goal, has been reduced to a person that struggles
and wrestles with the player guarding them. In the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s if the
hole-man and hole-guard stayed in the offensive end of the pool, they did not
guard each other, merely rested in the water next to each other. If the ball
was passed to the hole, the guard did not dare contest the pass unless they had
a clear advantage to the ball. They waited for the hole-man to get the ball and
then they played each other until a shot was taken or a foul called. In today’s
game the hole-man and hole-guard are constantly wrestling, whether the ball is
there, or not. There is not enough time, if the ball is passed to them, to
attack before the other players arrive and set up to pass around the perimeter.
The center is usually fouled, so that he has to pass the ball back out,
nullifying any offensive move. In the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s the center
forward position was the dominating factor for the team. I can remember players
such as Mirko Sandic from Yugoslavia, Svivos and Capo from the great Hungarian
teams of the 1970’s and Mishveradze from the Russian teams of the 1980’s and
Terry Schroeder from the US.
The greatest all-around player I
have ever seen was Tamas Farago from Hungary. He was a physical specimen who
could play any position in the game. I once saw him take a shot in a game when
he was on the right side of the field of play, about 6 meters into his
defensive end of the course. Time was about to expire in the quarter, and
Farago seemed to be the only who realized this. I was sitting on the deck, just
behind where he was positioned. He rose up and shot the ball, which hit the
upper bar in the far left corner of the goal at which he was shooting. From my position
I saw the ball and it never deviated, either up or down, or sideways, between
he and the goal. It was unbelievable. As far as goalies are concerned, the best
I have seen were Muscatiovic from Yugoslavia, Molnar from Hungary, Sharanov
from Russia, Rollan from Spain and Wilson from the US.
Another position that seems to
have disappeared is the sensational attacker. The Russian, Hungarian and
Yugoslavian teams all seemed to have them. These were payers that came in from
the wing, received the ball on the move and came in at the goal with quickness
and were able to shoot the ball from any and all angles. Names that come to
mind are Johnny De Magestries from Italy, Horkai from Hungary, Estiarte from
Spain and Gary Figueroa from the US. All of these great parts of the game have
been removed by the strategy of sending everyone into the offensive end of the
course. I have never been able to figure out why, but the European players seem
to have better “legs” than our players and their transference from vertical to
horizontal is done with a much stronger move. Strange to say, since we grow up
with balls and a hand-eye movement, rather the foot-eye movement of the
Europeans through soccer, but they seem to be better shooters than the US
athletes. When playing a zone defense against a European team, the defensive
team will set their forward line about 2+ meters from the back line. This still
allows a pass in to the post positions from outside, or a shot. With the US,
they set up with 1+ meter between the front and back line, leaving nothing open
but to shoot from the outside. This shows their lack of respect for our
shooting ability.
Another problem is with the
refereeing and the consistent interpretation of the rules. The foul of “to
hold, sink or pull back an opponent who is not holding the ball” at one point
in the 1960’s and 1970’s was explained in the rules as “a corner stone of the
game, as clear and explicit and can only be interpreted in one way.” The words “corner stone” have been removed,
but the rule certainly is not interpreted in only one way. I have always felt
that at major competitions, the management committee should instruct the
referees and the teams that the game shall be called in a specific way and that
if a referee does not officiate in that manner, they will be removed from the
tournament. I have heard this said, but not enforced.
At one time, a rule had been
proposed to reduce the team size to 5 field players and a goalie and the course
size to 25 meters by 17 meters. This was used experimentally by some nations
and the FINA Junior World Championships in Dunkirk was played completely under
these rules. We played an exhibition game at UC, Berkeley, with Russia, using
these rules and the result was very exciting game with lots of scoring and
outstanding individual play. There was room for the hole-man to operate, there
were driving lanes and shooting lanes opened up. However, the proposal was
defeated at the next FINA Congress, supposedly because the coaches were not in
favorite of having to change strategies.
It seems that the coaches always
want to “stretch” the rules, by seeing how far a player can be aggressive
before a foul is called. I believe that the rules are still sufficient to make
the game enjoyable if they are enforced consistently and the coaches, players
and officials are all on the same page. We have shown that we have the ability
to play on a level with the Europeans and the fact that many of our National
Team players are playing professionally in Europe helps overcome the major
advantage that the Europeans have held over the years, that of playing many
more top level games consistently than our players have the opportunity to do.
It is also easier to be a “star” player in Europe and earn a living from it.
This is not always feasible for the US players and the players that devote
themselves to the National Team are to be commended for their dedication and
sacrifice. Another area that has grown over time is the “Masters” programs, both
here and in Europe. This has allowed many players to keep playing for many
years. The FINA World Masters Championships has many of the stars of the 70’s
and 80’s competing. With the World’s this year being in Riccione, Italy, their
concern for the number of teams entering and having enough courses available
(they will have 5 courses and a warm-up pool), they have limited entries to 90
teams total. Our Masters Nationals in the US is second in numbers of teams to
the National Junior Olympics.
I still believe that water polo
has a place in the pantheon of great sports, but it will take all of us working
with the same purpose to make sure that it does not disappear from the sports
scene. I hope you have enjoyed these articles? It has really been a fun thing to
reminisce with myself about the many experiences I have been fortunate enough
to be part of. As I keep going through this, I seem to remember more and more
instances that I would like to write about, but I was asked to just write a
couple of articles, not the complete history of the sport. I always remember a
salutation used by several of the Latin Americans that I have worked with over
the years and would like to close with it.
For the Brotherhood of Sport,
Andy Burke
Editor’s Note by Chuck Hines: Andy Burke built San Francisco. Well,
not quite. But in his profession, his real job, at which he w
orked for
37 years, he provided the City with concrete. It is impossible to tour
San Francisco without seeing some of Andy’s handiwork, including the
Transbay Tube (BART), all 212,000 yards of it. He also has been a super
husband to his wife Carolyn, and together they’ve raised four children,
all boys and all successful. Now 81, Andy, a San Francisco native, and
Carolyn reside in San Carlos, Calif., where they spend as much time as
possible with their 14 grandchildren. Through it all, dating back to his
teenaged years, Andy has been one of water polo’s most avid and
stalwart supporters. In fact, I do not know ANYONE who has contributed
more to the sport over the past 50-60 years than him.
30
Aug
2011
2001 was the start of the new
quadrennial, but also the start of holding the FINA World Championships every
two years with their debut in Fukuoka, Japan.
US Water Polo made a big
departure by hiring a new coach in Ratko Rudic from Yugoslavia, one of the most
successful coaches in the World, who guided Italy to a Gold Medal in Barcelona
in 1992. The men finished in 7th place, with Spain taking the Gold Medal
followed by Yugoslavia and Russia. The women made the Medal Round, but finished
in 4th place behind Italy, Netherlands and Australia. In 2002 it was
back to the familiar FINA Cups, with the men traveling to Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
where they finished in 7th place with Russia winning the Gold Medal
followed by Hungary and Yugoslavia; and the women traveling to Perth,
Australia, with Hungary winning the Gold Medal, USA the Silver and Canada the
Bronze.
Ratko established the Premier League in the United States which had the
main Clubs (New York AC, The Olympic Club, Newport Water Polo and Los Angeles
Water Polo) playing against Zone teams from throughout the US consisting of top college players. Each team, Club and Zone had to have at least 2 high school
athletes on their team and they had a required number of minutes to play in
each game in order to expose them to a higher level of play. I was selected to
serve as Commissioner for the League and worked closely with Ratko to be sure
that the League operated properly.
2003 was the World Championships
in Barcelona, Spain, where the men finished in 6th place while
Hungary was winning the Gold Medal, followed by Italy and the newly formed
Serbia and Montenegro; while the women won the Gold Medal, followed by Italy
and Russia. At the Pan American Games, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic, the men continued on top with the Gold Medal, followed by Brazil and
Canada, thus qualifying us for the Olympic Games. While the women also
qualified by winning the Gold Medal, followed by Canada and Brazil.
2004 was another Olympic Year,
with the Games being held in Athens, Greece. The men finished in 7th place, with Hungary winning the Gold Medal, followed by Serbia and Montenegro,
with Russia in third place. The women won the Bronze Medal, with Netherlands
winning the Gold and Greece the Silver Medal.
In 2005, Ratko Rudic received an
offer to return to his native Croatia to become their Head Coach. US Water Polo
graciously released him from his contract and allowed him to return home. Guy
Baker stepped up and took over the men’s team and led them to the 2005 World
Championships in Montreal, Canada, where they dropped to 11th place;
meanwhile, the women took the Silver Medal, with Hungary in 1st place and Canada in 3rd place.
In 2006, due to their finish in
Montreal, the men did not qualify for the FINA Cup, which was held in Budapest,
Hungary, and was won by Serbia and Montenegro, followed by Hungary and Spain.
The women traveled to Tiajing, China, where they made the Medal Round, but
finished in 4th place behind, Australia, Italy and Russia.
Editor’s Note by Chuck Hines: Andy Burke built San Francisco. Well,
not quite. But in his profession, his real job, at which he worked for
37 years, he provided the City with concrete. It is impossible to tour
San Francisco without seeing some of Andy’s handiwork, including the
Transbay Tube (BART), all 212,000 yards of it. He also has been a super
husband to his wife Carolyn, and together they’ve raised four children,
all boys and all successful. Now 81, Andy, a San Francisco native, and
Carolyn reside in San Carlos, Calif., where they spend as much time as
possible with their 14 grandchildren. Through it all, dating back to his
teenaged years, Andy has been one of water polo’s most avid and
stalwart supporters. In fact, I do not know ANYONE who has contributed
more to the sport over the past 50-60 years than him.
16
Aug
2011
1985 opened up a new era in USA
Water Polo with Bill Barnett, coach at Newport Harbor High School, stepping
into the Head Coaching position vacated by Monte Nitzkowski. Stepping forward
with Bill was Steve Heaston, assistant coach at UC, Berkeley. Bill and Steve
had had a successful run as coaches of the National Junior Team and they would
continue to coach the National Team for the next four years.
The first competition was the
FINA Cup in Duisburg, Germany. The team had three holdovers from the 1984
Olympic Team, Peter Campbell, Kevin Robertson and Terry Schroeder, and a host
of new names. They made a strong showing, finishing in second place.
The highlight for 1986 was the
World Championships in Madrid, Spain. Doug Burke, Jody Campbell and Craig
Wilson from the 1984 team had re-upped and we made it to the medal round, but
finished fourth. 1987 included the FINA
Cup in Thessaloniki, Greece, where we again made the medal round, but again
finished fourth. These Championships marked the first time that women’s water
polo was included as an official event. Our
women played well and finished in third place, behind Australia and Holland. The
Pan Am Games were held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it seemed the home cooking
agreed with the group and we won the Gold Medal, defeating Cuba in the title
game.
The 1988 Olympic Games were held
in Seoul, Korea. I attended the games as one of the US Delegates to the FINA
Congress. Our team again remained strong and ended up facing our 1984 opponent,
Yugoslavia. To do this, we had to defeat Hungary, and Terry Schroeder
accomplished this for us in the final minute of play, scoring to break a tie
score and put us in the medal round with a 10-9 win. In the semifinals, we
handled Russia 8-7, while Yugoslavia was defeating Germany 14-10. The title game
was as hard fought as the one in Los Angeles. However, the rules had been
changed and when the game ended in a tie at 6-6 through regulation, the teams
went to overtime and Yugoslavia outscored us to win the Gold Medal 9-7. This
was a disappointment to the team, but being second best in the world at the
Olympic Games is something of which to be proud. The major event for the women
in 1988 was the FINA Cup, held in Christchurch, New Zealand, where the finish
was Netherlands, Hungary, Canada and USA.
1989 started a new Olympic
Quadrennial with Bill Barnett remaining as Head Coach, but Steve Heaston
retiring. Again, the new year became a changing of the guard with many new
players appearing on the National Team. The FINA Cup was held in Berlin, Germany,
and the US Finished in eighth place. The women’s FINA Cup was held in
Eindhoven, Netherlands, with the finish being Netherlands, USA and Hungary.
Editor’s Note by Chuck Hines: Andy Burke built San Francisco. Well,
not quite. But in his profession, his real job, at which he w
orked for
37 years, he provided the City with concrete. It is impossible to tour
San Francisco without seeing some of Andy’s handiwork, including the
Transbay Tube (BART), all 212,000 yards of it. He also has been a super
husband to his wife Carolyn, and together they’ve raised four children,
all boys and all successful. Now 81, Andy, a San Francisco native, and
Carolyn reside in San Carlos, Calif., where they spend as much time as
possible with their 14 grandchildren. Through it all, dating back to his
teenaged years, Andy has been one of water polo’s most avid and
stalwart supporters. In fact, I do not know ANYONE who has contributed
more to the sport over the past 50-60 years than him.
09
Aug
2011
Chuck Hines enjoyed a 40-year career with the YMCA, specializing in
Aquatics and International Programming. A midwest champion swimmer in
his younger days, he started playing water polo at the age of 25 and
became a 3-time YMCA and Honorable Mention AAU All-American player in
the 1960s. He then coached teams to 10 national YMCA and AAU
championships in the 1970s, mostly in junior competition. He wrote two
instructional books on water polo and served as chairperson of
national water polo committees for the YMCA, AAU, and American Swimming
Coaches Association and as secretary for the U.S.A. Men's Olympic
Team that brought home the bronze medal in '72. His Asheville YMCA
girls team represented the East Coast at the first Women's World Water
Polo Club Championships in '77. Buck Dawson, the executive of the
International Swimming Hall of Fame, once stated in the 1970s
that "Chuck Hines has single-handedly kept water polo going in all
of the U.S. outside of California."
As I write this in August, 2011, we’ve just concluded the 42nd annual
Junior Olympic Water Polo Championships. Held in Orange County, California, the event ran for nine days and
attracted over 500 teams and 6,000 players, ranging from 9- and 10-year-olds to
those who were 20 and 21. While a vast
majority of the teams – probably over 90% -- came from the host state, about 15
other states were represented. The
caliber of play was excellent at every level.
It wasn’t always that way. When
the initial JO Championships were held, it wasn’t in the Golden State and, in
fact, there was no one from California involved. Back in the 1960s, and for many years before
that, water polo and many other sports were governed by the AAU, i.e. the
Amateur Athletic Union, with a helping hand, at least in water polo, from the
YMCA.
The AAU started conducting its
annual Junior Olympic Games, and for a look at the history of this event, which
still exists, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3UjS6t4AS4. I was fortunate to coach a team in another
sport at the 1997 JO Games in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was an exciting experience.
As for water polo, the leaders of this sport decided from the start to
conduct their JO Program separately from the AAU Games, although the sport
remained under AAU jurisdiction. A fellow
named Dave Rivenes from the little town of Miles City, Montana, was elected as
the AAU’s initial JO Water Polo Chair in 1965. I was there at the time – at the AAU Convention – and we all realized
that Dave had a tough sell to make. The
Californians, who were water polo’s leaders then, as now, weren’t interested in
the Junior Olympics. We have our own
programs out here on the West Coast, they said, and the rest of you can do what
you want. Hmmm. Sound familiar?
Dave spent several years trying to drum up interest nationally, and
finally, in 1969, he and Bob Hel-mick and I organized the initial AAU-sanctioned
JO Water Polo Championships at Des Moines, Iowa. Bob Helmick was chair of the AAU men’s water
polo committee, and I was chair of the AAU women’s water polo committee, and
together the three of us managed to get the JOs off the ground. The 1969 event was held in a large outdoor
pool at Des Moines. There was a single
age group, 15-and-under, and the three-day tourney was open to any and all boys’
and girls’ teams that wanted to participate. That we included a girls’ division was special indeed because this was
still three years prior to the passage of Title IX by Congress, and interest in
women’s and girls’ team sports was minimal, to put it mildly.
Ten teams came to Des Moines in
August of 1969, and the final results were as follows: Boys – gold, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; silver,
Des Moines YMCA; bronze, Chicago WPC. Girls – gold, Portland, Oregon; silver, Des Moines YMCA; bronze, Coronado
(Albuquerque), New Mexico.
Our evaluation of the event
deemed it to have been a success, and we were off and running with the JO Water
Polo Program, even though the Californians still showed no interest.
The 1970 Championships were hosted by St. Louis and held in the large
Clayton-Shaw Park outdoor pool. Clayton’s famed coach, Wally Lundt, now a member of the USAWP Hall of
Fame, was the director. His local team
won the boys’ competition over several other entries. On a personal level, I had moved from the
Midwest to my present location in Asheville, North Carolina, and I rounded up
seven girl swim-mers from the Y where I was working, plus one non-swimmer (her
dad was willing to drive), and headed to St. Louis, where we got bombed, losing
to the gold medal team from the Sheridan Swim Club of Quincy, Illinois, and
also to Portland and Des Moines, while tying Albuquerque. We placed last with a record of 0-3-1. Well, when you’re at the bottom, there’s
nowhere to go but up, right?
In 1971, our national Junior Olympic committee decided to conduct
regional tournaments as the AAU was divided into a dozen regions nationally,
along with having 50 state associations. The winning teams – both the boys and the girls – from each region would
qualify to attend the JO Championships. We divided California into two regions, the north and the south, with
each qualifying two teams for the Championships. The hope was that by conducting regional tourneys,
we could develop interest in water polo in various corners of the country, and
it worked, to a point.
The 1971 Championships were conducted at Albuquerque, with Dr. Roy
Goddard and Dick Simmons being the directors. They were two outstanding leaders of the sport at that time. I don’t recall who won the boys’ bracket, but
our much-improved Asheville Y girls brought home the silver medal, losing the
title tilt to Coral Gables, Florida, by 8-to-6, with the hometown girls from
Albuquerque taking third.
The next year it was the Asheville YMCA team that won the girls’
gold. The 1972 Championships were hosted
by the small town of Fremont, Nebraska, a short drive from Omaha, with Gerry
Saunders serving as director. This
marked the first time that the Californians participated. Not surprisingly, their two teams in the
boys’ competition placed first and second, defeating entries from the East,
South, and Mid-west. There was also a
very strong boys’ squad entered from Puerto Rico. In the girls’ category, Asheville, with the
normal seven starters plus a single substitute, age 12, swam past runner-up
Fremont and third-place Albuquerque to grab the gold. Let me use the coach’s prerogative here and
state that one of our Asheville players scored nine goals in the championship
contest. Don’t know if that’s still a
record or not. She’s now a practicing anesthesiologist
here in Asheville, a medium-sized city situated in the lovely mountains of
western North Carolina.
In 1973, the JO Program started showing real growth nationally. As an
example, in our region of the AAU, which encompassed the Carolinas, Georgia,
Kentucky and Tennessee, we now had 10 communities fielding youth teams, and we
(Asheville) had to beat ‘em all in regional action in order to advance to the
Championships, which were held in the nice outdoor pool at Ransom School in
Miami, Florida. I believe ‘Cav’
Cavanaugh was the tournament director. There
were a dozen boys’ teams entered, and the Cali-fornians continued their
dominance in the boys’ bracket. It was
the perennially-powerful Northern Virginia Aquatic club that emerged victorious
in the girls’ category, with Asheville second and the North Dade YMCA team from
Miami taking third. If I remember
correctly, Dayton, Ohio, was the Midwest rep-resentative, and Cerritos, California,
came from the West Coast, with the hosting ladies from Ransom School rounding
out the field in the girls’ competition.
We didn’t attend the 1974 JO Championships as I had taken our
Asheville Y girls on a 15-day trip to play in northern California and Hawaii,
so we missed the JOs which were held at Cerritos, in southern California. It was a combined Cali team from Newport and
Irvine that won the boys’ gold medal, with West Valley, another California
entry, securing the silver and Montclair, New Jersey, the bronze. Albuquerque and Ann Arbor, Michigan and
North Miami were the other boys’ teams entered. As for the girls, well, as hard as it might be to believe nowadays,
there were only a couple of teams competing, with Albuquer-que conquering
Cerritos in the gold medal finale. That
was it – a total of just 10 teams altogether for the boys and the girls combined
when California hosted its first-ever JO Championships.
The number of entries was somewhat higher in 1975 when Toledo, Ohio,
conducted the event. Steve Siford was in
charge. We had 10 boys’ teams and 5
girls’ teams entered. For the boys, it
was California’s Mira Costa and Fremont copping the top two places, with
Lexington, Kentucky, a powerhouse from our region, taking third; and for the
girls, a big, tough team from Tucson, Arizona, having beaten the Califor-nia
clubs and defending champion Albuquerque in regional action, came to Toledo and
stole the show. Asheville was second and
North Miami third.
In 1976 and 1977, Albuquerque and Miami, respectively, each hosted the
JO Championships for the second time. Teams
came to compete from across the country. At the Asheville YMCA, we were con-tinuing to use the JOs as a means of
promoting water polo in our city, state, and region, and we joined the throngs
traveling to Albuquerque (again) in ’76 and Miami (again) in ‘77.
By now the Californians were participating more positively in the JO Program,
and for the first time, a Cali club, Long Beach, took home the gold in the
girls’ category.
In 1978, two important things happened. First, the courts finally started enforcing
Title IX, which had been passed by Congress six years previously. This was a bill stating that all high schools
and colleges that received federal funding – which was almost all of them
nationwide – had to provide equal oppor-tunities for women and girls. Second, the Amateur Sports Act was passed by
Congress in ’78. This was a bill that
enabled each sport, if it wished, to withdraw from the AAU and create its own
governing body. Water polo quickly established
U.S. Water Polo, known nowadays, I guess, as USA Water Polo.
This was a period of turmoil in the sport, which need not be revisited
here, except to say that many of the best AAU and YMCA teams that existed
outside of California dropped out of water polo for various reasons. It was a new era, with U.S. Water Polo
assuming control of the Junior Olympics. Personally, I’d been involved with the JOs from 1969 to 1977 while serving
as chair of the AAU women’s water polo committee and coaching the Asheville Y
girls’ team. Good memories.
Thus the pioneering years of Junior Olympic water polo ended, and for
further historical information on the JOs, from 1978 to the present, I refer
you to USA Water Polo and its archives.
Dave Rivenes of Miles City, Montana, a Pioneer in USA
Sports
It was my privilege to work
with Dave Rivenes through the auspices of the AAU for a dozen years, 1964
through 1976. In the early ‘60s, Dave
and I and a (very) few other coaches in Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, and
California were pushing hard to promote women’s and girls’ water polo. Dave, in Miles City, and I, at the YMCA in
Des Moines, Iowa, organized teams of teen girls in 1963-64. Using a water polo ‘pitch,’ or playing area
built into his local lake, Dave started conducting summer tournaments for both
men/boys and women/girls. In August,
1966, he hosted the AAU’s Junior National Outdoors Champion-ships. We entered two teams from the Des Moines Y
that consisted mostly of teenaged boys, led by my-self and co-coach Bob
Helmick. Our ‘A’ unit copped the competition
for men/boys. A strong squad from San
Leandro, California, coached by Dave Beaver, came and conquered in the category
for women/girls.
After working together for the next few years, Dave and Bob and I conducted
the first-ever AAU-sanctioned Junior Olympic Water Polo Championships at Des
Moines in August, 1969. Dave came from Miles
City with his girls’ team.
There’s more, but my intent in this addendum is to introduce you to
Dave Rivenes and his wife Ella. They
were so prolific at promoting sports that a 1980 article about them appeared in
Sports Illustrated. I urge you to take
time to read this article by looking up ‘Dave Rivenes in Sports Illustrated’ on
Google or any other appropriate search site. There’s also an article about Bob Helmick in
AWP’s Education section.
12
May
2011
First published illustration of an American water polo by T. de Thelstrup, Harper's Weekly Magazine, February 28, 1891
History of the Game up to the 1960s
By Chuck Hines
Known as an outstanding rugby player, Englishman J. L. Mayger found himself struggling to survive when he tried his luck at water polo. The report, dating back to the 1880s, said, “A fierce struggle took place near the Leander goal, which was a heavy pontoon moored against the side of a gunboat. The tide was flowing in that direction, and Mr. Mayger, who was playing for England, was pushed beneath the surface and under the pontoon. The rest of the swimmers, in their frantic efforts to score a goal, prevented him from getting clear. It was only when he was nearly unconscious that his rescue was effected.”
From the very beginning, water polo was a rough, tough game. From what we know, it was in the 1860s in England that various attempts were made to create some kind of ball game in the water that was initially called “water handball.” In 1870, a committee appointed by the London Swimming Association drew up a set of unofficial rules for what they called “water football.” The first semi-official matches to be covered by the media occurred in 1876. A ball from India was used, and as the word for ball in the Indian language was “pulu,” the game was called water ball or water pulu and, eventually, water polo.
A Scotsman named William Wilson is credited with formulating the first official set of rules which were used in Glasgow in 1876 and 1877. The goals could be anything that was handy – boats, floats, flags anchored in the water, the walls at each end of the pool – and the number of players per team varied from three to twelve, with seven being the most common. Some games were played outdoors in lakes and rivers, but as more swimming pools were built, the indoor game gradually became more prevalent. Fi
nally, goals that were eight feet wide and six feet high were suggested, and competition continued in the 1880s and 1890s between club teams from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
It’s generally reported that Englishman John Robinson brought the game to the U.S. in 1888, with the first teams being found in Boston and Providence, RI. Well, maybe not. There’s a beautiful engraving of a water polo game being played in front of a large crowd of spectators in New Orleans in 1881 by players sitting on barrels and using twin-bladed kayak paddles to propel themselves forward and move the ball toward the goals, which were anchored boats. Does this qualify as water polo? You tell me.
Back in the Northeast, a type of game that emphasized underwater wrestling was being developed, quite at odds with the swifter surface-swimming style being promoted by the Brits and other European countries. It was called “softball water polo” as the ball was deflated so it could be taken beneath the surface, where there was grappling, holding, kicking, and everything else. A goal was scored when the ball was placed by hand on a ten-foot-wide by three-foot-high panel attached to the end of the pool. The first U.S. “softball” championships were held indoors in NYC in 1889, with the following results: 1st -Knickerbocker Athletic Club, 2nd - New York Athletic Club, 3rd - Duquesne Aquatics of Pittsburgh, 4th - Brookline Aquatics of Boston, and 5th - Univ. of Pennsylvania. A game played at the New York A.C. in 1890 was reported by the newspaper to involve “the swallowing of tons of water by the participants.” Some games were played to large audiences in Madison Square Garden, and in 1895, the New York A.C. hosted the Chicago A.C. in front of a large crowd and defeated the visitors, 4-to-1 and 2-to-1.
This type of rough subsurface water polo continued to be promoted by the Eastern clubs and was sanctioned, somewhat reluctantly, by the Amateur Athletic Union. The game was controversial, and even Gus Sundstrom, the famed New York A.C. Coach, wrote in his 1901 textbook, “I would advise all clubs to adopt the English version.” Interestingly, it was the women and the YMCA that first took his advice. We’ll discuss the history of the women’s game at a later date, so let me only say now that semi-official women’s competition was started in England and the U.S. in 1901 and 1902, with the ladies playing the surface style. Likewise the YMCA, which had teams playing five-per-side in New York City and Chicago in 1908 and thereafter, utilized the surface-style swimming game. An article in The New York Times, in referring to a Y contest, said “There was little roughness” and “only once was there a protest of the referee’s calls, to no avail.”
Water polo was also being played in the western United States. The San Francisco Call newspaper ran a long article on July 20, 1896, complete with artistic drawings, of a rough wrestling type of game played in the Lurline Baths. The article stated that “at the Lurline Baths on Larkin Street, there is no end to the fun and excitement. The swimmers vie with one another in the execution of fancy strokes, high dives, double somersaults, etc., and their exhibitions of aquatic skills are heartily applauded by the admiring spectators. Every Friday evening, there are contests of polo – football in the water – followed by a varied schedule of swimming and diving.”
Walter Camp, the dean of American sportswriters and an astute observer of the sporting scene, included a ten-page chapter on water polo in his 1903 textbook. He wrote “The game of water polo has perhaps done more during recent years to popularize and to cause an interest to be taken in swimming than any other branch of aquatic sport. It is essentially a game for swimmers and one that affords ample opportunity for the exhibition of skill and the development of staying power.”
Internationally, there were now men’s water polo teams scattered throughout Europe – in Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary – and others could be found from New Zealand to Panama to Rhodesia to South Africa. Men’s water polo was introduced into the Olympic Games of 1900. The English rules were followed, complete with goals similar to those used nowadays, and the Brits copped the gold medal by beating Belgium and France.
The 1904 Olympics were conducted in St. Louis, and we, the host nation, insisted on using our “softball” rules which permitted underwater wrestling and excessive roughness. This was anathema to the Europeans, who refused to participate. There were other problems, as well, which we shall not mention here. Thus the U.S. won the gold medal … uncontested … unfortunately.
A review of the 1908 U.S. “softball” championship game said that “rough play and charges of foul tactics marked the bitter contest from first to last. As a result, the AAU dropped water polo temporarily and did not send a team to the London Olympics in 1908.” This trend continued, and at the 1912 U.S. Championships, hosted by Pittsburgh, it was reported that “the New York A.C. and the Chicago A.C. played the roughest water polo game on record. After four men had been carried out of the pool unconscious, pugilist Joe Choynsky, the Chicago coach, hit Joe Ruddy of the New York A.C. in the jaw. Ruddy then hit Choynsky in the eye. A riot ensued. Dr. W. L. Savage, the Pittsburgh physical education director, stopped the game (which hadn’t even reached half-time) and announced that several of the contestants would be barred from the Pittsburgh club house and pool.” When learning of this occurrence, the AAU once again dropped water polo, and no U.S. team was sent to the 1916 Olympic Games in Stockholm.
On a more positive note, a number of Eastern colleges started playing water polo, following the more sedate and safer surface-swimming rules with passing and shooting at goal frames. YMCA records indicate a game called “water football” was played in the Springfield, MA, College pool in 1891 under the direction of the Y’s famed physical education guru Luther Gulick, who that same year encouraged his protégé, James Naismith, to develop a gym game that came to be known as basketball. From 1905 through the late 1920s, there were active teams at Penn, Princeton, Yale, Navy, CCNY, Harvard, Columbia, and Dartmouth. Many photos of those teams still exist.
In the Midwest, there were AAU and YMCA teams in Chicago plus a team at nearby Northwestern University, and the Minneapolis and Duluth Ys in MN were enjoying five-per-side, surface-swimming water polo games at the conclusion of their yearly home-and-home swim meets. In fact, water polo was a nationally-sanctioned YMCA sport from 1916 thru 1926, and in 1922, John Slater, the young director of aquatics at the Fort Wayne, IN, YMCA wrote, “We have an industrial water polo league with four industries represented. We have 44 men taking part in the league games in the Y pool. All of the games are drawing large audiences. Some of the rules in the Swimming Guide are used, and others are changed or added. The changes make the play fast. Roughness and dirty playing are not allowed by the referee. In the twelve games so far, a total of 87 goals have been scored. All of the teams have worked up signals and trick plays.” A report written two years later by Mr. Slater stated that the Fort Wayne YMCA polo program had grown to six teams, then eight, with 78 participants.
Doubtless the best-known polo player in those days in the Midwest, and perhaps in the entire country, was Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller of Chicago, who won five gold medals in Olympic swimming competition in 1924 and 1928 and also performed on Uncle Sam’s Olympic bronze medal water polo team in 1924.
Farther out west, the San Francisco Olympic Club was playing the game by 1920, if not earlier, and collegiate teams popped up at Stanford, Cal, Long Beach State, Fullerton and elsewhere, including UCLA. There were several high schools playing in southern California, and a photo still exists of the Long Beach High School boys’ team which won the SoCal prep league in 1912.
By the 1930s, Hungary had supplanted Great Britain as the world water polo power. California was fielding most of the best teams and producing most of the U.S. players who were capable of playing the British/European/Olympic style of game with its emphasis on swift swimming and adept ball-handling. In both 1932 and 1936, it was mostly Californians who represented the U.S. at the Olympic Games. However, after earning a bronze medal at the LA Games in 1932, the U.S. did not make the final eight at the Berlin Games of 1936.
The lingering depression of the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s put a damper on most sports worldwide. When the Olympics resumed in 1948, in London, the U.S. sent a water polo team but once again did not make the top eight.
It was California that really picked up and promoted the sport in the 1950s, with other states jumping onboard in the 1960s, and in next month’s history report for American Water Polo, we’ll look at the how the game has progressed over the past 50 years.
Disclaimer by writer Chuck Hines. The history of water polo remains somewhat obscure. There are numerous versions of what took place in the last half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century. Accounts differ. The above is what I’ve been able to glean from my studies. Further info is available from the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale and from several web-sites devoted to water polo history, perhaps the best of which is the www.waterpololegends.com web-site.
19
Apr
2011
2011 CWPA Women's Eastern Championship Clinic Flyer &
Registration Form
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Two-time Olympian and Gold Medalist Brad Schumacher, co-founder of
Kap 7, will host a water polo clinic on Saturday, April 30 at
Indiana University as part of the 2011 Collegiate Water Polo
Association (CWPA) Women's Eastern Championship. The clinic is open
to all male and female athletes between the ages of 10-18.
Sponsored by American Water Polo,
the clinic will run from 8:45 to 11:00 a.m. at a cost of $30 per
person. Individuals who attend the clinic will also receive
four tickets for the Eastern Championship, a CWPA media guide and
championship program, a league T-shirt and a photo with Brad
Schumacher.
For a registration form, contact
Alex Bond at membership@collegiatewaterpolo.org or
610-277-6787.
A former freestyle swimmer,
Schumacher won two gold medals as a member of the United States
Men's 4x100 meter and 4x200 meter Freestyle Relay Teams at the 1996
Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Four years later, he was
a member of the US Men's Water Polo Team that placed in sixth place
at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
The only aquatics athlete in the world to become a world champion
in both swimming and water polo, he competed in the 1998 World
Championships in both sports to become the first athlete to compete
simultaneously at the World Class level since Bob Hughes at the
1956 Olympic Games.
He joined an elite group of athletes to compete in both sports at
a world championship level as only Duke Khanamoku, Johnny
Weissmuller, Bob Hughes and Matt Biondi also competed in water polo
and swimming on the world level.
Schumacher has not strayed far from his roots as he co-founded
with fellow Olympian Wolf Wigo Kap7, Inc., a commercial pool
equipment and supply company, and serves as head coach of SET Water
Polo Club in South Orange County, California.
Tickets for the Eastern Water Polo Championship are available by
contacting the Collegiate Water Polo Association at 610-277-6787,
via e-mail at office@collegiatewaterpolo.org or at the door for $13 per day or $25 for a weekend pass.
22
Mar
2011
The Navy Aquatic Club is offering an All-Comers Clinic and Competition at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The event will take place on Saturday, March 26th in the Scott Natatorium, Macdonough Hall, from 10:30AM until 2:30PM. Athletes of all ages and both genders are invited to participate. The younger players will be finished before 2:30PM.
The goal for the day is to provide every athlete a chance to play in three games during the day. In addition, there will be several sessions focusing on individual skills and game tactics. This should be a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Individual athletes will be assigned to a team at the beginning of the day. The cost per athlete is $15 for the four hour opportunity. A small snack bar will be set up pool side but all players should still plan on bringing a lunch and drinks.
Teams are welcome to participate but need to immediately contact the Navy AC in order to plan the game schedule. Coaches are encouraged to attend at no charge.
Parking passes will not be distributed this weekend. Anyone with Department of Defense stickers or Navy AC parking passes on their vehicles will be permitted to drive on to campus. A shuttle will be available from gate 8 located by the baseball field. The shuttle will run between the gate and the pool. To request a shuttle simply call 410-293-5558. Everyone will need to have picture identification in order to be permitted on the campus.
Those parties who can not drive on campus will find parking immediately outside of gate 8. The lot is located in front of Halligan Hall which is on the right side of the road when driving in towards, but before, gate 8. You can park in this lot and walk in if you desire so long as you have a current photo ID.
For more information regarding the Navy AC All-Comers Clinic and Competition, contact Mike Schofield at 410-293-5558 or schofield@usna.edu
05
Mar
2011
USA Olympian, Genai Kerr, is offering two clinics to athletes local to the Philadelphia area at the end of March. The clinics are being run through the 5meter Water Polo Camps and hosted by two age group programs. The Stingrays Water Polo Club will offer one clinic on Saturday, March 26th at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ. And on Sunday, March 27th, the Perkasie Pirates Water Polo Club will host the second clinic at Pennridge High School in Perkasie, PA.
The 5meter Water Polo Camps feature several USA Olympians and is designed by the top coaches and athletes in the country. The camps provide in-water instruction focused to make an immediate impact on any athlete’s game. Young athletes will have the opportunity to learn first hand how Olympic Athletes train, meet their nutritional needs and balance their lives.
“This is a great opportunity for our younger athletes to meet, learn and work with USA Olympians,” stated Andy Sichet, head coach of Stingrays. “When we were contacted by Genai we immediately wanted to get involved.”
The 5meter Camp at Lawrenceville is broken into two sessions; fourteen year olds and younger from 9AM-12PM and current high school athletes from 1PM-4PM. The camp at Pennridge will run from 9AM-4PM for any athletes who currently compete on the high school level. Both clinics will be limited to 35 athletes in order to have a better camp experience. The following flyers offer additional details.
5meter Camp – Lawrenceville, NJ on March 26, 2011
5meter Camp – Perkasie, PA on March 27, 2011
Registering for each individual clinic can be completed by visiting the camp website at www.5meter.com. Be sure to view the flyers to receive an additional 10% discount code for the clinic you would like to attend.
For more information regarding the 5meter Water Polo Camp contact Genai Kerr at 949-385-6282 or info@5meter.com.
14
Feb
2011
Rudy Ruth, the former Wilson High School water polo coach and current superintendent of the school district in West Lawn, Pennsylvania, was featured in the February 13 Reading Eagle discussing his coaching philosophies as it related to sportsmanship.
Balancing winning, fun and sportsmanship
Former Wilson water polo coach Ruth displayed compassion for weaker foes
Before Dr. Rudy Ruth took over as superintendent of the Wilson School District - his "day job" as he referred to it in a recent e-mail - he was the Bulldogs water polo coach.
Well, actually, he was more than just a coach; he played a major role in the growth of water polo, not just in Berks County, but throughout the state.
He is a member of the Berks County Aquatic Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Bill Barnett Distinguished Coaching Award (Scholastic), given annually by USA Water Polo.
Ruth's teams at Wilson were dominant and laid the foundation for success that continues today.
Under Ruth, the Bulldogs won nine state titles, four East Coast championships and more than 100 consecutive matches from 1992-96.
They also won a fair amount of games by landslide, much like the Christian Heritage girls basketball team won its game against West Ridge in mid-January.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the Crusaders' 108-3 victory over the Fighting Eagles in Riverdale, Utah.
The game received national media attention and got blog posters on each side of the issue fired up, sometimes vehemently so.
You had some folks complaining about the lack of sportsmanship by Christian Heritage in running up the score, and others incensed that the winning team should be expected to "apologize for a job well done."
There wasn't much middle ground.
The Christian Heritage coach, Rob McGill, rationalized the rout by saying: "Too many people in the world right now allow the youth to not be as good as they can be, allow them to be lazy.
"Here, I'm giving them an opportunity to live up to the best of their abilities and be proud of what they're able to accomplish."
Honestly, there should be no pride in winning by 105.
Ruth's philosophy about handling games against decidedly weaker teams took into consideration his players and the opposition.
When it was clear the outcome wouldn't be in doubt, Ruth would often start reserves, and when the Bulldogs went on the road, he'd leave the starters home to practice.
"(Doing) this was not only a great experience for the players," Ruth said, "but the parents had a chance to see their kids start in a varsity game and get more playing time than normal."
And even though Ruth was aware of the discrepancy in talent and the need to keep the score respectable, his team's effort wasn't a casualty of his compassion.
"We would play hard, but we would have the kids aim just wide when shooting," he said. "If we did it well, the team we were playing didn't even know we weren't going full bore and the end score would be very close."
Ruth's rules didn't apply just in the water. He also wanted his kids to be conscious of their behavior on the deck.
That's why he insisted that his players not laugh on the bench. Just one more safeguard to make sure the opponent never felt "belittled."
"We would tell our kids you might be laughing about something that is totally unrelated to the game, but that is not what the weaker opponent is going to think," he said.
In a perfect world - wishful thinking, I know - scholastic sports would be about winning, but not at the expense of having fun, working hard and learning lessons that can't be taught in the classroom.
"Working toward the win is always a goal," Ruth said, "but treating others the way you want to be treated is even more important."
If scholastic sports were to adopt a golden rule, that should be it.
Contact Mike McGovern of the Reading Eagle: 610-371-5068 or mmcgovern@readingeagle.com.
03
Dec
2010
Need to know how to teach water polo? Ask Dr. Pete Snyder, professor of physical education at Fullerton College! Water polo has been an integral part of his life for over 30 years. As the chapter author of water polo for the publication Physical Activity & Sport for the Secondary School Student, Snyder shares his knowledge about skill instruction, safe and effective practice techniques and game strategies.
“Water polo is an Olympic sport and activity that is ranked as one of the top forms of exercise for the body. Many different muscular combinations and energy systems are used while playing the game; and, more importantly, it is fun,” says Snyder. “At the same time, given a few precautions, the game is very safe and poses little risk of injury to the muscular-skeletal systems of the body.”
This edition of Physical Activity & Sport makes water polo less daunting. Teachers, students and teacher educators will find the latest in skill instruction, practice techniques and game strategies for 22 sports and activities, all backed by research. They also will find reams of hands-on tools – assessments, lesson plans, practice drills and safety guidelines - on the CD-ROM that accompanies the book.
“Perhaps best of all,” says Dr. Neil Dougherty of Rutgers University, editor of the book, “readers will find the tips, tricks and insights that the book’s authors have accumulated over the many, many years that they’ve been teaching these sports and activities.”
“NASPE is proud to offer this updated practical resource to the professionals who dedicate their careers to serving the physical activity needs of our nation’s young people,” says Charlene R. Burgeson, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), publishers of Physical Activity & Sport. “Every child and youth needs a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity every day and this publication will help physical education teachers, Y instructors and other physical activity professionals to help make that happen.”
Snyder has coached the sport of water polo for over 30 years at all levels – with championship teams youth through Olympic ages - and he continues to coach students at Fullerton College. In the classroom, his students develop performance and practice drill techniques and learn the value of water polo as a lifelong learning activity for physical fitness. Through Physical Activity & Sport for the Secondary School Student, Snyder reaches a wider audience of educators and teachers and shares his knowledge about the sport of water polo.
A graduate of Stanford University, he is also a member of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the California Community College Organization for Physical Education. In addition to his three decades of coaching and teaching, Snyder served two years as dean and athletic director of physical education and athletics at Fullerton College.
Learn how to teach water polo and 22 other sports and activities with the help of Physical Activity & Sport for the Secondary School Student. Other subjects include: aerobic fitness, archery, badminton, basketball, climbing and challenge courses, cycling, dance, golf, inline skating, lacrosse, pickle ball, soccer, softball, speedball, swimming, tennis, track & field, tumbling, volleyball, water polo and weight training. Order online at http://www.naspeinfo.org/shop. Stock number is 304-10463, $48 for NASPE/AAHPERD members; $69 for non-members.
For more information contact Paula Keyes Kun at 703-476-3461 or pkun@aahperd.org.
20
Nov
2010
In the summer of 1999, after having a few years of experience at the U.S. Naval Academy camp and over 25 years of coaching experience, Pete Snyder contacted a small group of what he considered the best teachers of Water Polo to put on a December mini-camp for girls in Southern California.
They were able to secure the Janet Evans 50 meter pool in Fullerton, CA. The camp was short, only 2 1/2 days, and focused on the following goals:
- 1. Keep a small coach to athlete ratio - 1:12 max. (including separate goalie instruction)
- 2. Coaches learn every athlete’s name, evaluate and provide positive verbal and written feedback; creating a positive learning-oriented environment.
3. Focus on educating the athletes about the sport of water polo. Unlike many of contemporary sports, the core of water polo skills, especially in the formative years, needs to be strengthened and expanded significantly.
4. Fit water polo with high school and college planning and help the athletes develop a consciousness of College and University choices.
5. Make sure the athletes have fun playing competitive games, building enthusiasm and enjoying the sport!
From that first year in ’99, the Annual Christmas Water Polo Camp grew to the upper limit of 95 athletes every year. The location shifted from Fullerton to Mount San Antonio and back again to Fullerton but all the camps were offered in 50 meter pools and focused on the same goals.
“Nike Swim and Wahoo’s Fish Taco have been very gracious as sponsors each and every year,” expressed Snyder. “Every camper takes home a good amount of stuff and there are snacks and liquids provided.”
The experienced coaching staff has remained, with some minor changes, intact every year. Past and current coaches have included Adam Krikorian - UCLA, Jamie Wright - U.C. Davis, Carin Crawford - San Diego State, Shari Baird-Smart - Univ. of Hawaii, Vickie Gorman - Villanova, Matt Anderson - U. of Michigan, Todd Clapper - Arizona State Univ., Alex Rodriguez - Pomona College, Scott Hinman - Irvine H.S., Don Luethke - Western H.S., Lani Ruh - Walnut H.S., Marc Ruh - Mt. San Antonio College, Chris Jackson - Mt. SAC and Gabriel Martinez - Fullerton College. In addition, several Olympians have been involved, including Jule Swail, Natalie Golda, Gubba Sheehy, Mariah Van Noorman, Nicolle Payne, Bernice Orwig and Omar Amr.
The camp covers a sport psychology and referee component under the direction of UCLA’s Dr. Robert Corb, who also happens to be the NCAA National Coordinator of Water Polo Officials. This has been a huge bonus for the athletes and incorporate meetings with parents as well.
Every athlete also receives a camp notebook. It includes sections on many phases of the game written by some of the best coaches in water polo’s history.
“The camp emphasizes listening and taking notes during the in-class sessions,” states Snyder. “This is incentivized with awards for the best note-taking.”
Another value for the athletes are discussions regarding College and University recruiting. Several sessions educate the athletes on the process of contacting coaches and sorting out the match between high school and college participation.
This year’s camp is scheduled for December 17-19 at the Fullerton College Pool and is open to all girls between the ages of 13-17, with some exceptions. Players have come from as far away as Florida and New Hampshire.
For more information regarding the F.C.C.A.T. Water Polo’s 2010 Christmas Girls Mini-Camp, visit any of the following link:
http://waterpolo.fullcoll.edu
Pete Snyder holds a Ph.D. and is a professor at Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA. Pete has written several educational material for water polo that includes Water Polo for Players & Teachers of Aquatics which is available under the Coaches Resources & Links.
29
Oct
2010
2010 Clinic Registration Form / Bucknell University Informed Consent Release Form
American Water Polo is sponsoring a coed water polo clinic in conjunction with the 2010 CWPA Men’s Eastern Championship. The weekend of festivities will be taking place November 19th-21st at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. The clinic will feature Brad Schumacher, a two-time Olympic Water Polo Athlete and Gold Medal Winner in Swimming, who is currently the Head Coach of Set Water Polo Club and co-owner of Kap 7 - featuring “equipment for water polo players made by water polo players.”
The weekend ties in several great aspects of the water polo community. The clinic is an opportunity for young athletes to learn from one of the country’s top Olympic Water Polo players who started his career on the East Coast. There will also be a High School Boys All-Star Game that will feature some of the top players on the East Coast and a chance for them to highlight their talents and skills. In addition, all the young athletes will have an opportunity to watch the top collegiate varsity men’ programs compete for the CWPA Eastern Championship Title and the right to represent the league at the NCAA Championship in December.
The cost of the coed clinic is $65/person and includes four tickets for the CWPA Eastern Championship, a CWPA Media Guide and Championship Program, a CWPA T-shirt and a photo with Brad Schumacher. Not to mention a whole lot of water polo!
“The clinic has always been a great experience for those athletes who have been involved,” stated Tom Tracey of American Water Polo. “Its not often you have an opportunity to learn from one of the great water polo players in US history and watch the top collegiate teams in the East compete for a chance to go to the NCAA Championship and all under the same roof.”
The CWPA Eastern Championship starts on Friday, November 19th and continues all weekend with the Championship Game at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 21st. The coed water polo clinic will take place on Saturday morning, November 20th for any athlete between the ages of ten and eighteen.
For more information, call Alex Bond at American Water Polo 610-277-6787 or email office@americanwaterpolo.org.