Don’t Look Now, But the South Florida Polo Scene Is Exploding

The action in the southern part of the Florida peninsula is explosive. Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger / 3rd & Ocean

Editor’s Note: Swimming World was down in Coral Springs, Florida for the annual South Florida International Tournament. Offered by Michael Goldenberg, his daughter Elina and extensive coaching staff from the South Florida Water Polo Club, this annual age group tournament—started in 2003 by Istvan Csendes, Jim Shoemaker and Bruce Wigo—draws teams from all over the East Coast as well as from the Bahamas, Calgary, Chicago, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rome and other locations.

The following originally appeared in the Fall issue of SkipShot and is reproduced by permission of USA Water Polo.

With consistently temperate weather, significant municipal investment in aquatics facilities and a strong base of swimming at both the high school and college level, focus on the growth of water polo outside of its California epicenter has recently centered on the state of Texas. Its many and disparate areas—cosmopolitan Houston and its expansive suburbs, the sports-crazy Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the rapidly growing and student-rich hubs of Austin and San Antonio—make the Lone Star State an inviting target for the sport to colonize.

And then there’s South Florida.

The only part of the continental U.S. with a tropical climate, the South Florida polo sphere comprises the southernmost sections of the peninsula from Miami and West Palm Beach on the east to Clearwater/St. Petersburg/Tampa on the west. The region has plenty of pools and a rich tradition of high school and college swimming success. And it boasts two things that Texas cannot: (1) Ashleigh Johnson, goalie for the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medal-winning U.S. women’s team, and one of the most recognizable polo players on the planet; and (2) so far at least, a state-sponsored high school water polo championship competition.

Canadian junior women celebrate 2018 UANA Cup win. Photo Courtesy: Don Utas

As evidenced by the recent 2018 UANA Junior Pan American Championship in Clearwater, the possibilities for polo in the Sunshine State are outstanding. But for the sport to achieve its full potential in South Florida will require a combination of factors, including devoted parents, an upswing in high school participation and a concerted effort to attract qualified coaches to the region.

UANA Cup: The start of something bigger – or a flash in the pan?

The Union Americana de Natacion tournament this past summer was the biggest thing in Florida polo since June 2016, when the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team played an exhibition match against Hungary at Ransom Everglades High School in Coconut Grove, with Johnson backstopping Team USA at her old high school.

Hosting an international youth tournament—UANA’s mission is to promote water polo in all of the Americas—was a tremendous opportunity to bring attention to the region and create an exciting environment for local polo fans.

[On The Record with Brenda Villa, USA Water Polo Hall of Famer]

Four-time Olympian Brenda Villa, who is also a member of the executive committee of UANA, marveled at the atmosphere that existed in Clearwater, where the sport is not well-known. “I never had a home crowd behind me at any major international events, so I would have loved this,” said Villa, who represented the U.S. at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. “It’s an athlete’s dream.”

Action between Canadian and American junior women. Photo Courtesy: Peter Lawrence / USA Water Polo

With junior boys and girls teams from eight countries playing a total of 38 matches over six days, the UANA Cup was an unqualified success due to the high level of competition, expert organization and inspired siting of the tournament in one of Florida’s best aquatic venues. The Doyle Aquatic Center at Clearwater’s Long Center, built in 1990 and renovated last year, contains an Olympic-quality aquatics facility, which, blessedly, is one of the state’s few lightning-proof indoor pools.

Michael Goldenberg, a FINA-certified referee who also runs South Florida Water Polo Club, the state’s largest age group club, applauded the venue location.

“That USA Water Polo decided to have the UANA competition at [The Long Center] was a great decision, Goldenberg said in a recent telephone interview. That’s an indoor pool, and in South Florida in particular, [weather] in the summers is unpredictable.”

Thunderstorms are one of the biggest inhibitors to the sport’s growth, he explained. “Every time there’s lightning, the game is postponed and the pool is closed.”

Not only were there no weather-related delays, the tournament showcased just how vibrant polo might be in the Gulf Coast burgs of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, which collectively amount to the state’s second largest population center after the Miami-Dade region.

Zak Kappos and the 813 Polo Club are growing strong in Tampa Bay. Photo Courtesy: Z. Kappos

As a spectacular bonus, after outfitting The Long Center with goals, lane lines, balls, a timing system—in short, all the necessary equipment for a world-class polo tournament—USA Water Polo donated all that gear for a new age group club to thrive.

And a coach shall lead them…

Local age group coach Zak Kappos is making the most of this bonanza, his arrival last June being one of the most positive recent developments in the region. A Miami native who played high school ball for Miami Country Day High School, he was a valued contributor for Head Coach Gavin Arroyo at Long Beach State in California. After spending a few years on the West Coast, Coach Kappos was coaxed to the region to assume leadership of 813 Polo Club, a club operating primarily in Tampa Bay the past three years.

[On The Record with Zak Kappos About Growing Water Polo in South Florida]

Now, with the raw materials at The Long Center, Kappos—having folded 813 Polo under Next Level Water Polo, a new entity—has a showcase facility to promote programs to interested aquatic athletes.

Confident that his offerings will grow with time, Kappos spoke in an interview about how much the polo landscape has changed in the region since he was a club and high school player in Miami a decade ago. “We really didn’t have too many choices besides Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando,” he explained. “Since I came back and moved out to Tampa, there’s been a huge growth in water polo out in Gainesville and in the Tampa Bay area.”

What’s truly exciting about the growth in the region is that Kappos and Daniela Screnci, his partner in the polo venture who played for Long Beach State’s women’s team, are looking to connect the sport to underserved communities that typically don’t play polo.

“There’s a lot of people, especially in the Tampa area, who are creating an inner-city water polo team that will specifically target African-American, Mexican and Latino communities and give access to the sport to people who normally wouldn’t have it,” he said.

There’s no question that having pool time at a venue like The Long Center has given a tremendous boost to Kappos’ and Screnci’s endeavors. “The Long Center is a top-notch, indoor facility.” Kappos said. “Having a state-of-the-art facility with a 50-meter pool that can host all the teams at the same time is incredible.”

“We want to build a platform that every high school can use.”

In an emerging polo market, a key constituency are passionate parents who volunteer for everything from hawking snacks to managing club finances to hiring qualified coaches. Florida’s west coast was fortunate to have Jeff and Beth Bailey, along with their polo-playing daughters Mary Jane and Vivian, relocate last year to Osprey, Florida, an hour or so south of Tampa.

Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger, 3rd & Ocean

Bailey, whose cousin is Ryan Bailey, a four-time Olympian for the U.S. Senior Men’s National Team, has the enthusiasm and savvy—he’s an MBA who also played for the Stanford football team under legendary coach Bill Walsh—to lay the organizational groundwork for a sustained effort to grow polo.

Beth Bailey, president of the Southwest Florida Water Polo Foundation, which she and her husband founded in 2017 to specifically grow the sport in the state, is actually the one in the family with aquatic experience, having been a high school diver in Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, the Baileys already have greatly advanced the prospects for polo growth on the Gulf Coast. Last year, they raised the money and provided the administrative support for boys and girls varsity teams at Venice High School, creating the only high school water polo teams in Southwest Florida.

“One of the things in Florida relative to California in particular is that participation in club sports is driven by whether or not the high school has a team,” Jeff Bailey said in an interview last summer at the UANA Cup. “If a kid can earn a varsity letter at a high school athletic department, they’re gonna want to play that sport.”

Given the respective sport seasons, Florida is all about opportunity. The Baileys realized that outside of the high school swim season, which ends in November, the Venice High pool sat empty. Polo practice starts the first week of January; competition begins in late February and runs until May, when the state championships take place. Because of this schedule, there is no competition between aquatic sports for pool time.

The teams’ core players came from Sun Coast Water Polo Club, based in Venice, as well as from other local schools, including Pine View School, where the Baileys’ older daughter, now the team’s goalie, attends high school. The Florida High School Athletic Association allows for athletes in local schools to participate with teams from other schools if their sports are not available where they attend.

And when the new girls’ team needed a female coach, Beth Bailey even took on assistant coaching responsibilities.

“A week before practice started, the Athletic Director said: we’re about to start practice; we need a woman coach,” Bailey said. “The AD looked at Beth and asked: ‘What are you doing right now?’” When she admitted she was between jobs, AD Pete Dombroski exclaimed: “I think we found a coach!”

Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger / 3rd & Ocean

The results where what might be expected; no wins and lots of challenges. But Bailey said both teams grew in ability and formed bonds that will help them prosper in seasons to come. More importantly, the Baileys now have a clear vision of their role in the growth of South Florida polo.

“We want to build a platform that every high school can use,” Jeff Bailey said. “Our approach with administrators is to go in and say: we’ll fund the program, we’ll find the pool, we’ll find a coach and we’ll handle the schedule.”

The real need? Quality coaches.

It’s not possible to overstate how important what the Baileys in Venice and Zappos and Screnci in Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater are doing to advance polo in the region. Michael Goldenberg, who has been involved in South Florida polo since arriving from Russia in 1992, underscores both the potential and pitfalls of age group polo.

[At South Florida International Water Polo Tournament, Emphasis is on “International”]

A world-class referee who is also the head of the South Florida Water Polo Club as well as head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Goldenberg was clear about where he believes growth exists in the state: Miami-Dade County, home to Hialeah High School, the reigning Florida girls champion. Olympia High School from Orlando is the 2018 boys winner, made possible by a semi-final upset of Miami’s Ransom Everglades High School, two-time reigning champs.

“South Florida has great traditions for water polo,” he said, “not as great as Southern California, but there’s always been polo in South Florida.

His age group club, with up to 200 members, was a by-product of a previous USA Water Polo effort to grow the sport in Florida. In 2003, with the National Junior Olympics slated to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Csendes, Shumaker and Wigo launched South Florida Water Polo Club.

Michael Goldenberg (on the left). Photo Courtesy: Annie Tworoger / 3rd & Ocean

Goldenberg joined the club as a coach in 2005 and has since taken over, expanding the roster of players and coaches. As Bailey pointed out, the synergy in Florida between club and high school polo is strong, with many of Goldenberg’s players, including his son Eric—now playing for Adam Wright at UCLA—on both his club and high school team’s rosters.

By traveling up and down the East Coast, hosting a robust invitational tournament in its home pool and sending teams to the Junior Olympics in California, Goldenberg’s club has prospered. But the former professional player, who arrived as a refugee, knows that the critical difference for any club is its coach. And he believes USA Water Polo should do more to bring qualified coaches to the region.

“California—Southern California, NorCal—is oversaturated with water polo,” Goldenberg said. “There are other states where the interest is great but there’s not enough knowledgeable coaches. or equipment. It’s not easy to start a program. It’s not easy to fight with the swim coaches for pool time.”

A big issue is income. Coaches often need to augment what they make from their coaching salaries, and Goldenberg thinks there should be a more reliable structure than word of mouth. Stating that in the tightly-knit polo community: “We all know somebody who knows someone who’s willing to help find some job to supplement coaching…. If USA Water Polo is willing to help educate those coaches who are willing to start somewhere else—which takes guts because everyone wants to start in an established program…. Then at that point we will have more people willing to move somewhere new.”

The high price of bootstrapping polo growth.

Growth does not come without cost, and polo growth in Tampa and Clearwater has been sporadic. Brian Donahue, a former captain of the men’s polo team at Princeton, and his wife Karen, an Olympic swimmer for Trinidad, are the founders of 813 Polo Club. They spent a number of years drumming up support for age group polo in the area with marginal success.

A natural salesman—he has an MBA and is extremely knowledgeable about the region’s challenges—Donahue and his wife spent five years trying to get their club into local pools and high schools, which proved a formidable task.

They found how hard it is to make a living from water polo in Florida. A recent spell of unemployment for Brian led to a spurt of organization for their club, but during that time they had a difficult time making ends meet from the 30–40 kids who regularly attended their club.

The Long Center in Clearwater, FL. Photo Courtesy: Clearwater Parks and Recreation

“We’re not talking about taking a kid that’s seven years old to the Olympics,” Donahue explained. “We’re talking about teaching him the basics based upon the ODP principles,” referring to USA Water Polo’s program dedicated to identifying and developing prospective Olympic polo players. “We spend a lot of time on technical skills.”

In a play straight out of the model Goldenberg described, USA Water Polo was able to connect Kappos and Screnci—knowledgeable young coaches—with the Donahues operating in an area that offers great potential for success. That the means of the connection was the UANA Cup made the deal all the sweeter.

Karen Donahue was quite clear about how overcoming the financial hurdles will be among the young coaches’ biggest challenge. “Zak’s going to need financial help,” she said last July. “It’s very costly to get a club registered and register all the kids. It’s hard for parents to pay all the fees.”

Her husband talked about the administrative side of club work: bank accounts, insurance, 501(c)(3) filing, contracts with the city.

In the end, the Donahues and their children—one of whom is a Division I prospect as a swimmer—will relocate to Orlando, leaving responsibility for the club’s success and failure in the hands of a relative newcomer to their polo scene. Karen Donahue has no problems with this; she trusts Kappos’ roots.

[On Deck With Jack Horton, Referee, Coach, Photographer and Life-Long Polo Enthusiast]

“Zak has better connections because he comes from California and has a connection with USA Water Polo,” she said, then added: I don’t see us ever not doing something with water polo. We’re going to support Zak as much as we can.”

Opportunity, yes; challenge, you bet.

Jake Pearson, who played at Ransom Everglades High School after Ashleigh Johnson graduated, admits that her recognition as one the world’s best players has been crucial both for his region and for Head Coach Eric Lefebvre, who helped build the Raiders into a regional power.

“Coach Lefebvre has been super-successful in building talent in South Florida,” Pearson said recently at the Princeton Invitational, where he is a freshman playing for Johns Hopkins University. “We had Ashleigh and Chelsea Johnson come from my high school, which inspires a lot of kids. They now know they have the opportunity to play in college if they push themselves.”

A picture says it all: coach, player, Olympic gold. Photo Courtesy: C. Vaughan

Expressing a perverse pride in South Florida’s lack of recognition on the national level, Pearson admitted that not being from California has its drawbacks—which he’s used as motivation to achieve success.

“You develop a chip on your shoulder because, being from South Florida, you’re definitely looked down upon by other polo regions of the country.”

In a telling admission that could stand out as both the challenge—and opportunity—for Florida polo players, Pearson suggested what it was that helped make him a top collegiate prospect.

“One of the most important moments in my polo development was in ninth grade,” he said. “I was on the ODP Zone Team and didn’t make the national team selection camp.

“That really lit a fuse for me. It pushed me to work harder and I made it the next two years.”

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