{"id":320387,"date":"2018-07-23T13:44:24","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T20:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=320387"},"modified":"2018-07-25T08:19:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T15:19:20","slug":"2018-usa-water-polo-junior-olympics-day-two-water-polo-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2018-usa-water-polo-junior-olympics-day-two-water-polo-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics: Day Two: Water Polo Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Correspondent<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Swimming World is on the ground all week with stories and quotes from the 2018 USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics. Look for our coverage of the largest youth water polo tournament in the world. If you want to tune into all the action at Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center, check out FloSwimming’s link<\/a> to the tournament; for pictures from various JO sites, visit this link<\/a> for KLC photos.<\/em><\/p>\n

SAN JOSE, CA. Day Two of the 2018 USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics<\/a> saw your correspondent parked Sunday at the Valley Christian High School<\/a>, beautifully nestled in the hills of San Jose. Given the hundreds of matches going on at the same time in dozens of pools in and around San Jose, it\u2019s a mental stretch to grasp just how vast this activity is.<\/p>\n

\"jo-logo\"<\/p>\n

Breaking this down, at Valley Christian there were fourteen 14U matches in the Boys\u2019 Invitational and fourteen for 16U players in the Boys\u2019 Championship bracket. Play started just after first light, with the last goal scored at 8 p.m.\u2014little before sundown.<\/p>\n

\"valley-sky-jos-jul18\"

Photo Courtesy: M.Randazzo<\/p><\/div>\n

Also at Valley Christian pool was the Davis 16U team from Davis, California, striving to advance in the top (Championship) bracket. Among the spectators was Steve Doten<\/strong>, Commissioner for the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA<\/a>), whose son Trey is on the Davis 16U squad.<\/p>\n

Doten is as engaged with American polo as anyone in the country. He was a player at Cal, a coach at UC Davis and now is overseeing all operations at the WWPA, which includes eight men\u2019s and eight women\u2019s teams from NCAA Division II schools.<\/p>\n

On a beautiful morning, Swimming World got to watch Doten\u2019s son Trey play under the brilliant California sun and talk JOs.<\/p>\n

– What should a newcomer to the JOs look for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like \u201cWater Polo Christmas!\u201d It\u2019s so much fun\u2014the spectacle, the festival. you want your kid to be passionate about water polo? Take him to Stanford, the merchant village, the big ball.<\/p>\n

I remember in 2012, sitting in the [stands at] Stanford, watching all those game going on and on the Jumbotron the Olympics were going on.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what JOs is. All the teams from across the country\u2014you just have to enjoy it all. Buy the gear and have a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

– It’s a distinctly American experience. I know of HaBa WaBa<\/a> in Europe and Canada, but the vast scale of this event is almost hard to imagine. It\u2019s the best of American water polo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m limited when it comes to international [play], but I\u2019ve been told that JOs is the biggest tournament in the world. And what a great job USA Water Polo does\u2014and Stanford University for hosting JOs.<\/p>\n

Davis is a little like [your team from Brooklyn<\/a>]; kids playing in their pool in their region. They need to get out and see how many kids are playing the sport, who these kids are. It\u2019s such a learning experience on the national level. you just have to get out of your little community and see it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s awesome from that point in terms of young people\u2014they can participate with all the kids from around the country.<\/p>\n

– JOs also underscores that water polo remains tethered to its home base of California. Can it move out from the West Coast into other parts of the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first year at Davis, 2001, Michigan hosted the Junior Olympics. For us, to go out to Michigan, what a wonderful educational experience. And they did a fantastic job [out there]. I went to Michigan State for the first time to see their campus.<\/p>\n

I think you can bottle [JOs] and take it. However, the California programs can get so much water polo at such a low cost and at a convenient distance that participation would drop off because of travel. You\u2019d still get a good number of high-level teams but you\u2019d likely lose the Big Valleys<\/a> or the AMPs<\/a> from Merced. And that\u2019s what USA Water Polo realized.<\/p>\n

When you host [in California] everything gets filled up. You go [out of state] the participation drops down [dramatically].<\/p>\n

\"soac-milo-jos-jul18\"

SoAC’s Milo Beausoleil. Photo Courtesy: Scott Dickson<\/p><\/div>\n

– It\u2019s a conundrum; the sport needs to grow outside of California but it is the best area (so far) to nurture a sport that apparently is on the rise.<\/strong><\/p>\n

it comes back to the National League<\/a> now, that derivative of a semi-pro [water polo league]. Years ago, it was the Premier League, which I was involved with as a coach. Hearing the great Mike Schofield talk\u2014UC Davis is the farthest north of all the California schools. We\u2019re here\u2014we\u2019re not in Brooklyn\u2014and we\u2019re not Navy water polo.<\/p>\n

Schofield would say that they\u2019re going across the country every time. And I understood because it was hard just to get my kids to go to Southern California.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the age-old question: you\u2019ve got to build it to be a national sport but not everyone can travel to get here. I like to think it\u2019s a \u201cBuild it and they will come\u201d idea\u2014have teams from all over and build passion for polo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got to help but I\u2019ve never seen the economics of this, and that\u2019s the struggle. Do you take JOs elsewhere and lose some money? And can you overcome the cultural [barriers] because of the beach \/ water culture in California.<\/p>\n

– This is where Texas may be the great solution, as both coasts can meet in the middle of the country. Your thoughts about polo\u2019s growth in the Lone Star State.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the Viper Pigeons<\/a> [Houston age group water polo club]. They want the gear, and it\u2019s creative and fun! It\u2019s like World Cup; the hair-dos and the looks and the festival. I think JOs has to do that, make it fun for the kids, and fly your colors.<\/p>\n

Texas has the warm weather\u2014I don\u2019t know how many facilities they have\u2014but it\u2019s a prime location that you can grow the sport. There\u2019s already real strong age group clubs, and the richest two universities in the country\u2014University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M\u2014with over $200 million athletic programs. They could build an indoor swimming pool if they wanted to.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a football [culture], so boys are steered towards football. You\u2019ve got to get them into water polo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s right on for going to Texas for water polo. Maybe it\u2019s every five years you have JOs outside of California, not every other year. Because, education is experiential; if I can show my kids New York\u2014just like you come out here\u2014if you come out for four days, I\u2019m going to stay for another four days to see all the hot spots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why colleges go overseas to play or you take a team out to Princeton\u2014you can show kids so much through sports, including different parts of the country.<\/p>\n

When I went to the East Coast it was to Navy for a pool and a tournament. I didn’t go a lot of places because there\u2019s no water polo there. I\u2019ve never been to Yellowstone, I\u2019ve never gone to Mount Rushmore or to the Grand Canyon; I spent my summers going to costal California.<\/p>\n

The soccer and baseball kids, they\u2019re didn\u2019t go travel to these scenic places either.<\/p>\n

– You\u2019ve got a couple of kids who play water polo, and you\u2019re 6-5; could football have ever been in their future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My son [did] baseball, soccer, basketball, water polo, swimming. He played all those sports but not football. It\u2019s not worth the potential brain injuries. It was a conscious decision and my wife agreed, and that\u2019s why we feel very lucking about water polo. It\u2019s swimming\u2014and that\u2019s another sport\u2014plus a ball, a strategy. And it\u2019s a lot safer for the kids.<\/p>\n

My understanding is there\u2019s been a decline in youth football in California. At Davis, it\u2019s a huge problem trying to recruit kids to come to the football team. [Schools in the Bay Area] have fielded teams because they don\u2019t have enough participation, so I know it\u2019s declined there.<\/p>\n

\"east-jos-july18\"

Photo Courtesy: Wendy Chastain<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s reciprocal that it\u2019s led to an increase in water polo. We know that it\u2019s possible to get concussions in water polo as well.<\/p>\n

The other interesting thing is grass-roots to get more kids playing or to get more universities playing. There\u2019s more opportunities for women, it\u2019s not just the Pac-12 schools. You have Michigan, Indiana; if we can get these universities like Long Island to start a program, that could be a pathway to these great institutions.<\/p>\n

– There\u2019s the recent news<\/a> that Indiana University\u2019s women\u2019s water polo team will join the MPSF. Is this another step in the right direction to expand polo out of its California footprint?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re helping Salem [University] restart<\/a> their program, bringing them into the WWPA, which will make four teams in the East and four in the West. We\u2019re hoping to have a positive bi-costal experience for our athletes. From that standpoint, I can see [why] Indiana would give their athletes an opportunity to play top schools on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

The Big 10 is like the Pac 12 in terms of funding. I like the thinking and that idea that you can do this and stimulate growth\u2026 maybe it\u2019s working as Long Island and some of these other schools start programs.<\/p>\n

I do encourage [WWPA members] to go to Brown, and Harvard and Princeton\u2014travel and see the world through sports.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a pretty tough [road ahead] for Indiana playing those five schools.<\/p>\n

\"valley-night-jos-jul18\"

Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo<\/p><\/div>\n

– How does the JO experience whet your son\u2019s appetite to continue playing in college?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching Trey or trying to tell him is hard but when you bring him here he can see for himself. He\u2019s played against regional high schools, so when he can get out of that small sphere and see things on a national level\u2014and how big he is compared to his teammates.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great learning opportunity because he sees the CCD\u2019s and Socals<\/a> [where] guys are 16 and they\u2019re 6-4.<\/p>\n

It gives perspective about where your abilities are. Trey works hard and very much wants to play college water polo. So, they will test him and he sees the competition that makes him work harder.<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s huge learning just from his vantage point. I can tell him: Trey, you\u2019re not working hard enough, and then he plays Pride<\/a> and gets beat 25-0\u2014and I don\u2019t have to say anything to him.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a big, athletic, talented, well-coached team with lots of opportunities to play water polo.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re having fun but it\u2019s so educational. From our little town in Davis, CA to your community in Brooklyn\u2014they can see it. If you look at Wolf Wigo<\/strong><\/a>, he didn\u2019t grow up in California. So, the JOs can really inspire kids from all over the country that this is what they want to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Correspondent Editor’s Note: Swimming World is on the ground all week with stories and quotes from the 2018 USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics. Look<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":320410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[69545,69546,60383,65801,60192,69549,50705,3613,69548,69547,1401,559,63427],"class_list":["post-320387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-2018-usa-water-polo-national-junior-olympics","tag-big-valley-water-polo-academy","tag-haba-waba","tag-indiana-water-polo","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-scott-dickson","tag-steve-doten","tag-usa-water-polo","tag-valley-christian-high-school","tag-viper-pigeons","tag-western-water-polo-association","tag-wolf-wigo","tag-wwpa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n2018 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics: Day Two: Water Polo Christmas - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2018-usa-water-polo-junior-olympics-day-two-water-polo-christmas\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2018 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics: Day Two: Water Polo Christmas\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Correspondent Editor’s Note: Swimming World is on the ground all week with stories and quotes from the 2018 USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics. 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