As fallout from the coronavirus outbreak stretches from days to weeks, the desire for what comes next\u2014when it’s again safe to congregate\u2014is that much stronger. That includes water polo; all play is suspended and major tournaments like the national Junior Olympics, the world’s biggest youth water polo event, are threatened by the lingering impact of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
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American Water Polo (AWP)\u2014second only to USA Water Polo in promoting the sport in America\u2014has furloughed its Main Line League tournament. Contested primarily in the Philadelphia suburbs, hundreds of age group athletes have been sidelined, likely until the end of May.<\/p>\n
Ideally, not for much longer. Damon Newman<\/strong>, AWP’s director of membership is already plotting for when polo comes back. He has a long history with polo in the region; first as an age group player from outside of Philadelphia, than an all-state player at Wissahickon High School, and a collegiate player at Iona (1998-2001). Newman has already outlined a plan for his league\u2014and other tournaments in the region\u2014to shift to a summer schedule, when pool time might be available to satisfy pent-up demand.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Swimming World<\/em> spoke with Newman about the challenges for polo athletes to stay sharp out of the water, his organization’s capability to marshal a host of resources to stage high-caliber play and creating a variety of opportunities for players of all ages and ability to compete when it’s safe for everyone to get back in the pool.<\/p>\n Unless you have the luxury of a backyard pool\u2014which not a lot of us have\u2014the most important thing for athletes to do is get out and be as active as they can. Whether that\u2019s checking out workouts online or doing body weight workouts. KAP 7 has put out some really good videos. We\u2019ve got stuff on \u201cTips of the Week.\u201d USA Water Polo has been putting things out.<\/p>\n Utilizing any kind of resources that are accessible to you is important\u2014but they should follow the guidelines of the CDC and stay safe [given] COVID-19.<\/p>\n Everyone is in a holding pattern; what\u2019s going to happen with national tournaments, what\u2019s going to happen with qualifiers? What happens with our spring league and our large summer tournament?<\/p>\n It\u2019s all up in the air.<\/p>\n I wish there was an easy answer for me to say: Two months down the line\u00a0\u00a0we hope , things are going to level off and get back to normal. What we can do is look to host [events] in the summer. We canceled our local league [in Pennsylvania]\u2014that\u2019s probably 500 athletes. We hope to transition that into summer opportunities.<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: John Inwood<\/p><\/div>\n Athletes aren\u2019t able to do the things that they love to do\u2014and that\u2019s the thing for us. We want to create opportunities for athletes to play water polo. When that\u2019s not happening it\u2019s really a shame.<\/p>\n We\u2019re in a unique situation where we can potentially host local events in the Northeast if given the opportunity. I don\u2019t want to\u00a0 mislead because it\u2019s hard to predict what will happen. What I can say for us is we\u2019ll be prepared to create competition\u2014as we have done in the spring and the summer and throughout the year\u2014for our athletes.<\/p>\n Our primary audience is actually in several states, but we still want to serve those in Pennsylvania whenever we can.<\/p>\n There will be lots of athletes chomping at the bit to get back into the pool. If there is a need, we\u2019re trying to fill it. I\u2019ve heard from coaches [asking] what\u2019s the plan for the Main Line League, currently closed until the end of April.<\/p>\n Having the opportunity to hold a summer league\u2014there\u2019s people out there who want to do this.<\/p>\n The interesting thing about our part of Pennsylvania, there isn\u2019t a lot of age group water polo being played in the summer, with the exception of a handful of clubs. It\u2019s generally something that the high school players do.<\/p>\n This could spur some coaches to say: Hey, my athletes didn\u2019t have the opportunity to play in the spring. If there\u2019s a chance that we can play in the summer, then so be it!<\/p>\n We\u2019re hoping that people will want to do that and we\u2019ll do our best to provide that.<\/p>\n How do you expect this to play out for someone who wants to go to college to be seen by a coach? That\u2019s the question\u2026 and only time will tell when opportunities like the combines and large tournaments throughout the country where\u00a0 coaches do scouting will take place.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s not there, it could be that athletes have to rely more on game film and coaches will rely on recommendations from high school coaches\u2014instead of physically seeing these athletes play.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t see any other way to compare watching someone at a combine or playing in a big tournament. If that\u2019s an absent opportunity, it\u2019s going to negatively affect those kids.<\/p>\n Everything\u2019s on the table. If it\u2019s feasible and if there\u2019s enough athletes that have an interest in this, it something we would consider exploring.\u00a0We are still hoping that our national competition, the National State Challenge, will take place this July in Chicago.<\/p>\n USA Water Polo’s Junior Olympics are the world’s premier youth polo tournament. Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Hayne<\/p><\/div>\n I do see the perspective that some of these coaches will get in their own car and make a five-hour drive instead of being in a plane [to California] for five hours. Again, we just don\u2019t know what life is going to look like.<\/p>\n We share an office space. We share Dan Sharadin<\/strong>, who\u2019s the commissioner of the Collegiate Water Polo Association and also the executive director of American Water Polo. He heads both organizations, so obviously there\u2019s a connection. We already partner on some video opportunities like Tip of the Week,<\/p>\n There could be opportunities in this time to do some other collaborations as well.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve always said that we\u2019re co-existing with whomever is out there. We have our mission and there is crossover between the two organizations in terms of that mission.<\/p>\n We all agree that we want to get more kids playing water polo. If you look at a sport like swimming, even in the Philadelphia \/ New York metro area there\u2019s a couple of hundred thousand kids just swimming. If you look at how many people are playing water polo, it\u2019s a small percentage of that.<\/p>\n At a time like this we\u2019re an open door. We\u2019ll listen to anyone who has a good idea and wants to work together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As fallout from the coronavirus outbreak stretches from days to weeks, the desire for what comes next\u2014when it’s again safe to congregate\u2014is that much stronger. That includes water polo; all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":311396,"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":[8,12],"tags":[122490,122489,26496,100639,3613,122491],"class_list":["post-425816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","category-water-polo","tag-american-water-polo","tag-damon-newman","tag-dan-sharadin","tag-iona","tag-usa-water-polo","tag-wissahickon-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n– For aquatic sports, there\u2019s no substitute for water\u2014but no facilities are currently available for polo athletes to train.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
– Age group polo in America focuses on the summer for top competition; now there\u2019s no certainty that high-level events will take place.
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– As the health crisis lessens, there likely will be pent-up demand for all sports, including water polo. How is AWP positioned to meet this demand?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
– Your audience is in Pennsylvania and\u2014because of all the high school teams\u2014there are many aquatics facilities throughout the state. Will you be able to access those pools this summer?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
– High school juniors and seniors are particularly hurt by the layoff; combines to showcase their ability may happen but if the JOs don\u2019t, a lot of athletes, particularly in the Northeast, will not get the exposure needed to draw interest from college coaches.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
– Given your affiliation with the CWPA, the country\u2019s biggest association of collegiate and club polo athletes\u2014might high-level tournaments be played and streamed so college coaches can see live polo?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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– How might AWP leverage its relationship with the CWPA at this time?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
– USA Water Polo and AWP share overlapping missions. How might you both collaborate to fill a desperate need to get kids back in the water as soon as possible?<\/strong><\/h3>\n