{"id":459865,"date":"2021-01-18T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T23:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=459865"},"modified":"2021-01-19T03:31:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T10:31:49","slug":"on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Record with Clarke Weatherspoon, USAWP Racial Equity & Reform Task Force Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a moment of extreme disruption in American society, including unrest due to continued racial discrimination and violence, Clarke Weatherspoon<\/strong> and USA Water Polo\u2019s Racial Equity & Reform Task Force<\/a> seek to open up swimming and water polo to all, regardless of race or gender.<\/p>\n

It is no surprise that Weatherspoon, an educator who for more than a decade was an age group coach with Stanford Water Polo Club, and has been head of the Middle School at San Francisco Friends School the past two years, is part of this potentially ground-breaking initiative. A former water polo athlete at Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire as well as at UC Santa Barbara, he is a passionate promoter of polo who believes sports can address inequality in our society.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Swimming World<\/em>, Weatherspoon talks about his start in swimming with the Rogers\u2014first\u00a0 Roger Wycoff<\/strong>, a swim coach, and then Roger Nekton<\/strong>, coach of the Exeter swim and polo teams\u2014his journey to California for polo, his success with Stanford’s 14U boys and girls teams, his participation with the Racial Diversity and Equity Task Force, and how much work needs to be done to make aquatics available to all.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

– You grew up in New Hampshire, not exactly a water polo hotbed.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

My dad is a long-time faculty member at Phillips Exeter. That was where I spent a big chunk of my childhood. I started age group swimming when I was a kid. I was competing on a swim team for a retired army colonel named Roger Wycoff<\/strong>\u00a0 who was a really amazing coach.<\/p>\n

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Weatherspoon at Phillips Exeter. Photo Courtesy: C. Weatherspoon<\/p><\/div>\n

On the swim team there were just two families: his children and me and my siblings. He was an inspiring coach, and when we moved to New Hampshire, the first year I was there I didn\u2019t swim. I remember going to my parents [and saying]: We\u2019ve got to swim! Swimming is important! One of my dad\u2019s colleagues, a man by the name of Roger Nekton<\/strong> was the coach at Phillips Exeter who had a son my age.<\/p>\n

I was one of those kids who was always at the bottom of the pool or pulling on people or the lane lines\u2014all the things that drive some coaches crazy. When I saw there was a sport that involved being social, having your head out of the water and playing with a ball, that was the best of all worlds.<\/p>\n

I played through high school then spoke to Mr. Nekton about where he thought I might be able to play in college.<\/p>\n

I really wanted to come to California. I didn\u2019t go through a serious West Coast recruiting experience. I got some feedback from Coach Nekton and he mentioned UCSB. I applied, ended up getting in and contacted Joe O\u2019Brien<\/strong> [UCSB head coach] at the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

– That\u2019s a big dive in\u2014going to California to play water polo. How was it acclimating to playing in the mecca for the sport in America?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that a lot of [California] colleges have open tryouts. It just happens that year, where UCSB water polo was in its history, there had been a coaching transition\u2014Pete Snyder <\/strong>had been the coach for a long time\u2014then Joe O\u2019Brien came in. As any new coach comes in there\u2019s a transition of players.<\/p>\n

You think about your classic high school tryout. You\u2019ve got people who have never played, people who are already on the team, [including] the captain and everything in between. I remember showing up at the pool and there were a lot of guys. There was a swim test set and drills\u2026 I\u2019m forgetting how long it was; in my mind it was a week but it could have been three or four days. But, it was a fascinating experience, and when it came down there was a list of 20 – 25 guys and my name on it.<\/p>\n

– California water polo is not known for its diversity\u2014and Eastern athletes are not common out West.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year I was on the team, there were a few other East Coast players. There were two guys who played at the Annapolis club, there was a guy who played at Greenwich High School\u2014and another from Greenwich who played the year before. I knew those guys from playing on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

The guys on the UCSB team were really cool. You spend a lot of time together. We were training preseason double days and then into the season and off-season, my first two years of college I spent more time with guys on the water polo team than with anybody else. A bunch of those guys are still very close friends.<\/p>\n

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With the 1998 UC Santa Barbara Water Polo Team. Photo Courtesy: C. Weatherspoon<\/p><\/div>\n

There was a lot of curiosity\u2014being a Black, private school kid from New Hampshire was anomalous on a lot of levels. One of the things I enjoyed more than anything was going to my teammates’ houses and seeing California.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I got introduced to California in a day-to-day sense\u2014going to their houses, meeting their families and friends. Guys would take me surfing\u2026 things that guys on the team did which for them were what life was about.<\/p>\n

Ultimately if you\u2019re going to be a college athlete you should buy into the camaraderie of the team, have respect for your teammates and what it\u2019s about to work together. Sports like golf, tennis, swimming are different because you\u2019re competing in a team framework but in a lot of ways you\u2019re competing for yourself.<\/p>\n

Those are unique experiences and they\u2019re fundamentally different from being on a water polo team, or baseball or basketball. The interconnectedness and the shared responsibility you have manifests very differently.<\/p>\n

– Water polo is perhaps the ultimate team sport. But, its participants represent a very particular subset of America: Californians, affluent, white. As a UCSB athlete playing other California teams, did you experiences any challenges because you were a Black athlete from the East? <\/strong><\/p>\n

No, that was never really an issue that I faced. Other Black players, I\u2019ve spoken with them and that\u2019s been a part of their experience but I never had that as part of my experience or in games.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just never come up in my water polo experience as a player.<\/p>\n

As a coach, as a spectator, different things have happened, but not in my playing experience, and I\u2019m happy for that.<\/p>\n

I was a center in high school and was learning the position at the college level. I only played for two years and I was injured the whole time. One of the things that you\u2019ll find about me and UCSB water polo is that I got a letter when I was there; I was red-shirted my first year but was hurt. I have no UCSB water polo stats.<\/p>\n

Which is a fascinating experience because water polo became such a huge part of my life and I was not a UCSB water polo legend\u2014I really loved the experience and started coaching in the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club when I was a senior.<\/p>\n

– From that formative experience, you not only stayed in California for your career but embraced water polo, becoming an age group coach.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent my junior year abroad in Egypt. When I came back I was really missing water polo big time. I started playing masters. Then I wanted to coach. I went back to Joe and said I wanted to be involved in water polo somehow. All the guys I came in with were seniors and I would go to all the games. I did some announcing for the college radio station, which was fun. Then I started coaching\u2014which pushed me into club.<\/p>\n

I coached at Santa Barbara Water Polo Club for a couple of years and then went to Marin Water Polo Club. I coached there and taught and coached at Marin Academy, a high school in Marin, which was awesome. Then I got invited to coach at Stanford, where I coached for a number of years. which was really wonderful.<\/p>\n

– What was it like to be invited to coach at one of the best age group clubs in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon Barnea<\/strong>, one of my really good friends who I had coached with at the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club, is the Stanford men\u2019s assistant. We were talking for years, coaching against each other\u201414U. He was coaching at Palo Alto High School before he became the Stanford men\u2019s [assistant] coach.<\/p>\n

They were looking to build their program further and he spoke with John Vargas<\/strong> and Brian Kreutzkamp<\/strong> and they said “Get this guy to come and coach with us.” I decided to make that move down there. I taught at Sacred Heart in Atherton for a year, then ended up returning to San Francisco to teach but stayed coaching at Stanford.<\/p>\n

– Obviously, education is a big part of your background and a life-long occupation. How is your focus on teaching reflected in your work for Stanford Water Polo Club?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a teacher and a coach are the same. In order to get people to perform at a high level at anything, you have to teach them why they should be doing what they\u2019re doing. Clarity of instruction, consistency of values around how you relate to the facility, the coaches, the kids your training and competing against\u2014those things really matter.<\/p>\n

\"weatherspoon-stanford-kids-02-JAN21\"

Celebrating a 2013 Champions Cup victory. Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the big goals was to get kids to understand the connection between excelling in sports and excelling in life. How do you take lessons, experiences and values in life and extrapolate them to other places? For me, I learned a lot of things in sports that I was able to use elsewhere\u2014including in school\u2014and I still use in my life.<\/p>\n

When I was growing up was an era of coaches with loud voices yelling at people. That has died down a lot\u2014maybe the advent of Positive Coaching Alliance<\/a> or any of a number of organizations that are about treating athletes with dignity and respect.<\/p>\n

As a youth athlete my coaches were tremendously caring\u2014overwhelmingly so. So many coaches I had were gracious, caring, loving, motivating. I feel that providing that level of care to athletes is really important.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the phrase of: \u201cPlaying things the right way\u201d which people overuse, but there is an integrity that should be evident in your team when you play, travel, when you talk to other kids. It should be a positive experience from competing against you\u2014which should be difficult. It should be hell but it should be fun.<\/p>\n

Water polo is a really physical sport that was always demanding but also fun. I think about competition against players who were as good or better\u2014and how much fun I had. So, trying to balance for our kids competing at a high level, respecting the people you\u2019re playing, having fun with the physical challenge and being able to understand how important it is to carry yourself with dignity and treat others at the same level.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the things we offered at Stanford.<\/p>\n

– Which is no surprise; it\u2019s a reflection of the values of the institution your club is associated with.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Stanford we\u2019d have 80, 90 kids in our 14U group. I felt a great responsibility to help the highest-level athletes we had win games. There was an emphasis on winning. I\u2019d say that to kids; we’re here to have a good time, and we want to teach all these values. But we\u2019ve got 100 kids here\u2014let\u2019s figure out how to win some games! And that requires on the part of the coach, instruction.<\/p>\n

You have to teach people how to win games. You obviously have to be good at player selection. You have to be able to communicate to kids why they\u2019re not making teams\u2014and I got a lot of help with that. I asked a lot of questions of a lot of people who were very generous in sharing that information.<\/p>\n

In the years where it works out, you can end up winning a lot of games. Sometimes, you just compete a lot. And, sometimes you get smoked.<\/p>\n

You have to create a culture where kids want to come back. They view it as something they like\u2014they like spending time with you as their coach, that matters. They say: If that coach is gonna be there, I want to go.<\/p>\n

Part of what\u2019s amazing about being at Stanford is it\u2019s the best facility anywhere. That facility sells itself\u2014forget about who\u2019s competing, just being able to coach there\u2026 to be in the middle of four amazing pools and this huge stadium. To see all these former and future Olympians. One day I met Greg Louganis<\/strong> on the pool deck.<\/p>\n

I went up to him and said: I\u2019m a huge fan!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a lot of pools where you can see Louganis, Katie Ledecky<\/strong>, Simone Manuel<\/strong>, Tony Azevedo<\/strong> and Ben Hallock<\/strong> on the same day.<\/p>\n

– In 2014 you were recognized with USAWP’s Ted Newland Distinguished Men’s Coaching Award. Did you get to meet Coach Newland?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I never met Coach Newland<\/a>. He\u2019s a legend in our sport and my understanding\u2014I know a lot of guys who played for him at UCI\u2014his dedication to hard work, his ability to teach players, his focus on high-level player development is something I think is interesting.<\/p>\n

\"weatherspoon-USAWP-JAN21\"

2015 National Junior Olympics hardware. Photo Courtesy: Jon Barnea<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s obvious from the number of Olympians he developed in college how skilled he was at taking athletes where they were and helping them understand the mental element of the game as well as the physical demands that one has to put on oneself in order to excel. That is something that really stands out about what\u2019s so important about his teaching and coaching.<\/p>\n

It was a huge honor to win that award for player development. For me as a coach, I think about the developing players at any stage\u2014and I don\u2019t think these two things are in opposition. It\u2019s one thing to be on the bench with a great team that you haven\u2019t developed and coached versus developing players. I think those two things are very different.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re developing players, sometimes you\u2019re coaching them when they\u2019re really good, and sometimes you\u2019re coaching them when they\u2019re learning. Sometimes, you\u2019re watching them while they\u2019re being really good.<\/p>\n

Winning that award in large part was a testimony to being able to coach a few teams in a row of kids who were highly coachable, highly motivated, highly knowledgeable and they got a lot of results\u2014and the award was one of those.<\/p>\n

– Your role with USAWP\u2019s task force on Racial Equity & Reform provides a platform to continue to work on behalf of the sport\u2014and to advocate for communities of color to find their way to the pool and polo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any change effort that\u2019s meaningful is a longer-term project. One of the biggest things is access. You have to be thinking about what\u2019s the path to the pool. My path was really simple. My dad had a colleague who was starting a swim team and approached my parents. We were getting high-quality swim lessons at a really young age. And, the social event that I looked forward to the most was a pool party.<\/p>\n

I think about how many kids I knew who hated pool parties\u2014either because they couldn\u2019t swim well or weren\u2019t comfortable in a bathing suit. Those two things prohibit a lot of people from participating in aquatics.<\/p>\n

This idea of creating more paths to the pool, more pools that people can access, more free swim [sessions]\u2014and more engagement from community members at the lowest possible level of the sport. By that I mean more entry ways.<\/p>\n

One of the things that drove me to coach 14Us was recognizing that in terms of player development, 14U was an important stage in helping kids become serious water polo players. Part of my job was finding kids who were basketball or baseball players who surfed\u2014and getting those [athletes] to commit. There was some time coaching 6- and 7-year-olds who had never played before\u2014what we called Junior Water Polo.<\/p>\n

I did that at Stanford and I did that at Marin; how do you find those kids and how do you widen the range of your reach? If your pathways are broad, you can find more athletes who are going to be good later. You think about other sports\u2014how many entry points are there for kids to play basketball or soccer? That\u2019s how you end up with Kobe [Bryant]<\/strong>, or Shaq [O\u2019Neal]<\/strong> or Mike Trout<\/strong>. You think about these players who are phenomenally good; part of it is there\u2019s so many places where you can play those sports.<\/p>\n

If we want to think long-term, what decisions are we making right now that in a decade will result in way more kids of way more backgrounds playing our sport, excelling, playing DI polo, making the national teams, playing in the Olympics?<\/p>\n

– Time is a critical factor\u2014and it makes sense to think in terms of a decade because how long change of this nature takes. But, it\u2019s hard enough to think in terms of what\u2019s happening next week let alone how things will look years from now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe that the task force is think in big chunks of time. It will likely be a different group of people in a decade [who] will be doing that work. We are thinking about what we can do beyond exposure to skill-building.<\/p>\n

[USA Water Polo Racial Equality & Reform Task Force Hosts Town Hall Discussions on Zoom<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an activity that I\u2019ve done in a lot of schools which is: Describe a place where you feel the most comfortable. When I\u2019ve done this exercise, the place that I\u2019ve always named is the pool. I love walking onto a pool deck and hearing the water in the gutters, seeing the flags, hearing the sounds of swimmers doing freestyle. All those things feel like home to me. But that\u2019s because when I walk on the pool deck I feel like I belong [there].<\/p>\n

\"weatherspoon-stanford-JAN21\"

Stanford Water Polo Club at the 2015 Junior Olympics. Photo Courtesy: C. Weatherspoon<\/p><\/div>\n

A really important part of what we have to work on in the long- and short-term is creating cultures so that people of all classes feel like that can walk on to a pool deck and they will be welcomed. They will be treated with love and care and respect.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the case at every pool.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges that we face nationally\u2014which is what John Abdou<\/strong> has talked about\u2014is we have had real segregation of aquatics. Not just racial segregation but class segregation. The idea that only people who have money or who are part of certain clubs have access to the pool. Only people of certain skin colors or certain genders. We don\u2019t have to go back that far to a time when there was no women\u2019s water polo.<\/p>\n

In my high school when I played, there was no women\u2019s water polo\u2014it didn\u2019t exist. When you look at all the water polo teams from 1970-something to the year I graduated, 1997, there was one woman in all those photos, and she played men\u2019s water polo. [It\u2019s a] gender-divide where we\u2019re watching our women\u2019s team just ball out, we\u2019re working on that\u2014there\u2019s a focus on men\u2019s water polo even though our women\u2019s team is phenomenal.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an equity issue right there.<\/p>\n

What are the ways as a sport can we make it so that anybody who feels like showing up at the pool is a good idea\u2014and they should bring their friends. There\u2019s a no horsing around policy at pools, but kids have to be able to show up and be kids.<\/p>\n

– There\u2019s a whole other discussion about the Alliance for Equity and Diversity and how their mission dovetails with your task force\u2019s approach to the issues at hand\u2014and how to effect concrete solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the things about the Alliance<\/a> and about the task force is identifying this idea that: We have this sport\u2014and Felix [Mercado]<\/strong> said this the other day\u2014that mirrors a lot of what we see in our broader society. We have challenges in our society and they also exist in our sport. It would be na\u00efve to believe that they don’t. Many of us want to address them.<\/p>\n

The fact is, we have a really great sport and there\u2019s a lot of great people who play this sport. In terms of friends I\u2019ve made, opportunities I\u2019ve had\u2014I\u2019ve encountered some wonderful people. So many of them from all backgrounds want to see our sport grow and they want to share the soul of that sport.<\/p>\n

\"abdou-USAWP-JAN21\"

John Abdou. Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a huge need for coaches\u2019 education. Being a good water polo player is not the same as being a good coach. We as a generation of players\u2014I\u2019m thinking of the players my age and generations behind me\u2014need to invest in learning how to coach. They need to invest in younger generations, sharing that knowledge because [polo] is a unique sport. It\u2019s very hard to not play and teach it.<\/p>\n

My high school coach never played\u2014he was a phenomenal teacher of the sport because he was a phenomenal teacher. Water polo, swimming, track\u2014a great coach in all three areas because he was such a great teacher.<\/p>\n

Teaching water polo is difficult to teach if you\u2019ve never done it. People who have played need to be educated in the skills of coaching, which are not just technical. There\u2019s also people skills and values education\u2014and make sure we combine that with expanded access, inclusion education and training\u2014really embracing growth.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the reason I joined the task force. The mission and outlook is really positive. I would love to see the United States winning in the Olympic Games. I would also love to see people of all backgrounds, when I run into them say: Hey man, I play water polo, too.<\/p>\n

I would love to have that conversation with people of all backgrounds, all social classes, all races, all genders\u2014have them say: I played water polo, and it was great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a moment of extreme disruption in American society, including unrest due to continued racial discrimination and violence, Clarke Weatherspoon and USA Water Polo\u2019s Racial Equity & Reform Task Force<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":459882,"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":[122077,7,12],"tags":[127024,47734,22774,63407,8772,1665,127018,46637,479,127019,25031,50547,127020,60192,72886,37265,65966,127017,66338,127025,127026,127023,127021,25400,45503,3671,60916,4535],"class_list":["post-459865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas","category-usa","category-water-polo","tag-alliance-for-equity-and-diversity","tag-ben-hallock","tag-brian-kreutzkamp","tag-felix-mercado","tag-greenwich-high-school","tag-greg-louganis","tag-joe-obrien","tag-john-abdou","tag-john-vargas","tag-jon-barnea","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-marin-water-polo-club","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-mike-trout","tag-palo-alto-high-school","tag-pete-snyder","tag-phillips-exeter-academy","tag-positive-coaching-alliance","tag-roger-nekton","tag-roger-wycoff","tag-santa-barbara-water-polo-club","tag-shaq-oneal","tag-simone-manuel","tag-stanford-water-polo-club","tag-tony-azevedo","tag-uc-santa-barbara","tag-ucsb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nOn The Record with Clarke Weatherspoon, USAWP Racial Equity & Reform Task Force Member - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Clarke Weatherspoon, an educator and coach, will work w\/USAWP to push back to racial discrimination and violence in American society.\" \/>\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\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On The Record with Clarke Weatherspoon, USAWP Racial Equity & Reform Task Force Member\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clarke Weatherspoon, an educator and coach, will work w\/USAWP to push back to racial discrimination and violence in American society.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-18T23:00:58+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-19T10:31:49+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/weatherspoon-stanford-kids-jan21.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1081\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Randazzo\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Randazzo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"20 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Randazzo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fb1d58ba008040c3ad837f46defed7bb\"},\"headline\":\"On The Record with Clarke Weatherspoon, USAWP Racial Equity & Reform Task Force Member\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-18T23:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-19T10:31:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\"},\"wordCount\":3935,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/weatherspoon-stanford-kids-jan21.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alliance for Equity and Diversity\",\"Ben Hallock\",\"Brian Kreutzkamp\",\"Felix Mercado\",\"Greenwich High School\",\"Greg Louganis\",\"Joe O\u2019Brien\",\"John Abdou\",\"John Vargas\",\"Jon Barnea\",\"Katie Ledecky\",\"Kobe Bryant\",\"Marin Water Polo Club\",\"Michael Randazzo\",\"Mike Trout\",\"Palo Alto High School\",\"Pete Snyder\",\"Phillips Exeter Academy\",\"Positive Coaching Alliance\",\"Roger Nekton\",\"Roger Wycoff\",\"Santa Barbara Water Polo Club\",\"Shaq O\u2019Neal\",\"Simone Manuel\",\"Stanford Water Polo Club\",\"Tony Azevedo\",\"UC Santa Barbara\",\"UCSB\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Americas\",\"USA\",\"Water Polo\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-clarke-weatherspoon\/\",\"name\":\"On The Record with Clarke Weatherspoon, USAWP Racial Equity & Reform Task Force Member - 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[On The Record with Pete Snyder, Head Coach for the 1979 UC Santa Barbara Men\u2019s Water Polo Team<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n