{"id":621832,"date":"2025-09-02T16:13:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=621832"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:49:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:49:52","slug":"asphalt-greens-david-rodriguez-has-high-hopes-for-water-polo-growth-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/asphalt-greens-david-rodriguez-has-high-hopes-for-water-polo-growth-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Asphalt Green’s David Rodriguez Has High Hopes for Water Polo Growth in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asphalt Green’s David Rodriguez Has High Hopes for Water Polo Growth in NYC<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, history will be made at Asphalt Green (AG) on New York City\u2019s Upper East Side. Two professional water polo clubs\u2014Italy\u2019s Pro Recco<\/a>, whose 11 Champions League titles make it the world\u2019s best, and Ferencvaros<\/a> of Hungary, winner of the last two Champions League titles\u2014will face American college teams, the first time such matches have ever taken place in The Big Apple.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, Pro Recco and Ferencvaros will face off in a friendly match.<\/p>\n

That this should happen in the city\u2019s premiere aquatic facility is as it should be. Ever since the venerable swimming and fitness center opened its doors in 1984, Asphalt Gree has been the go-to location for New York City\u2019s best swimming.<\/p>\n

When UCLA, currently the top squad in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Men\u2019s varsity poll<\/a>, faces Pro Recco, the stands will be packed with polo fans from around the region. The nightcap features Princeton, the Garden State\u2019s prized polo squad, playing Ferencvaros, whose squad has never been to NYC, unlike their Italian rivals who in 2002<\/a> played an exhibition against the U.S. men\u2019s national team. That was the last time a water polo event of any magnitude occurred in the country\u2019s media capital.<\/p>\n

\"David

Courtesy: Asphalt Green<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that at this moment David Rodriguez<\/strong>, longest-tenured head swim coach in Asphalt Green’s history, is thinking big about polo. When Pro Recco owners Philip Hammarskjold<\/strong> and Alex Behring<\/strong> dreamed a year ago of a splash for their newly acquired club, they thought of NYC. Which brought them to Rodriguez and Asphalt Green’s plans to make polo more than something locals think about at Olympic times\u2014or once every four years.<\/p>\n

Following is an abbreviated version of a recent interview with David Rodriguez. For the full text, <\/em>please click on this link.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Asphalt Green has an opportunity with water polo\u2014next week Pro Recco and <\/strong>Ferencvaros<\/strong> will play one of the highest profile polo matches in NYC history. There’s often a split between swim people and water polo people. As the aquatic director, you oversee two different programs with natural rivalries. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Having an elite swim program and elite water polo program under the same umbrella is another piece we’re trying to achieve. My background is as competitive swimmer; through and through that was my passion. But I was exposed to water polo and played water polo throughout my high school career with some really great water polo coaches\u2014and grew a lot of fandom for the sport itself and working together being a useful tool for kids to parlay into their professional lives.<\/p>\n

Through careful leadership [Asphalt Green water polo] has evolved into a respectable program. What if we were to put our foot on the gas and try to become an elite program?<\/p>\n

The combination of our coaches, my competitive nature and Asphalt Green’s focus on the sports fitness and play for all we’ve decided to put our foot on the gas and see if we can get a water polo program that can hold up to what we’ve done from a swimming perspective.<\/p>\n

There\u2019re many competing forces, Asphalt Green, a nonprofit with a very clear mission, to get as many people as possible in the water. On the flip side is Asphalt Green’s many different constituencies\u2014and now you are considering expanding water polo\u2014and what that means to pool usage and your clientele.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I say it a little bit tongue in cheek, but the reality is that if you ask each of the constituencies, they’d all be mad at me and all be wanting more.<\/p>\n

And I think that that’s when the lens that we use on all of this is through our mission\u2026 the concept of sports, fitness and play for all.<\/p>\n

How do we chop it up? That\u2019s a challenge! For our competitive team, we all must make compromises on pool time. Our water polo program, if they had more pool time would be better.<\/p>\n

One of the blessings in disguise of all this is that our athletes on Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics and ultimately water polo learn that [aquatics] is about something so much bigger than just their competitive teams. And the ability to provide access and to give opportunities that they have is at the core of what we’re teaching the kids. We’re teaching the kids to be advocates and better citizens and do things when they leave our program.<\/p>\n

One of our athletes, Ali Wright<\/strong>, recently took the initiative and raised over $70,000 by herself to support our community programs. If we keep everything separate\u2014only competitive teams here in this pool or community swimmers, there\u2014they’d never see that.<\/p>\n

I don’t think we perfected it, but I think that we found a good balance between having everybody cheerlead all the things that we’re doing [while] giving everybody what they need.<\/p>\n

To finish up, there are rumors out there that Asphalt Green wants more water, that if you could find the land, you\u2019d build another facility. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We look at this in two ways. It’s not only expansion, but also maintenance and preservation of our current landscape as well, which is the two sides of the coin. Right now, we shut down both of our pools for two weeks to refurb\/rehab, do all those things to continue to deliver [program] at a high level at our home site. We helped rehab the pool at River East<\/a> which hadn’t been open since 2015. It’s not only building on our campus, but also looking for [aquatic] assets sprinkled across the city\u2014that could potentially work for us and what we’re trying to do.<\/p>\n

We’re doing due diligence on our research and seeing what’s possible on our campuses. We know we are bursting at the seams looking for more pool space and water. If there’s an opportunity that makes sense for the organization, I’m confident that we’ll jump on it.<\/p>\n

Michael Randazzo<\/b>\u00a0(the Man with a Hat<\/a>) is a swimming & water polo\u00a0enthusiast in New York City. He’s the executive director of\u00a0Inclusive Community Wellness<\/a>, a Brooklyn-based NPO that provides health\u00a0and wellness opportunities to New Yorkers. When he’s not on a pool deck helping\u00a0children and adults learn to swim, Randazzo occasionally writes about water polo, a sport he never played and barely understands.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asphalt Green’s David Rodriguez Has High Hopes for Water Polo Growth in NYC On Wednesday night, history will be made at Asphalt Green (AG) on New York City\u2019s Upper East<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":621829,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,7,12],"tags":[62019,20687,54416],"class_list":["post-621832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-usa","category-water-polo","tag-asphalt-green","tag-david-rodriguez","tag-water-polo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nAsphalt Green's David Rodriguez Wants Water Polo Growth 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