Dead Man Walking - The Demise of Men's NCAA Water Polo?

This year's NCAA Final Four event was designed to be watched on a tiny screen and at low resolution.  The competition is not being used as an opportunity to build the sport but to merely record it.   It is clear that the organizers have done the very minimum required and that they have taken great care to not to put an additional modicum of effort into a sport that is clearly on death row.  

I cannot blame NCAA staffers for making it as convenient as possible for themselves.  The media was put way up on top and on one side of the field.  On the far side of the pool, several long tables were set up and there was no access for photographers.  They roped off half the pool and set up a long table for themselves and didn't allow even photographer access to their side.  The field of play was set dead center to the entrance and tripods were not allowed due to safety concerns making it even more unnecessarily inconvenient for the media.  Only a few reporters were present on the first day.

The pressure to produce a flawless event was obviously reduced this year.  The officials were so inconsistent with the application of the rules that the first game had more than twice the number of exclusions and contra fouls than the second game.  It was not because the play was substantially different but because there were two officiating teams and each team whistled with a different style.  Even the clock was not run without error.  These are outcome changers.

Then there is the question of television.  I asked a couple of NCAA officials.  One told me that it would definitely be broadcast on CBS College Sports.  Another said that it was dropped in their last contract negotiation.  Even they don’t know but I tend to believe the latter in that it isn't on any television lineup that I've been able to find.  This might not seem very significant, but it is.  We need television as a way to share the sport with prospective players.  Although existing players like the idea of having all four games webcast, the sport needs more players.  Prospective players and their families are not going to come across the webcast incidentally and they are not going to seek it out unless someone they are greatly interested in is playing in that game.

We already know too well that programs are being cut.  We also know that it could be on the chopping block as an Olympic sport.  NCAA apparently knows it too.  To them, we are like that guy who everyone knows is about to get fired.  Who can blame the NCAA, though, if they are just reading the writing on the wall?

Although we have not seen the growth of the sport that we need, there has been improvement in quality.  A few years ago, our overall men’s college level of play was nowhere near that of other countries.  A few California schools dominated the college game.  The programs were not strong for all the reasons a fledgling sport struggles not the least of which was that there were simply not enough reasonably experienced players to recruit.  A few enterprising colleges started looking elsewhere for players and successfully recruited players and even some coaches from the Slavic countries hoping to round out their teams with some boys who knew their way around the game.  In some ways, this is paying off.  St Francis, for example, has shown tremendous improvement with 15 Slavic players currently on their roster and who held their own against USC today.  

While this is good for the colleges with solid water polo programs that can afford to recruit internationally, it does not portend well for American water polo and NCAA appears to be keenly attuned to the fact that water polo is a regionally popular niche sport that is not showing much growth.  They will do as little as possible as long as possible until those of us who love and play the sport develop it sufficiently that it becomes a standard sport.

So if we can’t blame NCAA for relegating us to second class status, who can we blame?  I suggest that the first person to consider is the person reading this article.  It is incumbent upon each one of us who loves the sport to work for it by being enthusiastic ambassadors to potential players and to work within the sport to develop it.  If you can do more, please do.  We need your help. 

We might also look at other water polo organizations around the world and ask ourselves what they have that we might be missing.  I see a couple of areas in which we are conspicuously deficit.  First and most importantly is a lack of sufficient age group water polo development throughout the country.  Without this, nothing will change.  I don’t know how any college or university can indefinitely sustain a sports program that is heavily dependent upon foreign players for success.  It is begging to be cut.  Our overall sport needs a development leader who has experience in both water polo and sport development.  We need someone who knows what it takes and will creatively and enthusiastically find ways to expand the game.  This person must stand for the highest ideal of our sport.  If such a person emerges, we, the existing enthusiasts of the sport, must help him expand the sport by devoting time and resources.  We need feet on the ground.  This is not about throwing money at the problem.  This is about inspiring local coaching and finding ways to overcome the barriers to sport development at the grassroots level.

The second problem area is the lack of uniformity of rules.   This issue really has two aspects.  First, coaches can’t coach and players can’t perfect techniques when they cannot predict how their tactics will be ruled.  Water polo is a difficult enough game without three sets of rules (NCAA, High School and USA Water Polo) and varying degrees of understanding and interpretations from region to region and ref to ref.   Second, and perhaps more importantly, when one referee from each of those games ends up on the championship game, it begs for spectators (the exact audience we need to become more invested in this sport) to conclude that the result of any game is subject to the whim of the referee.   As long as the legitimacy of the result of a game is in doubt, we are doomed to remain a regional niche sport living, barely, on Death Row.   We need a Technical Director to work to unify the rules and to support a system of referee training that will offer a greater degree of predictability of outcome for everyone involved in the sport. 

So is this the end of American water polo?  I hope not but, ultimately, I don’t believe continuing to stay the course is going to be successful.  Our governing body needs to refocus on their mission of growing the sport of water polo and scrap any other endeavor that does not directly produce results in this area or we will continue to be marginalized.  I hope the NGB’s board members realize this before it is too late for this beautiful game