United States Professional Water Polo

Why USA Water Polo should take it seriously

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The United States desperately needs a better national league. It’s the one thing stopping them from being the best water polo nation in the world.

My experience playing in the Australian Water Polo League (AWL) inspired me to start writing about different water polo leagues all over the world. The AWL provides a framework for how the United States can create and support a similar competition.

Today I’ll show you why a real premier league would be so impactful for the United States. In the future I’ll take you through how different countries all over the world structure/support their leagues.

If you know more about the subject I’d love to hear what you think in the Comments, Direct Messages, or Community Chat. It would also mean the world to me if you shared my work with people you know who would be interested

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Premier Leagues

Any country that has water polo puts on their own version of a premier national competition. These leagues can vary greatly in terms of size, funding, level of play, and schedule structure. Hungary for example has a fully professional 14 team league with a 40 game season. New Zealand on the other hand has a more modestly funded 5 team league with a 10 game season. No matter the case, each league represents water polo’s popularity and level of competition in each respective country.

The United States however is peculiar. There is no real premier American competition. The NCAA and the existing USAWP National League both fall short of being the best competition the United States can provide. Rather than focusing on what is wrong with the current USAWP National League, I would rather lay the foundation for how important it is to have a great one.

It comes down to Awareness, Engagement, and Competition.

Awareness

We have to create a reason for new eyes to go see the sport. Why would someone with no connection to water polo bother to go watch if it wasn't played and promoted at a professional level?

Water polo at it’s best will make a fan out of anyone. If you’ve ever experienced a truly amazing match in person, you know that’s true! I’m reminded of one of the best games I’ve ever seen, the NCAA Semifinal between Cal and UCLA in 2021.

That game was a spectacle. How impressed would any sports fan be if they saw it?

But it’s still rare for even water polo players (let alone strangers to the sport) to have seen it look like this in person. There has got to be more opportunities for people in the United States to see great water polo.

Water Polo needs to be on display, at as grand a scale as possible, as much as possible. There’s no better way to build the popularity of the sport than to provide a professional atmosphere for people to come watch.

Engagement

The United States has the most kids playing water polo in the entire world, but adult participation is a different story. Unfortunately, once players are finished in the NCAA, they tend to leave the sport behind them.

That’s because the options to keep playing are pretty bleak. Occasional masters tournaments always attract the same fanatics who will play until their bodies give out, but the majority of players aren’t interested in them. Single tournament weekends aren’t as exciting to play in as they are just a chance to catch up with old friends. It takes a season of training and games leading up to a championship weekend to create an atmosphere that would attract more adult players.

I’m not just talking about providing the most competitive league possible either. Sydney, Australia has 7 different divisions of a summer adult water polo league. Every team plays one game a week with the occasional bye round. Players in higher divisions train more, lower divisions train less. No matter the division, it’s competitive and people love it. I’ll be doing a full break down of the Aussie system soon!

There needs to be better and more exciting options for people to keep playing into adulthood. It would be massive for cities in the United States to have their own versions of the Sydney Competition. Keep people around the sport longer and you’ll see participation at every level skyrocket.

Competition

Europeans are better at men’s water polo. That’s been the case as long as the sport has been around. Not one non-European nation has ever won an Olympic Gold Medal in men’s water polo. Hungary and the nations which made up former Yugoslavia in particular have dominated, winning 16/22 Olympic Golds since 1932. Spain, Italy, and the Soviet Union won the remaining 6.

Why has America struggled to consistently produce players/teams at the caliber of these nations? It’s because there’s been a lack of opportunity for top American players to play competitive water polo at home, which has adverse effects on every level of the sport in the United States.

Benefits for Young Players

Professional water polo leaves an incredible mark on the young players who get to see it. It enlivens their love for the game because they can see themselves achieving the same thing one day. Kids see the improbable shots professional players pull off and will try to replicate them the next day in training. The same thing will happen when they watch how the professionals meticulously prepare their body for the game with stretches and band work. It gives them something to aspire to.

U18 Level Up

America’s rising talents are missing out. Players their age in other countries are already training with their local premier teams. This is the #1 advantage other countries have over the United States in developing their future stars.

There is nothing better for a talented young player than to be able to train with a more experienced team. It is the quickest way to drastically improve. It’s because they have to adapt. Everything is happening faster and everyone around them is stronger. Plus every player in the pool is making better decisions and employing higher level skills and tactics than what an 18 year old is used to. That makes it hyper-engaging for them, because it’s sink or swim. What they were doing to succeed at lower levels might not cut it anymore, forcing them to find new ways to compete.

Americans are still competing against players their own age and skill level. The best American U18’s just don’t have the same opportunities to be challenged as their foreign counterparts.

No Competition

The top European clubs play anywhere from 40 to 60 matches per season, and their players train and prepare for those games as a full time job. There are too many competitive advantages here to list. Just one example: think about the sheer number of repetitions in every game scenario that these athletes get playing that many world-class water polo matches a year. It’s why Europeans appear so much more composed on the world stage. The United States can’t develop and maintain players at the rate of European nations without better options for American players to train and compete at a high level after the NCAA.

But this year the US won Bronze! and they beat Hungary to do it!

That’s in huge part because nearly every single player on the US National Team has been playing in Europe for years now. Team USA knew they didn’t have a viable alternative to develop their top talents at home so they made it a priority to send everyone to play overseas, and it worked. Everyone knew the United States was one of the most dangerous teams in the Olympics and coming home with the Bronze was a massive achievement.

But sending players overseas is only a band-aid solution to the problem. Things like import rules and home-player favoritism make it difficult for Americans to secure spots on the top European teams, meaning that only the very best American players with the right connections can get those opportunities. Sadly this means that lots of great American talents graduate from the NCAA and simply stop playing. After all, it’s no small commitment to drop everything in your life and move to a foreign country to keep playing your sport. Just because a player isn’t the greatest prospect when they graduate college at 22 doesn’t mean that they couldn’t develop into an international talent by age 25, but it takes the right environment. Thats why it’s needed to create that environment in the United States!

Country Spotlights

USA Water Polo has done an incredible job growing the sport in the United States. Participation numbers continue to surge across the country, and the NCAA keeps growing and getting more competitive. But if they want to take water polo in the US to the next level, work needs to be done to establish a better premier league.

But what does that look like? Well the United States doesn’t need to come up with anything never-before-seen, It’s already being done around the world! I’ll be posting “Country Spotlights” every month to show people what different premier leagues look like all over the world.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

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