Official Club Name: Ohio Squirrels Water Polo Club
On The Web: www.ohiosquirrels.com
Director of Club: Michael Jones
Club Coaches: Michael Jones and Nick Long
Age Groups & Genders: Co-Ed, ages 18-50...Most players are between the ages of 20 and 30.
How Did They Get Started?: The club was started in January, 2007. In the beginning Nick Long and Michael Jones wanted to continue to play water polo together after college. Both of them has experience playing club water polo in college (Nick –University of Dayton, Mike – Ohio University) and they wanted to explore the idea of gathering players in Cincinnati to start practicing and attending nearby tournaments. Slowly they were able to intrigue a small group. Mike and Nick contacted other players in other cities they knew about (Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo) and were able to get a pretty strong team to attend these collegiate club tournaments. The team name, the Ohio Squirrels Water Polo Club, came about because the club was recruiting players from different cities across the state of Ohio. This made it look like they were jumping from tree to tree recruiting players to attend these tournaments. They looked like Squirrels. Eventually, a large enough draw came from Cincinnati and a small water polo club was formed. Since 2007, two other masters teams, Cleveland Water Polo and Central Ohio Water Polo have popped up thanks to the help from the leaders of the Ohio Squirrels. The Squirrels have also benefited the clubs of University of Cincinnati, Xavier University and University of Dayton by scrimmaging them on a weekly basis.
Where Is Home?: The club has two home facilities. They are the Xavier University O'Connor Recreation Center and the University of Cincinnati Recreation Center. Both facilities have been very welcoming of the club and the club's home tournament is held at the University of Cincinnati which boasts a 50 meter all deep pool.
Where Do They Play?: The team typically attends collegiate club tournaments in the state that are hosted by the University of Dayton, University of Akron, Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Bowling Green State University. Outside of Ohio, the team has traveled to University of Tennessee’s spring and fall tournaments, 616’s Michigan Invitational and Chicago’s Beached Whales Invitational. In addition, the club is hoping to have their home tournament twice a year.
Five Years From Now: The club has ambitious goals for the future. In the short term they hope to attend the USA Water Polo Masters Nationals in 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. They'd also like to keep up strong recruiting efforts as they get a lot of turnover in the club, and with that in mind they want to expand to an age group program. An added goal would be to send a team to the S & R Sport Junior Olympics each year. Lastly they would like to continue the development of younger players by hosting a weekend clinic for first and second year high school players.
On To The Next One: The club has sent three players on to college including Kelly Sullivan at San Diego mesa College, Alex Bollman at Gannon University and Dan Matulis who is still considering options among Division 1 schools in California. Sullivan was named a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week last season while Matulis takes part in USA Water Polo's ODP program.
Circling the Wagons: The squirrels have a bunch of great stories but one that holds great merit includes the club raising $600 to send one of their players to an ODP camp in California. The club raised the money in just three weeks and hopes to make this a yearly possibility for players in the club.
How To Get Involved?: Becoming a part of the Ohio Squirrels is easy. Just send an email to ohio.squirrels@gmail.com. You will receive a hand out, club structure and practice times and locations. The Ohio Squirrels Water Polo Club...Go Nuts!!!
