A Closer Look: Santa Monica Water Polo Club
Official Club Name: Santa Monica Water Polo Club
On The Web: www.santamonicawaterpolo.com
Director Of Club: Matt Flanders
Club Coaches: Vedran Kaluderovic, Pat Dodge, Jeff Belhajj, Jay Boand, Ivan Rodriguez, Willo Rodriguez, Karl Niehaus, Win Bates
Age Groups & Genders: 10-18 years old - male and female
How Did They Get Started?: Santa Monica High School needed a club to help middle school athletes prepare for high school and further develop the high school kids, so a group of water polo players with college and international water polo experience were put together to help the kids.
Where Is Home Base?: The home pool for the club is Santa Monica High School located on the corner of 4th avenue and Pico in Santa Monica. All the practices are at this facility and the club holds scrimmages there as well as some other pools in the area.
Where Do They Play?: The club scrimmages against other clubs in their local zone league (Coastal California) and also gets involved in leagues and tournaments in the area.
Five Years From Now: The club hopes to have more kids who can benefit from some of the excellent coaching the club offers. In addition they'd like to have more kids participating not only at the middle school level, but high school level as well.
Big Men On Campus: Santa Monica Water Polo alum Adam Cline plays for the men's program at the University of California-Berkeley while Marc Vonderweit and Maxi Vilim Brozyna are both being recruited for future NCAA competition.
How To Get Involved?: Becoming a part of the Santa Monica Water Polo club is easy. Just log on to www.santamonicawaterpolo.com or call Karl Niehaus at 310-383-5582.
