College Park, MD – May 12, 2009 – The USA Water Polo General Assembly came to a close at the University of Maryland as newly named Women's Senior National Team Head Coach Adam Krikorian led the UCLA Bruins to an unprecedented fifth straight Women's NCAA Title. The Assembly brought together elected representatives from every zone along with the USAWP Board of Directors and USA Water Polo staff for two days of governance work, presentations and water polo.
USOC High Performance Director for Water Polo and former USA Women's Soccer Olympic Head Coach April Heinrichs delivered the keynote address on Friday evening to kick off the weekend. Heinrichs spoke of the tremendous turnaround USA Water Polo has seen in recent years and outlined steps for the organization to reach maximum potential.
"It is important to bring our community together occasionally to discuss the business of our sport," said Christopher Ramsey, USA Water Polo's Chief Executive Officer. "We had terrific presentations by Mike Graff, April Heinrichs and Steve Stennerson, which gave everyone on hand a great deal to consider and discuss."
University of Maryland's Comcast Center was the site for the Assembly meeting on Saturday. In a unanimous vote, the Assembly ratified directors Michael Graff, Ed Reynolds and new director Bob Sternfels. Amendments to Article 7 of the USAWP Bylaws were also approved unanimously by the Assembly. The amendments (1) changed the number of directors to the board from a range of 8-10 to a range of 7-15, (2) clarified the responsibility of directors to include that they personally contribute to USAWP as well as help to raise funds and other resources for the organization and (3) staggered director terms to insure continuity of the board.
The meeting opened with presentations by Graff on the state of USA Water Polo as well and another entitled "The Road Ahead" by Chief Executive Office Christopher Ramsey. Steve Stennerson from US Lacrosse delivered a presentation providing insight into the US Lacrosse growth surge in the last ten years, while USA Water Polo's Liz Grimes reviewed the US Leagues program and introduced several youth initiatives that are currently underway around the country.
The youth initiatives included Splash Ball, presented by Southern Pacific Zone Chair Mark Cousineau, Noodle Ball, presented by Rafael Ruano of American River Water Polo, and H20 Ball, presented by Nick Grzeda, Vice Chairman of the Northeast Zone.
The session concluded with a presentation by Director of Olympic Development Guy Baker, who was able to field questions on the newly revamped ODP. In addition Board of Directors member Lynn Kachmarik delivered a closing note on respecting the game of water polo. Taken as a whole, it was a concentrated day of water polo information and discussion. The attendees were then left to take in the NCAA tournament games at the nearby Eppely Recreation Center.
For more information on the assembly and copies of presentations given at the Assembly, please click here. The amended bylaws will be posted by the end of this week under "Inside USA Water Polo."
Thanks to all those that attended:
Joe Linehan
JT Wall
Susan Ingraham
Robert Albach
Jim Yates
Perry Korbakis
Matt Turner
Matt Anderson
Alan Stiffelman
scott krasinski
Rudy Ruth
Sue Ruth
Roddy Carter
Kim Tierney-Wang
Ann Plitnick
Dan Rosenthal
Mike Naughton
Meris Kott-Goldstein
Scott Brucker
Dave Fasi
Aly Avelar
Mike Jensen
Madisen Drury
Andy Burke
Travis Wyckoff
Carolyn Burke
Jamey Wright
Raf Ruano
Mike Maroney
Bruce Hastie
Rachel Ruano
Mark Cousineau
Nick Baba
Scott Mitchell
Vicky Barker
Britney Hayes
James Hamilton
Sydney Gstettenbauer
Robin Bregman
