May 28, 2014
By Greg Mescall
The old saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas.
Except for many years "everything" didn't include water polo.
While the Lone Star state won't be confused with California just yet as the epicenter of American water polo, strides made over the last decade—along with the potential for massive growth in the near future—have placed Texas in a great spot.
With a huge vote looming this fall to include water polo as a state-sanctioned sport along with football, the opportunity for a water polo explosion has never been greater.
But water polo isn't new in Texas; it's been a high school sport since the mid-1970s with regions taking their turns at dominance. In the beginning San Antonio-area schools were the best, which gave way to Houston in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While Houston-area schools have remained the dominant force in the high school game, St. Mark's—a private school in the Dallas area—has returned to prominence after being out of the sport for more than a decade. (See the accompanying article by James Smith of Totalwaterpolo for more on the high school sport's growth and upcoming vote.)
While Houston has been a reliable source of water polo for many years, other areas of the state wavered in their commitment from year to year. Add to it that when aquatic sports are mentioned in Texas, swimming always come first.
So what changed?
A turning point may have come in 2003. Joe Linehan—a San Antonio native who played high school water polo in the region's heyday—returned to run a camp at Texas A&M University. Linehan, then head coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, attracted 60 kids to his first camp.
His second camp drew 225.
Clearly there was desire for youths to play more water polo. "Kids wanted to do more, a lot of people wanted to do more water polo," Linehan said. "What was being offered wasn't enough."
Determined to help the sport grow, Linehan moved back to Texas—to Houston specifically, which had the largest concentration of water polo at the time—to start a club.
Linehan launched the Houston Water Polo Club: "We had thirty kids at our first practice and it grew every year," he said. "Houston Water Polo helped absorb other local kids who wanted a place to play."
Linehan—along with the help of many others in the Texas water polo community in Texas, including Scott Slay—continued to grow the club. In 2006 the two put together an 18U girls team to compete in the then-National Age Group Championships, where the team earned second place. Just three weeks later at Junior Olympics the same group took 12th.
Linehan and Slay knew that while growth was there, they needed to reach another level. "In between NAGs and JOs we played one tournament, everyone else played a million games and practiced," Linehan recalled. "We practiced twice a week."
While it's been established that Texas is big, its major cities are big, too. That meant it was tough for one major club to truly cover all of Houston. So Linehan and Slay set about growing the club larger and larger, educating parents, setting up a board of directors, and leaving the club eligible to split into a pair of well-established clubs if desired.
At the same time the sport was ramping back up at the high school level, water polo was recognized by TISCA, the official organization governing high school swimming. Traditionally a fall sport in Texas, water polo was struggling to grow at the high school level as it ran parallel to an ever-expanding swim season. After a couple of seasons of discontent during which some programs wanted to remain a fall sport and others were willing to move to the spring, all the competing teams were aligned in the spring in 2010-2011.
Thanks to the move to the spring and the efforts of people like TISCA Chairman Chris Cullen, there are now 110 teams playing statewide, up from just 42 in 2009. Also in 2009 Linehan continued his growth campaign, moving from Houston to Dallas to jumpstart water polo-growth in that area. While St. Mark's had returned to form in boys' water polo in recent years—annually a state-title contender—little else was developing.
Then George Fenton, who runs a masters team in the Dallas area, convinced Linehan to come on board and try improving an area with no age-group club water polo and just three high schools active.
"Immediately we had 16 high schools playing, we made it easy for everyone," said Linehan. He continued, saying he told people "tell me what you can do—you can only play a certain number of games; we can make that work."
In addition to bolstering the high school scene, Linehan had a major impact on club water polo. Dallas Water Polo Club had been a masters club but transitioned to include age groups for a short period of time. In that period Linehan helped develop two clubs to cover all of the Dallas area. Thunder handles the Forth Worth area while Lightning covers Dallas and East Dallas. In 2011 Thunder and Lightning combined to bring 11 teams to the Junior Olympics.
Since that time Linehan has maintained control of Thunder, which has expanded to one of the largest clubs in the state with 250 kids. Lightning branched off into two clubs: One for St. Mark's, the local high school power, and another called Rockwall Water Polo (their fundraiser was recently featured in SkipShot).
"Now we have more than 30 high schools playing water polo in the Dallas area; we had them every year," said Linehan. "The number of athletes playing the sport has gone up dramatically, three to four times the amount in the last five years. So many more kids are playing in high school and playing in a summer league through their high school."
Meanwhile Houston Water Polo, now known as West Houston Water Polo (or Viper Pigeon) continues to thrive. Under the direction of Rudy Thomas, former assistant coach with Linehan, the club anticipates close to 400 athletes this summer and potentially 150 competing at Junior Olympics.
In addition Thomas is setting up more localized leagues within Houston in which his athletes can compete. Previously they had taken part in the high school-affiliated Jalapeno League, but with matches closer to home, the hope is to retain more athletes.
"The majority of growth has been in the last four or five years," Thomas said. "It blew my mind. I knew it was growing but it slow and steady until just recently."
With Houston and Dallas secured, other areas were looking for their opportunity for development. Enter James Smith, founder of Totalwaterpolo.com, into the Austin area.
"James, he got a lot done in a short period of time; he got three pools going," Thomas said. "I'm really excited about Austin."
Smith started Central Texas Water Polo and has been a key player in expanding water polo in that area. Longhorn Aquatics—an already established water polo club based at the University of Texas and their coach Tom Andrew—helped broker a Dream Gold clinic earlier this year featuring Olympians Courtney Mathewson, Kelly Rulon, Tumua Anae, and Ryan Bailey.
Olympians visiting the state for a clinic isn't new but along with everything else it's part of a surge in the sport.
"James has really helped out, spearheading the whole 'let's get organized' thing, which is going to help growth," added Linehan.
Thomas believes San Antonio is the next area primed for a breakout—or more of a rebirth considering their scholastic history. Linehan points to southern (McAllen) and western Texas (Odessa and Waco) as possible areas with water polo action.
In addition to the efforts of Linehan, Thomas, and Smith, the work of many others is helping to grow the sport in the state, as nearly 20 USA Water Polo clubs operate in Texas. Robert Albach, a Masters committee member, heads up the Austin Water Polo Club, while Kevin Kehoe pilots Jesuit Water Polo, a Houston area club. San Antonio has started to rise again in the scholastic ranks and Jim Yates, a California native, continues his efforts with the San Antonio Water Polo Club. Anne Woolweaver is not only a key to the success of the Texas Wildcat Water Polo Club, she is also instrumental in the high school state championship tournament. Other clubs are affiliated with local colleges such as TCU and the University of Texas while others are serving the masters age group. It all adds up to a lot of people in Texas dedicated to the game of water polo.
And for both the biggest thing on their radars is a vote by the University Interscholastic League, something that will affect all concerned with growth.
"I lose kids every eighth-grade summer," says Thomas. "They do it for fun, and they like it, and then I talk to their parents, or I get an email, and they thank me but add they're sticking with swimming because they're enrolled in a school district that doesn't offer water polo."
USA Water Polo has lent its support, contacting the organization to tout the positives of the sport. Whether it passes or not, the sport is on a definite upward trend in the state, thanks to the likes of Linehan, Thomas, Smith and a whole host of others.
"As long as they ask for help, I'm happy to help," said Linehan. "If ya'll beat me to go to Junior Olympics, good luck to you—I'm just happy to see the sport grow."
This article appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of SkipShot magazine
