July 22, 2018 2018 Junior Olympics InformationBy Matt SzaboSome teams will just hop on the freeway, while others will fly across the country.
But they get there, no major club water polo squad wants to miss the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics—the culmination of the club season and the largest youth water polo tournament in the country.
This year's tournament will take place in San Jose, CA. Session 1—which runs from July 21-24—will crown champions in the 12-and-under, 14U, 16U, and 18U boys' divisions. Session 2—which will take place July 26-29—features the 10-and-under, 12U, 14U, 16U, and 18U girls' divisions, as well as the 10U mixed division.
California teams typically do well in the Junior Olympics, also known as "JOs." Ethan Damato—technical director of the Saddleback-El Toro (SET) club in Orange County—annually has his 18U girls as title contenders in the top division. They've earned top-four finishes over the last three years.
With three SET 16U girls' teams and three 18U teams set to vie for the top spot, there is no shortage of talent.
"We have more than 70 athletes from our club in the 16s and 18s girls who will be attending Junior Olympics," said Damato, who's also head coach of the powerhouse Laguna Beach High girls' program. "I know how great an experience it is for the players coming from outside California. We're a little spoiled, with how much great competition we get. I think it's always important for our sport that athletes get to meet and play against people from all over the place. I think it's a crucial mechanism for our sport to continue to grow."
Across the country, coach Carroll Vaughan of the Miami Riptides is preparing to bring her 14s, 16s, and 18s teams in both genders to northern California.
"It's either awesome or crazy," Vaughan said. "This is the most we've ever taken. We've got kids coming from South Africa, Australia, and Canada to play with us."
Vaughan watched her program become well-known in recent years as national team goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson—who helped the Team USA women win Gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics—came up through the Miami Riptides. Johnson—the first African-American woman to compete in water polo at the Olympics—also was notably the only player on the roster two years ago from outside California. Vaughan said Florida water polo is still growing relatively slowly, despite Johnson's success and the state's enviable weather. But there's no doubt that she looks forward to flying her teams out to the West Coast for the Junior Olympics.
"I like the kids to see the level of competition, and the level of officiating," she said. "It's called differently out there. They let them play much more, especially on the girls' side. If they do want to play in college, have a career, then they're going to have to learn how to play much more physically. We found that if we expose them to that, they come back with a real love for [the sport], and they work harder."
Tim Daniel—who coaches at Northwest Chicago Water Polo Club in Illinois—is bringing three boys' teams to the Junior Olympics. To Daniel, the tournament provides an opportunity to play games outside—a rarity in Chicago.
More than that, he said, it's exciting for his players to be in an environment where an Olympic athlete or a college coach could walk by them on the pool deck. And he's seen the club tournament pay dividends at the high school level as well.
Daniel coaches at Conant High, which took fourth in the state of Illinois in May. He said that during his team's state quarterfinal game against Lincoln-Way East, 10 of the 14 starters in the pool had played at the Junior Olympics with the Northwest Chicago club. One of them, Noah Schor, will be traveling to Hungary in August for an Olympic Development Program Futures trip.
"It was pretty fun," Daniel said. "In the summer, they were playing with each other in California, and near the end of the high school season they were playing against each other for a trophy. I don't think that happens without them going out to California for the Junior Olympics and getting that experience."
Kelcie Ferreira's 12-and-under girls' team, representing Laguna Beach Water Polo Foundation, will try to repeat as champions in that age group. Laguna Beach had a banner year in 2017, sweeping the 10U, 12U, and 14U girls' titles. Many of the young players will move on to play for Damato at the high school level.
Ferreira—who grew up playing water polo in Trinidad and Tobago and played collegiately at Cal State Northridge—said she and her players enjoy the spectacle of Junior Olympics.
"Down there [in Trinidad and Tobago], there are two club teams, and you come up here, and there are hundreds of club teams," she said. "That's always something that stood out to me when I started coaching. It's good to see how much the sport grows every year. And it's great to see the level of polo that the girls reach from the beginning of the [club season] to the end. That improvement is really great to see."
Not every team will be in contention for a title. But for the teams from outside of California, a Junior Olympics trip also offers many team bonding opportunities.
Kurt Predmore—who coaches for Saint Andrews Aquatics in Boca Raton, FL—said his 14U boys' team actually will fly into southern California, not Northern California, and train in Santa Barbara for a few days before Session 1 begins.
"What I really enjoy about Junior Olympics is the championship day," Predmore said. "You have these games going on with thousands of people watching, sharing in that brotherhood and commonality of water polo. It's really an awesome experience."
Damato would agree. Also the U.S. Women's Youth National Team coach, he wants to lead SET to a Junior Olympics title before he coaches Team USA at the FINA Youth World Championships in Serbia in August.
"I think it's the tournament that everybody covets the most," Damato said. "If there's one tournament that everyone wants to win, I think they want to win JOs."
This article appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of SkipShot magazine
