On behalf of the entire staff at USA Water Polo's Olympic Development Program, we would like to provide you with an update on ODP for the 2020-2021 season. As many of you are aware, we have done our best to host clinics this season anywhere in the USA where it has been safe and permissible to do so. We have been able to host both boys and girls clinics in 7 of our zones and continue to add more in early 2021. We have seen over 1,700 athletes and continue to work with our zone head coaches all over the country to continue technical training and identifying athletes through our ODP Clinics. What characterizes ODP Clinics (as opposed to the traditional ODP Camp) is that they are conducted in a physically distant manner and are expanded to Bronze level USAWP memberships. The Clinics still serve the same purpose of providing elite training while also identifying athletes for zone teams. We will continue to plan and provide clinics where we can and in the event that your zone cannot host ODP programming due to COVID then we will work with our zone head coaches to find creative ways to identify athletes for their zone teams. The priority remains to provide training, a high-performance pathway and recognition for athletes in the safest way possible.

Looking ahead as we navigate through these next few months we will work with our zone leadership to identify zone teams to compete in a local Regional Championship that will be held sometime between April and May. The goal would be to hold between 3-4 Regional Championships in place of the usual National Championship. This will allow for zones to compete in an ODP championship geographically convenient location with National Team staff in attendance evaluating and identifying athletes for National Team Selection Camps to be held in June. Assuming that these Regional Championships and NTSCs are able to be held safely, then the opportunity for international and domestic travel for age group National Teams will be available in the summer. 

We appreciate your flexibility, patience and resilience as we continue to advocate and plan for athletes to compete in the Olympic Development Program this season. We believe that our collective and continuous effort will allow for the above plans to be executed.

For any further information and details about ODP please visit our website.

Be safe,

Senior USAWP ODP Staff 

ODP Senior High Performance Manager - Anne Laurence - alaurence@usawaterpolo.org

ODP Technical Administrator  – Bryan Lynton – blynton@usawaterpolo.org

ODP National Goalkeeper Coach – Sean Nolan – snolan@usawaterpolo.org

USAWP Chief High Performance Officer – John Abdou – jabdou@usawaterpolo.org