Water Polo is growing quickly across the country and collegiate athletic departments have taken notice. Multiple conferences and schools have announced new men's and women's water polo programs in recent months across the Division I and Division III levels.
The Big West and West Coast Conference have both decided to sponsor a men's water polo league. The two conferences will absorb six teams from the Golden Coast Conference, who recently completed its final season.
In California, both UC Merced and CSU Fullerton announced the addition of men's and women's water polo as varsity intercollegiate sports beginning in the 2022-23 academic year. Johnny Bega was named the first men's and women's head coach at UC Merced following over 25 years of coaching experience while Kyle Witt is tasked with reviving men's water polo (inactive since 1985) and starting women's water polo from scratch at CSU Fullerton.
"It is super exciting that UC Merced has added men's and women's water polo," Johnny Bega said. "This gives student-athletes the opportunity to continue the sport they love while still earning their eduction. This also excites the surrounding area and helps other programs grow. I am ready to help grow UC Merced, the valley, and water polo in general. I am honored to become the first head coach of UC Merced."
"The opportunity to build a collegiate program from the ground up in a highly competitive water polo conference like the Big West has been the biggest challenge I have taken on as a head coach. While CSUF has an excellent infrastructure with the desire to build a water polo program the right way, there are several aspects that the college is not aware of for running a Division I program. A typical day for me right now is answering countless emails, having meetings with donors and athletic administrators, and recruiting for two programs while conducting a coaching search for two assistant coaching positions," Kyle Witt explained. "The hours worked and sweat equity that are being put into this program are enormous, but so too will be the rewards. In order for CSUF to be successful within the Big West, the work must be done now so that we can shorten the building process and get to a place of successful and competitive teams as soon as possible."
On the opposite coast, Long Island University has added men's water polo after the women's program has seen great success under Gabby Juarez in their short history. Juarez's role has expanded with the news, as she has been named Director of Water Polo and head coach of both the men's and women's teams.
"As someone who has built two programs from scratch I will say first hand – it's not easy. Above all, I would say cultivating a positive culture is crucial to the success of any program. It is absolutely essential to find the rare athletes who are resilient, kind, and relentlessly committed to their personal growth as well as the growth of their team. LIU looks for hard working athletes with unwavering moral character, and I'm very proud to say that every athlete I coach fits this description," Gabby Juarez said. "In the last five years alone programs have emerged at LIU, Augustana, Wheaton, Mount St. Mary's, and Ottawa — the future of water polo is obviously bright —and I'm thrilled to see so many new programs emerge, as each of them provides new student-athletes the opportunity to play the game and for the distribution of talent to spread throughout the country."
Juarez is one of a number of women who hold key coaching positions across the collegiate landscape. Stanford graduate and former Harvard assistant Cassie Churnside is now the head coach for the University of Michigan women's team. Longtime UC Davis women's assistant coach Kandace Waldthaler has been promoted to associate head coach while Arizona State graduate and assistant coach Petra Pardi has been named head coach of the women's team after three games with the interim tag last season.
Julie Snodgrass, a former California Baptist University student-athlete, returns to CBU as the women's water polo head coach after eleven seasons at the helm for Azusa Pacific. Claire Linney made her collegiate head coaching debut this past season with the women's team at her alma mater Santa Clara University, where she also acts as an assistant coach with the men's team. Cal graduate Taylor McInerney enters her fourth season as the head coach of Indiana University water polo.
Coralie Simmons, Olympic silver medalist and NCAA Champion at UCLA, is gearing up for her seventh season at the helm of the California Golden Bears women's team. Two-time Olympian and USA Water Polo Hall of Fame inductee Natalie Benson is set to begin her sixth season as head coach for the women's team at Fresno State - the only head coach in program history.
The number of men's and women's programs around the country has been steadily growing for years. The NCAAÂ currently sponsors 52 men's programs and 66 women's programs, 52 constituting the highest mark for men since 1991 (54) and 66 representing a record mark for women. Division III numbers are 15 (men) and 19 (women) as of last year.
USA Water Polo is doing its part to increase the sport's popularity and audience. Through a collaboration with the NCAA and ESPN, the men's and women's collegiate championship events will be nationally televised through 2023-24. This initiative began with the 2022 Women's NCAA Championship where Stanford defeated USC, 10-7, and continued with the 2022 Men's NCAA Championship in which Cal defeated USC, 13-12.
USA Water Polo has also invested in sponsoring a Division III Championship in order to offer more schools a chance at a national championship. The inaugural USA Water Polo Women's Division III Collegiate Championship saw the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens defeat the Whittier Poets, 8-6, to capture the National Championship. The 2022 USA Water Polo Men's Division III Collegiate Championship took place earlier this month with the University of Redlands Bulldogs besting the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen, 11-6.
