THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF USA WATER POLO Celebrating 25 Years Of The Masters VOLUME 27, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2012 NATIONAL AWARDS ANNOUNCED p.14 THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF USA WATER POLO VOL. 27, NUM. 1, Spring 2012 What’s Inside... USA WATER POLO NATIOnaL OFFICE ON THE COVER . 2124 Main Street, Suite 240 Celebrating 25 Years The cover of Water Polo Inside Water ...................2 Huntington Beach, CA 92648 Of The Masters (714) 500-5445 business Scoreboard magazine, (714) 500-5449 membership (714) 960-2431 fax today known as SkipShot, 5 Meters ......................4 USA WATER POLO NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER celebrating the first 11360 Valley Forge Ave. Masters National Water Polo Times .............10 NATIONAL Los Alamitos, CA 90720 AWARDS ANNOUNCED (562) 799-8506 business p.14 Championships held (562) 799-8508 fax in 1988. Water Polo Scene ..............28 WEB SITE Images courtesy of Bryan Weaver and Kelly Kemp www.usawaterpolo.org A Day in the Life ...............29 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Christopher Ramsey EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER From the Deck ................32 Mai Lam CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Jennifer Rottenberg Lob Shots ....................35 DIRECTOR OF OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT Guy Baker Hot Shots ....................36 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE James D. Callahan ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF COmmunICATIOns Greg Mescall ReCaps DIRECTOR OF CLUBS & MEmbER SERVICES Claudia Dodson MEmbERSHIP SERVICES MANAGER USAWP Awards . 14 Christy Medigovich OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT EVENTS MANAGER Ashley Papenbrock pg14 Holiday Cup . 18 FInanCE COORDInaTOR Fay Hu HUMAN RESOURCES REPRESENTATIVE USAWP Awards Gayle Shanks Also In This Issue... MARKETING SERVICES COORDINATOR Caroline Acosta and Assembly MEmbERSHIP SERVICES COODINATOR Masters 25th Katie Wakefield Great Efforts in 2011 Honored Anniversary . 20 DEVELOpmENT COODINATOR Sarah Bennett BOARD OF DIRECTORS Building the Team . 22 Michael Graff (Chairman), Jeremy Laster, Ed Reynolds, William Smith, Ellen Estes Lee, Robert Sternfels, RoAnn Costin, John Hendrickson, Sandy Nitta, Richard Esterkin PubLISHER Jennifer Rottenberg Look Ahead... EDITOR Next Issue Greg Mescall >Summer Events Preview CONTRIBUTORS Darcy Couch, Jim Cullingham, Joan Gould, Ed Haas, George Stransky, Stan Schwimer, Stuart Sheldon, Kelley Casey, Allen Lorentzen, Kelley L. Cox, Dr. Marcia Whalen, Shannon Walker, Karen Bloch, Angela Kraus PRINTING Quad Graphics 555 South 108th Street, West Allis, WI 53214 CREATIVE Adrenalin, Inc. 54 West 11th Ave., Denver, CO 80204 pg18 303-454-8888 | goadrenalin.com > 2012 Olympic Games Preview Undefeated USA Teams sweep through Holiday Cup USA Water Polo Skip Shot Magazine (ISSN# 15507580) is published four times per year & Four Nations Tournament by United States Water Polo, Inc., located at 2124 Main Street, Suite 240, Huntington Beach, CA 92648. Periodicals postage is paid at Huntington Beach, CA 92648 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Skip Shot Magazine, United States Water Polo, Inc., 2124 Main Street, Suite 240, Huntington Beach, CA 92648 usawaterpolo.org 1 INSIDE WATER letter from the CEO, Christopher Ramsey USA WATER POLO AGE IS A CASE OF MIND OVER MATTER. generations of players who built the sport to its current state and continue to IF YOU DON’T MIND, IT DON’T MATTER. play, coach, officiate, and support water polo in other ways after they finish ~Satchel Paige their scholastic careers. In 1985, University of Chicago professor Benja- If you want to see passion and commitment, go to a Masters game. If you min Bloom studied the childhoods of 120 elite want to see sportsmanship and camaraderie, go to a Masters game. If you performers who had won international compe- want to see pride and self-reliance, go to a Masters game. titions or awards in fields ranging from music My view is that we have only scratched the surface of Masters water polo and the arts to mathematics and neurology. in the USA. Probably our biggest challenge is access to the right facilities at Bloom’s work is chronicled in a Harvard Busi- the right time, and then sending the word out to potential players once we ness Review article (2007), which reports no secure the water. Another challenge is better outreach to players graduating early indicators that could have predicted success. Interestingly, other work from high school and college who, if given an easy way to continue playing, in this field has been unable to reveal a relationship between IQ and expert will want to do so. Of course securing the right pool time and staying in performance in chess, music, sports, and medicine. playing shape are both tests, so we have our work cut out for us. All the performers Bloom investigated had practiced intensively, studied Making Masters easier to find and play is a challenge USA Water Polo is with devoted teachers, and received enthusiastic support from their families embracing by sanctioning more events in more destinations this year throughout their developing years. than ever before. Claudia Dodson, our new Director of Club and Member Malcolm Gladwell’s best-seller “Outliers” discusses the importance of Programs, is a veteran Masters player and brings both knowledge and achieving 10,000 hours of practice/experience in order to achieve mastery. passion to our efforts. This finding was confirmed in The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and My challenge to our Masters players is to ask what each of you can do to Expert Performance, which includes contributions from more than 100 help grow our sport. You are uniquely qualified “experts” who possess a vast leading scientists who have studied expertise and top performance in a wide store of knowledge and skill. I know that many of you already coach, referee, variety of domains: surgery, acting, chess, writing, computer programming, and contribute in other ways. Still, I think we all appreciate the potential ballet, music, aviation, firefighting, and others. to share this game we love with others and help them realize their dreams. I cite these references not as a philosophical support for our clubs, age- This could mean volunteering to start a Splashball™ program at your club or group programs, and ODP, but to emphasize the importance of our Masters community pool or coaching a different Masters age group to prepare them community—both for what they have attained and for the experience they for competition. offer our sport. We appreciate your contributions, we value your mastery, and we look This year will be the 25th anniversary of the Masters National Champion- forward to working with you to expand water polo opportunities for all. ships. In that span, the tournament has grown to nearly 100 teams. As I am reminded every time I dive into a pool, water polo is not mastered easily or continued without dedication and the ability to withstand the pressure of competition— as well as aches and pains. That our sport has grown to its current size is a testament to its inherent value, and it is also a tribute to the Chris Top Stories on USAWaterPolo.org... > Counter attack Podcast - Peter Varellas Discusses His National Team Journey - http://counterattack .libsyn c. om/ >USA Water Polo Teams Visit Simon Malls Throughout California - http://tinyurl c. om/c9flxsl www.facebook.com/usawp www.youtube.com/usawp www.twitter.com/usawp If you have a comment or question concerning Skip Shot magazine, send in a letter to the editor. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR You can write to Skip Shot Magazine: c/o USA Water Polo, 2124 Main Street, Suite 240, Huntington Beach, CA 92648 or send an email to: [email protected] 2 5 METERS Quick Shots from USA Water Polo USA WATER POLO bike to the pool after baseball practice to My 1st watch my sister Shannon play with the boys Match (there wasn’t a women’s team yet). S hea Buckner, USA At the time I was taking swimming lessons, Water Polo Men’s Senior and every once in a while the high school boys would let me get in with them and National Team shoot around. One day the coach asked if I wanted to play August, 1995 in a game because he needed a goalie—and My first experience with water polo was when of course I said yes! I watched the ’92 Barcelona Olympics with my dad and told him that “one day I will be So I borrowed a suit, jumped in, and made an Olympian.” some blocks. From then on I was truly addicted to the sport of water polo. Then when I was about 9 years old—around August or September of 1995—I would ride my HEY SHIELDY, OH HEY GANG, COME ON SHIELDY, THAT‛S HOW WE THE ADVENTURES OF WHAT ARE YOU BLUE white I‛M HERE TO DEFENSE, YOU DON‛T DO IT BLUE, MAKE DOING AT THE WATCH SOME WE‛VE GOT BLUE white LIKE THE THOSEBLUE POWER white 00:00 POOL TODAY? COLLEGE TO GET 07:10 WHITE PLAYS COUNT. WATER POLO. BACK ON TEAM? 03:15 0 0 THIS IS DEFENSE. 0 1 GOING TO BE A GREAT WATER POLO IT‛S NOT THAT I DONT LIKE THEM, GAME. IT‛S JUST THAT THE TEAM IN BLUE CAPS, THAT‛S WHERE I PLAYED IN YEAH BLUE, OH COOL, I‛VE NEVER COLLEGE. WE CAN DO WATER POLO SEEN A REAL COLLEGE THIS! GAME BEFORE. 5 3 OHHHHH, WELL THAT GO BLUE! MAKES SENSE I HATE NOW... THE WHITE LET‛S GO WATER TEAM, IPOLO WELL HANG OUT HERE, BLUE! HOPE THEY YOU ARE GOING TO SEE NEVER WIN SOME GOOD WATER SHIELDY ANOTHER illustrated POLO. GAME. by CONNOR, CAN I HAVE A paul ciaravino 1 WORD WITH YOU OUTSIDE? CONNOR, I‛M GLAD YOU ARE ROOTING FOR THE BLUE TEAM SORRY ABOUT THAT SHIELDY, I WON‛T SAY ANYTHING MEAN ABOUT BUT THAT ISN‛T THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT.