The NCAA News - News and Features

October 13, 1997

Water polo builds on liquid assets

NCAA/USOC grant enables ECAC to develop championship

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER

With sponsorship numbers hovering in the mid-40s, men's water polo has not been in a position to tout itself among the NCAA's largest sports.

It can, however, now promote itself as a sponsored sport in the NCAA's largest conference.

In June, men's water polo experienced one of its most significant gains in recent years when the NCAA/United States Olympic Committee Conference Grant Committee awarded a $400,000 grant to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and United States Water Polo to assist in the establishment of new programs and to initiate a men's championship.

The grant is part of an $8 million, four-year pilot program modeled after the conference-grant plan proposed by the NCAA/USOC Task Force, which was created as part of an effort to strengthen the relationship between the USOC and the Association.

The pilot program provides grants to Olympic sports for the purpose of increasing participation opportunities, with emphasis on directing funds toward the preservation of endangered sports and the development of women's emerging sports.

'Huge step forward'

"This is a huge step forward for the sport," said Dan Sharadin, director of senior and collegiate programs at U.S. Water Polo and men's water polo coach at Villanova University. "It's the first time in the East that we've been tied into an existing conference, a multisport conference.

"For years, water polo hasn't been tied into anything we do within our general athletics departments. Now, that's not going to be the case. That's very significant."

The grant was one of 13 awarded by the conference grant committee. The committee reviewed 40 grant applications from 29 conferences and associations representing programs in 19 Olympic sports.

Seven NCAA conferences received grants, including the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference ($440,000 for women's ice hockey), Atlantic Coast Conference ($400,000 for women's rowing) and Atlantic 10 Conference ($590,000 for women's rowing).

The ECAC, which has 290 members in all three NCAA divisions, received three grants totaling $2.135 million ($1.5 million for men's gymnastics, $400,000 for men's water polo and $235,000 for synchronized swimming).

"It's a feather in our cap," said Mary Lou Thimas, ECAC senior assistant commissioner in charge of championships and officiating. "The grant enables us to provide another service to our membership, which is the business we're in: to meet the needs of the various schools within the ECAC membership. In this particular case, helping to provide a championship for men's water polo."

Two objectives

The bulk of the grant will be devoted to two objectives: development of the sport and funding for a conference championship.

Developmental funds will be allocated to ECAC members via a grant application and selection process. Grant recipients will be selected based on criteria that include a financial and staff commitment to development of a program, scholarships offered, and facilities. Institutions also must offer use of their facilities for Olympic training and cannot drop any Olympic sports during the four-year period.

"We're hopeful that we will be able to add several new programs and have funding for as many as five," Sharadin said. "The grant is going to help us develop more varsity programs throughout the Northeast, which is a tremendous population base we really need to tap into.

"By providing funding for new programs, we'll be able to help grow the sport and also see additional grassroots programs develop."

With its vast membership, the ECAC provides an abundance of growth possibilities. Currently, 34 ECAC members offer men's water polo as a club sport. Nineteen of the 21 programs in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) are ECAC members.

While the funds earmarked for development have yet to be allocated, funds for a conference championship already are at work.

The first ECAC championship will be November 15-16 at Brown University. The top three teams from both the North and South divisions, as determined by regular-season competition, will compete. Championship expenses will be provided from the USOC grant.

"We're very pleased to be in a position to provide a championship under the ECAC umbrella," Thimas said. "The championship is going to be used as a feeder for the regional, which will take the championship to another level."

Another competition opportunity

Russ Yarworth, men's water polo coach at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a member of the NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee, said the creation of the championship is paramount to the development and growth of the sport because it provides increased recognition and exposure, as well as another high-level competition and championship opportunity.

Yarworth pointed out that, until now, the Eastern championship was the only championship-level competition that brought a large number of teams together. The winner of the Eastern championship, which annually determines the CWPA representative at the NCAA championship, has experienced a four-week layoff before the start of the NCAA championship.

"Any time you can get into another high-level competition it's going to help your development and preparation," Yarworth said. "If that competition is a championship with a major conference, such as the ECAC, it's a tremendous opportunity.

"The status and recognition that go with the championship certainly will help us to grow the sport. Hopefully, this will encourage some schools that are active in the ECAC to consider the addition of men's and women's water polo."

Funding women's programs

If there is a downside to the USOC grant, it's that funds are limited to men's water polo. Women's water polo is excluded because it is not an Olympic sport.

To offset the lack of funds for women's programs, Sharadin said U.S. Water Polo will provide funds from its own grant program to institutions interested in adding men's and women's programs. Funding for the men's program would be available from the USOC grant.

Sharadin noted that FINA, the international governing body for the sport, will decide in January 1998 whether to include women's water polo at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

"We're matching two grant programs to make sure a school can add a (men's) program and still meet its gender-equity requirements," he said.

"Certainly, if the grant was to provide for the addition of both men's and women's programs, we'd be in better shape."

That is not to say that men's water polo is not in better shape than it has been in recent years. In fact, the creation of the championship, additional funds and affiliation with the ECAC has put the sport in a position few thought possible.

"For years, water polo has been a sport fighting to stay afloat," Sharadin said. "There weren't a lot of positives. The future looked pretty bleak.

"That's no longer the case. Not only are our numbers up, but now we can say men's water polo is a championship sport within the ECAC. That's something we have never been able to say before."