I am starting to post and report a bit on high school water polo outside of California. Hopefully, we’ll gain more traction and traffic from other regions during the HS water polo season.
Brunswick’s varsity team is flying next week to Barcelona to compete in the “U19 Next Generation” (Sep 19-21) tournament.
You might ask, why is an American high school traveling to Europe to play? Jeff explained: “Brunswick is the best team from a state other than California. The California Interscholastic Federation ruled that Brunswick is ineligible to play in California high school tournaments because they are not a member of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). Brunswick is trying to find a way to satisfy the California requirement…”
Unfortunately, and mind-boggling, a U.S. high school team needs to travel overseas to find high-level competition.
That said, this is the third year the team is participating in this high-level and unique tournament (LINK), and Barcelona is not a bad destination. It’s an excellent experience for the boys and an opportunity for top-level development.
The organization by BIWPA sets a gold standard that should be replicated in U.S. tournaments: professional coverage and free livestreams on YouTube, which makes it easy for college coaches to scout top European players), live score and stat reporting (LINK), high-level refereeing, and multiple games over the weekend.
On the boys side (16 teams): FTC (Hungary), BVSC (Hungary), CNAB (Spain), CNB (Spain), Sabadell (Spain), BCN (global), Sevilla (Spain), Terrassa (Italy), Elevate (S. Africa), HVAK Mladost (Croatia), Monza (Italy), ONDA Forte (Italy), Sabac (Serbia), Szeged (Hungary), ZVL-1886 (The Netherlands), Brunswick (USA).
More, next week.