The January 10-11 event listed above is the evaluation event for who will be placed on the A and B zone teams. Prior to this event, the zone coaches will make a determination of which zone camp attendees will be invited to Jan 10-11 evaluation event. Those invitations to the evaluation event should be emailed out sometime after December 14 when the last of the ODP camps finish.
Thanks Marco,
which zones will be at this?
Iâve only spoken about this with people in CCA, SPA, and PSW. They are all in, but Iâm thinking it will include PAC and CEN as well.
There is a similar event the following week in Texas. I have no idea who is going to that one.
As for when families will know when their kid has been invited, someone told me the invites for CCA Development Boys have already gone out. CCAâs final Dev Boys ODP Camp was on November 16th so it doesnât surprise they are ahead of schedule. AFAIK, no other age groups in CCA, and no one from any other California zone have received invites yet, but my information on this is second hand.
The Texas event is the non-California zonesâ regional championship. Traditionally, each non-CA zone sends two teams to this regional championship, and roughly 50% of the athletes are cut to form the National ODP Championship rosters.
At the Youth and Cadet levels, USA Water Polo expanded the scope of what used to be called âAcademyâ and has now renamed it the Winter Pipeline Evaluation Camp. In previous years, invitations to Academy were limited to NTSC+ athletes, but this year the invited group appears significantly larger. There are two of these camps: the first took place this weekend, and the second will be held in early January.
The athletes selected for this âAcademyâ track also participate in the ODP process. As a result, there are now two selection and evaluation processes operating in parallel, and from the outside it appears that at the Cadet and Youth levels, the âAcademyâ pathway may be evolving into the primary pipeline.
With players doing Pipeline and the ODP process, did this just add an extra weekend to this families? For TX players in the past you would do the regional weekend, then cut to 50% and do the National weekend to determine NTSC invites. Now it seems to be Pipeline weekend and then regional/national. Am I thinking about that right?
Yes. What an absolute waste of time and money for the families. An overwhelming majority of the decisions have been made. Just more chances for kids who arenât going to advance to pay and be confused why they arenât advancing and let their parents rage about the inequity of the process.
Are the pipeline kids going to this?
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I canât speak to the Texas event, but for the Southern California athletes it is roughly the same as it has been. My understanding was the event is based on the PSW-SPA Evaluation Event from last year, but expanded out to include more zones and over two days instead of one.
Things could have changed as when I heard about this the January tournament was called the Regional Evaluation Tournament, not the Regional Championship.
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It is a major financial burden and a significant time commitment for families, especially for non-California athletes. The overall cost for a non-CA athlete to complete the entire pipeline process through the international tournaments and training is over $10,000 once traveling, accommodations, tournament fees, and camp costs are included. It is hard to imagine this being affordable for most families. This is only one layer of playing the sport. When club fees and travel to tournaments are added, the price tag for top athletes reaches at least $20,000 per year.
Regarding the national team process, the top athletes who aspire to play in college, the National League, or internationally need to participate in it. It simply appears that USA Water Polo continues to add more layers, more time, and more cost to the pathway.
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I donât think it is possible or worth the time to do this, but it would be interesting to know the number of kids playing D1, 2, or 3 that did not go to NTSC or higher. This could provide some relief to families experiencing any anxiety that they must go through this. My angle here is more about supporting families that struggle with the time/expense in hopes on college. Everyone has to make a decision that works for them, but I wonder if the reality matches the perception that has been created that this is a necessity.
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The answer is that it depends, and there is significant selection bias. Usually more than ninety percent of the top athletes, defined as roughly the top 50 in each class (NTSC is about the top 35, so NTSC plus), participate in the ODP process because they have been part of Development since the beginning. Most of these athletes, again more than ninety percent, will be recruited to top twenty Division I programs.
It is largely a numbers game. Division I programs recruit an average of 6 players per year. If about 60% are domestic, that creates roughly 80 domestic spots across the top 20 D1 teams. That number aligns with the NTSC++ group, which consists of the 50 or so NTSC+ athletes and an additional group of about 30 from the National ODP level. At that tier, I am not sure the process is a strict requirement, but it is certainly useful as a way to gain additional exposure to college coaches who regularly attend National ODP events. That said, all coaches from most top programs arevat Futures Super Finals and Junior Olympics. There are multiple equivalent events where athletes can be seen.
The higher a team is ranked, the more exposure its athletes receive from top programs. College coaches tend to focus on matches played among the top 10-20 teams.
For Division III, Division II, and lower ranked Division I programs, the ODP process is generally not a ârequirement.â These programs rarely compete for top 50 athletes, and in some cases they do not even respond to outreach from highly ranked recruits because they assume those athletes view the school as a safety option and are unlikely to commit.
There will always be a small number of athletes recruited by top Division I teams who never participated in the ODP process, but they represent a very small minority. The question becomes why an athlete would skip it, given that the National Tournament offers such a high level of competition.
Below are the number of recruits in the class of 2025 (last year), sorry for the lack of order:
As you can see there are >200 freshmen and there is plenty of avenues to continue playing WP at the collegiate level.
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What is also fascinating is how differently the boysâ and girlsâ side of things are being run. This past weekend, for example, there were over 200 combined boys participating in cadet and youth âWinter Pipeline Evaluation Campsâ split between SoCal and Norcal, with out-of-state boys assigned to Norcal.
Meanwhile, this same weekend, there was a cadet and youth Academy training for girls (all in one location) that I would venture to say fewer than 70 total girls were invited to across both age groups (hard to say because SoCal girls are in high school season and several could not attend). In other words, the girls are well on their way to narrowing the group down to select their cadet and youth national teams for World Championships this coming summer and the boys are just barely beginning the process and casting an incredibly wide net which includes dozens of kids who very clearly have zero chance of selection to a team.
Iâm not necessarily being critical but just pointing out the contrasting approaches which is interesting as they both fall under the USAWP umbrella. I guess the obvious distinction is when the boysâ and girlsâ high school seasons take place in SoCal vs. Norcal, but given that there will still be 200 boys alive in the âpipelineâ in mid-January/February, itâs a very different approach and itâs a huge change from how the pipeline/academy operated even just 2 years ago.
Yes, girls in socal are busy in season and many are being asked to participate without going to any of the camps.
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So what does that mean? They are automatically in even though they donât participate?
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Yes, I would say it is probably more position specific and only at the cadet and youth level.
Goalies and Centers who donât do the camps will get asked to just compete in the championships. Some still decline the offer especially at the youth level, if they are committed already what is the point.
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It also works that way for Development Boys. The Winter Pipeline designated boys do not need to attend any ODP camps. They automatically qualify, although at the Development level we are talking about a handful of kids.
How does a an amazing center or goalie at cadet level break through?
Do these boys play in the New regional championship tournament?
Suppose it implies automatic entry as it is the eval
by going to the camps or standing out at the club level so that the coaching staff wants them to be at the championships. They are not all pre determined. What i am getting at is, that there are not enough good centers and goalies that do ODP camps so the coaches have to look outside the camp to build a team. Good centers are hard to find here in the US. So if they are truly amazing and what the coaches are looking for the camp will get them in.
The teams have been made. Just another way to make money. Waste of time and money.
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