This is a top 10 post on any thread in this forum…
Bravo!
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Gibby- take a closer look at the BB roster for JOs. 3 kids from Oaks and the rest are Orange County players. Reed Hanna, who was playing with BB into May, is now with SF.
It’s a highly concentrated Orange County (SOPAC) team.
I guessed BB are over 50% SOPAC. They qualified in SOPAC. I’m good. And as I’ve stated, kids moving between CCA and SOPAC or SOPAC and PSW seems reasonable given people live in one zone and may go to school in a neighboring one. That just isn’t the case in any of the zones outside of California.
I think adults care way more than the actual players about super teams being built or players crossing zones in a reasonable manner. Having zones is still relevant. JO is about teams and players coming together from around the country. It is loosely defined as a national tournament, not a “world” or global championship. I say that as we shouldn’t confuse super teams, or teams with a mix of zones, with a team bringing in a high number of international players prior to the two player limit being put in place. Having zone allocations helps ensure we don’t just have 48 CA teams in the championship bracket. It is also easy to see why a team would add players from another zone to be more competitive, making the overall tournament better. Teams outside of CA just simply don’t have the population mass in such a close proximity that makes it more likely to go get other players for this tournament. If a team from the east coast has to pull a handful of players from round the country to be more competitive against an souther CA team that has a geographical advantage, does it really matter and impact the CA teams? If kids that are graduating and about to go to college want to pull together a super team, is that hurting anyone? I think it helps in the sense it creates excitement, brings more talent in, younger kids come to watch, etc. And at the same time the kids on that team are having a blast doing what they love and they are the current ambassadors for a sport we all love. We all want the sport to grow in the US, we want more college opportunities for kids, and some of us would love professional opportunities in the US to be a reality some day.
I think this year will be an exciting and competitive JO, maybe the most exciting in many years. I think it is good to remove a parent hat on this one and think about the players and the sport. Keep in mind many seniors lose the ability to play with their club their last year due to either a club pushing seniors out, or in other zones seniors stop playing as they prepare for their post water polo career as they are not playing win college. If these kids need to go build a team to keep it going, let’s support them and the sport.
Athletes love JOs and like anything, it won’t ever be perfect and will likely evolve into the future.
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The problem with Las Vegas’ “creative approach” is that the teams that they field for JO are significantly stronger than the Mountain Zone Team ODP teams.
I would totally get it if say Vegas had 6 good players, could not get enough kids to form a JO team and are forced to ask other Mountain Zone clubs or even California clubs for help. This is not the case.
If one had cloned their six “good” players doubling the roster and sent those 12 kids to JOs, the team would have been weaker then the actual team they are sending, no?
As for why adults care. OK I do not care that much but it creates wrong culture, in my eyes.
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That’s fair. ODP is an entirely separate discussion for well documented reasons.
I would be curious to know why kids from SoPac choose to play with Vegas instead of a local club as they have many options. I am sure it is different for each kid. If they are kids that would not make an impact locally, then it should not matter. I suspect that is not the case since people are concerned about the talent on the team.
Let’s be clear, the kids that are being pulled to other zones are mostly California kids. This isn’t complaining that California kids are not getting opportunities. It’s the opposite. If Vegas brings in 10 kids from California to fill a MTN zone team then they received an allocation that could have gone to NEZ, MDW or another zone that would have brought local kids. The unused spots don’t have to go to California. Give them to other zones that actually have teams! It’s becoming a definitional black market. Zones get rations/allocations they can’t use so the “sell” them to kids in California. There are MDW teams that didn’t qualify so that more California kids can qualify in MTN? And if MTN continues to need to bring in outsiders, then the strategy isn’t actually growing the game in the zone as implied. This concept of relying on outside help to help a zone win a single JO game will make the zone better and increase interest in the game tomorrow has not be validated.
I would wager that this team from the MTN zone has played few if any games in the MTN zone. If all super teams registered to play in the MTN zone with an actual qual, I would expect the parents and players in that zone would object.
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It’s entirely probable that these OC kids have played for North Irvine for years. They didn’t decide to be on a MTN zone team. The admins at NI and Vegas did that to game the system. They easily could have been a SOPAC team but then maybe they wouldn’t qualify for Championship without their Brazilians. Why do that if you can just get a free pass?
I think you make a good point that the majority of this team may be NI kids. I don’t know that for sure nor do I care enough to research it. If that’s true, then I can see the slippery slope of this if 50% or more are SoPac kids affiliated with a SoPac club.
Either way, let’s enjoy a competitive JO week and cheer for all the athletes. Let’s keep in mind they are still kids playing out there, even the 18 year olds. Let’s not let the decision of adults overshadow what the athletes are out to do this week. Good luck to everyone and prioritize having a good time.
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| Name | Club |
|---|---|
| Max Jakle | 2024 SOCAL but younger brother Mason played for North Irvine |
| Julian Amakasu | 2022 and 2023 North Irvine |
| Max Sauers | 2024 SET - 2022 and 2023 Imperial |
| Whitley Beamon | ?? |
| Michael Adams | 2023 and 2024 Team Vegas - 2022 Mesa Water Polo Academy |
| Maddex Thornton | Team Vegas |
| Palmer MacBeth | 2024 Team Vegas - 2023 San Clemente - 2022 North Irvine |
| Hunter Danko | 2024 and 2023 Team Vegas - 2022 Back Bay |
| Joao Leme | 2022 through 2024 Team Vegas |
| Oliver Wilmink | Team Vegas |
| Flavio Moron | 2023 and 2024 Team Vegas |
| Sean Parshin | 2024 Patriot - 2022 North Irvine |
| Nathan Jobin | Team Vegas |
| Gregory Bank | 2022 North Irvine |
| Jack Kramer | SB 805 |
| Santana Del Castillo | 2024 Team Vegas - 2022 North Irvine |
| Ronin Araucto | 2024 and 2023 Rain City - 2022 Northwest |
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I think it’s giving the Mountain Zone kids a rare opportunity to compete at a high level, one they likely wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It’s benefiting them just as much, if not more. At the end of the day, it’s about growing the sport and creating meaningful experiences for these athletes. If this approach gets more kids engaged and excited about water polo in underrepresented zones, that’s a win for everyone.
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False. It’s giving other kids a chance to play for a mountain team and there is zero evidence that it has gotten any more local kids engaged or excited about water polo. The reverse is true. They don’t have enough people to field an A team. Not the case in MDW, Texas or NEZ where this does not happen.
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2025 USAWP Junior Olympics Session I rosters: Sport:80 | Investing in Sport
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Rabbit hole, put on some coffee. It’s going to be a long night.
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Thanks Marco!
I’ve been in the WP world a while but never saw this page before. I didn’t know they got published!
If it’s organized by 10u teams first I don’t see Del Mar, Patriot or Commerce there.
It is alphabetical by team name. Some clubs call their teams “10u…”. Del Mar, Commerce, and Patriot includes the name of their club in the team name. For example, Del Mar’s 10u A team is “Del Mar 10 Blue”. Commerce is “Commerce 10 & Under Black”. Patriot is “Patriot 10U Navy”.
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Use the filter to help you
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Where is Team Vegas when Oak City needs you? I feel like we all need to go cheer on Oak City!
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I don’t get why they have teams from the same zone play each other day one. An example of this is Stanford and CCU will likely play each other I. Day one