Here is a list of the individuals named to the roster for the upcoming ODP training trip to Italy and the Senior Nationals. The list includes a mix of 16u and 18u players. I’ve heard that several individuals declined the opportunity to participate in these events. In addition, several Class of 2026 students are too old to be selected.
Here is the roster for the 2025 Cadet Pan American team:
Cortez Chavez
Owen Clark
Hunter Coleman
Jack Davis
Curren Francisco
William Gorsche
Ronan Keane
Christopher Koo
Francesco Pintaric
Andrew Schneider
Sungwon Shin
Alistair Sterrett
Grayston Taylor
Ethan Wallace
Liam Zarcu
Italy trip falls on Super Futures weekend.
The roster will impact Del Mar (coach is the Youth assistant coach) and CCU.
Some coaches might asked their boys to prioritize club: Futures and JOs
“Several” declining seems like a lot. 20 of the 24 Youth field players were on US travel teams last year. Only 3 from Malta are not returning. Maybe several goalies did as 3 of 4 seem to be new to the US Team.
At least one field player and one goalie declined so that they could stay with club team for super finals. Both were on Malta team. Don’t know about the rest.
Congratulations to all of the boys selected to represent the US in 2025. I do think that it is unfair to those who were chosen to stay back to support their club as well as the teams that have worked hard this year only to lose key players before Futures Super Finals. Could this have been avoided with better planning for the Super Finals?
Agreed on the need for better planning. The Youth trip was announced just a few weeks ago, many months after the Futures dates had already been set. As you probably know, Futures is unaffiliated with USA Water Polo.
Moreover, I assume many club coaches would have preferred for some of their top players to compete and train with the team before JOs.
ODP, Academy, NT camps, and NT tournaments offer excellent development opportunities for the athletes involved, and USA Water Polo is doing a commendable job in this regard.
That said, for boys participating in all of these programs, the number of weekends they miss training or competing with their club teams is significant—about 25% to 33%.
The breakdown is approximately:
2 camps + 1 regional or evaluation + 1 national + 4 Academy weekends + 1 NTSC + 1 summer camp + 1 tournament = 11 to 12 weekends.
This accounts for roughly 25% of total weekends. If the club season spans about 4/5 of the year, that increases to approximately 33% of weekends taken up by ODP/NT activities.
I presume some club coaches are not entirely comfortable with this balance.
The Youth trip was originally planned for Greece in August but was changed to Italy in June a few weeks before NTC. Some of the boys that declined attended all academy and ODP camps/Zones and have been in the pipeline since Development. They then made the NTSC camp and after that the trip logistics were changed putting some of them in a tough spot, especially if you’re on a club team with mostly younger players. They attended NTSC and were up front with coaches about the situation so no surprises. Ideally they’d love to be in both places and aspire to stay in the pipeline next year, but some club teams are learning new strategies and need as many reps as a team as they can get before high school season begins. I think logistics are tough and there have been many competing events between Futures, ODP/Academy, National League, upcoming JOs and possibly Quicksilver. There aren’t many weekends to choose from so I don’t know the answer but I know it’s not easy for all involved. The athletes going on the Italy trip will have a good time and get great experience.