There are several conflicts this weekend. The Youth National Team is playing in the Pacific Cup, and I believe the Cadets (16U) have a mandated Academy session. While the Academy and National Teams are run by USA Water Polo, Futures is a club-based competition. Unfortunately, there is increasing tension between club affiliations and selection for pipeline events. What is even more challenging is that the pressure to prioritize one over the other falls on the athletes, with both sides applying pressure.
Would be nice if the ODP pipeline events could have a calendar so all would be in the know. Having athletes âinvitedâ to the academy training at the last minute screws over teams that have events scheduled. Not every team has key athletes waiting on the bench. Just a little effort for better planning would be appreciated.
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Those events have all been published to the relevant players.
Maybe expand who they believe is relevant. Club teams work very hard to give athletes opportunities to compete and when ODP events effect their ability to be competitive due to athletes being pulled to unknown ODP events it effects more then just those invited athletes.
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Who do you think isnât being told? You think club directors donât know when ODP events are? Do the players not tell their coaches? Is the National league schedule a secret? Complaining about ODP because Greenwich is skipping another futures weekend seems off base.
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Agreed. This is not an ODP problem at all. Not only are dates known but coaches have a pretty good idea of who would be invited. If there were several teams not able to attend then there may be something to it, but not 1.
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Itâs a different world outside of California. And no club directors are not kept in the loop about ODP. You all live in a bubble. No need to get defensive. This is not an off base complaint. Our club travel was effected three times this year because of moving ODP targets. Just put it all on the website then itâs not a mystery.
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Since this is a Futures thread I think the point is that somehow only 1team seems impacted to the degree of missing 2 out of 5 weekends. I think I have been plenty critical of ODP, but this is not an area I would blame them for a team missing 40% of the weekends.
If a club director doesnât know the ODP schedules, thatâs on them. Iâm a layperson and I have people that I can ask. Pretty easy to ask anyone involved if you donât know, especially your own players.
I suspect itâs a simple volume of travel (ODP type stuff):
3/21 - National League
3/28 - Futures
4/11 - Pacific Cup
4/11 - Futures
4/18 - National League
4/25 - NTSC
5/2 - National League
5/8 - CADET Academy
5/16 - Senior Nationals
Thatâs a lot of travel for the ODP/NT players in a short period of time with spring break in there, somewhere. That could be 7 trips in 9 weeks! Itâs not necessarily too much for just the Futures participants.
You are missing Academy weekends for youth a cadetsâŚ.
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Maybe, I havenât asked anyone about cadet.
Top Cadets (16u) play in 18u Futures .
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I get that. Futures puts 16s and 18s on different weekends to accommodate dual rosters. To schedule a third competing event for the same kids will be difficult and even more travel. If asking 16s to fly out for both 16s and 18s Futures, thatâs a big ask.
My point is that if you sign up for a 5 week tournament you should send a team. It doesnât have to be your national team players or kids that go every week. There is a lot of roster flexibility. Send some kids that are your next group and give them good experience. Seems to be what Team USA is doing this week after all. The cost of travel and the weekends are known ahead of time. It doesnât not have to be the same 10 players every week.
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They do. The ODP Academy training camps are publicly posted on USAWPâs site. Log in, select Camps in the left menu, and search for âCadetâ.
Because they are in the public calendar, they have to place a warning to let everyone know they are closed camps.
There are a number of events that are not public, including this yearâs NTSC, but even the date for NTSC is on the ODP page.
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I appreciate that the lists and events are socialized on various platforms. I think the challenge, and perhaps frustration, rests with the teammates on the Futures teams who donât always know whether their best players will show up with them to play weekend by weekend.
That has to be frustrating but can provide them an opportunity to step up and the âthe guy or girlâ to fill that void. I would still send a team and do the best you can, win or learn.
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AETOS performed well this weekend, even without their two stars. Many teams were missing top players due to the Pacific Cup and Cadets Academy. If the Super Finals follow last yearâs format (24 teams: 11 SoCal, 11 NorCal, and 2 Texas), then this appears to be the SoCal seeding:
You canât take anything from this weekends results. Aetos beating Newport by 5 without their 2 main players is your first indication. ODP had an event, Pacific Cup, Europe, Spring Break, rest, etc. It is what it is, but not your typical âa player or two missingâ like every week.
Do we think there will still be 2 teams in D1 from Texas now that Greenwich (sort of) played in SoCal Futures this year? Iâm not sure both CT Premier and Pegasus belong in D1. Hard to know from just the 3-4 games played in Dallas at the non-CA qualifying tournament.
One interesting result at that tournament: 4th place finisher Longhorn only lost to 1st place finisher CT Premier in a shootout, 6.5-6.3. Is Longhorn good enough to play in D1 SuperFinals? No crossover games so Longhorn didnât get to play Pegasus or Thunder. Maybe Longhorn would have finished 2nd? Seeding pretty much determined the outcome.