A number of the top Class of 2026 girls who not participating in Youth have 2007 birthdays I believe. Though technically eligible for the National Championships, they can’t go on to NTSC, etc., which surely explains some decisions to sit this one out.
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That’s correct. They may not even qualify for the national championships either.
so anyone else trying to watch on GOLS and streaming sucks??? Granada HS is blurry and no audio………this is fabulous coverage 
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TERRIBLE coverage. I can’t see anything. The video is frozen and there is no audio.
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To add to @OutsideLookingIn’s comment, It’s hard to argue that ODP is not political or a cash grab.
This is our 2nd year with a kid making the regional amd now the National. It’s hard to argue that ODP is not political. I’ve heard it first hand from ODP coaches being forced to select players who didn’t want to be there over more talented hungry players. Knowing this going into it, we had our kids go in with the main expectation being high level training.
This year was our first that one of ours made it to the national championships. No expectations as parents, stoked she made it one step further.
When we arrived today roughly $1500 invested over 9 days, we were stoked to see that investment payoff with a table full of evaluators. As soon as the PSW Red x CST Red game ended, all but one evaluator got up put their notebooks away and walked away. The crazy part is I looked at the next games parents who started murmurs of “why are we here, why did we drive 8 hours and pay for this, they have their favorites and they don’t even watch?”.
And in that moment, it was hard for me to argue that ODP is not political. Especially to parents that just paid a $575 tournament fee $450 in uniforms and endless travel, hotel and food costs.
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Same here. To make matters worse, my wife (who is at the pool) told me that they didn’t even start setting up the camera and equipment until the first game had already started. My daughter was playing in the second game of the evening and the stream didn’t even start until her game was half over.
Sorry to hear about the experience. It is the norm for most as people learn this is predetermined. People will continue to pay due to FOMO.
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FOMO will always win! My daughter likes the feeling of being surrounded by a team full of people that want to play as hard as her or harder which gives her something to push for. She’s stoked right now, her team won both games and she’s having a blast making an impact and knowing they will part ways after the weekend. Much like what will happen at the end of club season, at the end of high school and the end of college. She’s learning that teams can part ways healthily and that it’s completely normal.
If athletes are assigned randomly to teams the outcome of the tournament would not be predicable. Athletes not in the inner circle would have more of an opportunity to make an impact and evaluators would need to watch more games. . Pre tournament practice would not be an issue. Athletes from zone teams without key players (goalie) or a clear drop off in bench talent would not be immediately in the bottom games no one watches year after year.
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No rosters linked (Regional & National Championships - USA Water Polo)
No stats kept for cadet or youth
No cadet head coach on deck
What gives
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The GOLS streams are unwatchable. It’s awful.
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Tourney format is highly unusual
7-8 place of top 8 seeds automatically go to 9-12 semifinals
9-10 place of bottom seeds automatically go to 1-8 quarterfinals
No crossover games (!)
Dev PSW A is in the former, Dev PSW B is in the latter. B team will finish above same zone’s A team. Has that ever happened in recorded ODP history???
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Yes, it happened at Cadet in 2024. Not only did CST Blue finish 5th while CST Red finished 9th. CST Blue beat CST Red Head-to-Head!!
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Oh dang
That stuff should prompt some spirited conversations between national staff and zone staff
Let’s go back and pull the tapes:
2024 Cadet CST A had 6 from Rose Bowl, 2 from CIU with only 1 from PV, 0 South Coast, 0 LA Premier
2024 Cadet CST B had 2 Rose Bowl, 0 CIU with 4 PV, 2 South Coast, 2 LA Premier
Verrrrrry interesting
I wish I could do the same with 2026 Dev PSW but - for first time in 10+ years USAWP didn’t provide club affiliations! Maybe because gadflies will make observations like the above?
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In Cadet, SPA blue just beat SPA red
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Cadet SPA A has 14 Academy players and lost to SPA B in the semifinal…interesting. Makes you wonder.
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Amazing
The idea that you can identify team USA at 12-13yo and have that essentially set in stone is just so flawed. You wind up picking the kids that mature early, from the clubs that train 15+ hours a week as 12U. Then those players plateau while others keep growing at their own pace but NTSC/Academy has so much inertia that only a smattering turnover. I get that Emily and Jenna and Jewel were all success stories of the 12U identification approach, but Kocur’s comments on the boys side about first time Junior roster participants should be very instructive.
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Anyone watch that game?
I don’t know enough about Emily Ausmus’s development as a water polo player to speak intelligently about it. However, I wouldn’t credit much of Jewel Roemer and Jenna Flynn’s development to their participation in the 12u Olympic Development Program. Jenna (and her sisters Nina and Chrissy) began to develop elite shooting skills at an early age under the tutelage of their father, Joe Flynn. Joe was a very good relief pitcher for Santa Clara University. Moreover, Jewel and Jenna (as well as Nina and Chrissy) benefitted at an early age from the coaching of Jewel’s father, John Roemer. John played water polo for Pete Cutino at Cal and the Concord Water Polo Club. He is one of the top girls’/women’s coaches in the country. By the time Jewel and Jenna entered the Olympic Development Program, they were already many years ahead of almost every other player in their age group.
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