So interesting…dates for aquatics at the 2028 Olympics was released…
And the Olympic Water Polo tournament is scheduled for the same general time frame as Junior Olympics…and its a NorCal JO’s year…
How long will it take USA Water Polo to figure out that the bulk of their spectators for Olympic water polo are scheduled to be 300 miles away at the same time?
Wonder when they will move JOs to? Earlier? Later?
Absolutely…
There could be so many tie-ins, use the Olympic pool for JOs finals maybe? Or if not, recognize winning teams at half time of Olympic Games…
Kids from other parts of the country could be here to watch Olympic water polo…
So many possibilities!
I assume they will make an exception and move the JOs to an earlier date, if they don’t it would be another blow to USAWaterpolo which do not seem to be getting anything right these days🤞
If we can do that once, can we continue to do it in the future?
Would love to see a movement towards JO’s taking place the last week of June or, at the absolute latest, the week after 4th of July every year. Dragging this tournament out to the end of July really just deprives families of the opportunity to take a well-deserved vacation. Many schools are starting as early as August 11 this year. With Session 2 concluding on July 27th and high school practices beginning August 1 for most, there is almost no room for kids to take a mental and physical break from what is a very demanding sport.
I am sure there would be pushback from the organizers of US Club Champs, Futures SuperFinals, Quicksilver, etc. as there is money up for grabs every weekend that they are able to host a tournament, but I am also sure there is a way for everyone to fill their coffers and still allow water polo families to have more than a 4 day break from the sport.
Agreed! Another issue for many of the California polo players is the conflict with junior lifeguards. The Regional (state) Championships for JG’s always conflict with the Girls’ session for WaPo, excluding a huge number of competitive athletes from participating in that event.
I know a lot of water polo players in northern and southern California also participate in guards, and it would be great to be able to do both events. Maybe not the biggest issue on the table…
We’ve already lost a week of summer polo with JO’s being earlier, I remember when the age cutoff changed from Dec 31 to August 4th, Because Aug 4 was girls JO’s.
Some schools go until the second week of June - how could JO Quals and JOs happen on a different timeline?
As a working parent, I have never been a fan of the summer polo schedule. 10am and 2pm practices several weekdays (or working days) weekly are difficult to make, especially if you have multiple kids who can’t drive and who have different practice times and locations… so if we end up having less summer polo and having to figure out how to get practices and games in for an earlier RJO (which would technically be more local, so we could figure out how to make it work) and NJO (hopefully mid or late June) would be great.
That and being able to give the kids July and August for a “break” would be amazing, especially since a lot of high schools start their season at the end of July and early August. It gives them the opportunity to participate in summer programs and internships that are available in July… or they can go to a camp, if they’d like.