I see USAWP posting on X that Austin school district is attempting to remove high school water polo. where do the longhorn club players go to high school?
That’s such a bummer. Longhorn Aquatics has built a great community and has done a lot to grow water polo in Texas. I know there are other clubs around Austin with a lot of passionate players too.
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…and it wouldn’t even save them a note worthy amount of money.
Swim coaches in Texas have been very aggressive in their efforts to stymie, if not completely kill off, water polo.
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Well, that sucks! Some sort of campaign needs to be launched.
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latest USAWP post on it
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Off-topic, the X post has 306 views, which is a sad reflection of the reach and digital strategy of USA Water Polo.
It’s not surprising that water polo age groups and high school teams struggle outside of California. From my perspective, USA Water Polo claims to be growing the sport outside of California, but in reality, they hinder the growth and potential of non-California clubs.
How many teams from Texas or any other part of the country were invited to a league called the National League? How many non-California high school teams compete against top California high school teams?
An organization with a yearly budget of over $15 million is run by mediocre staff with a lack of vision, subpar governance, and no strategy. They also lack outreach to the passionate fans of the sport, such as this forum.
A ‘GoFundMe’ or similar campaign to save Austin WP is insufficient and too late. Where were you, USA WP, when Austin faced challenges or any program? Sad.
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Check out the petition here to support Austin HS Water Polo - Save Austin ISD Water Polo
Also, USAWP Olympians Tony Azevedo and Maggie Steffens have shared a video with their support that is approaching 40,000 views on Instagram - let’s keep the momentum up!
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There may be some good news for Austin water polo. It appears Austin ISD is planning to keep water polo in Austin high schools and reduce costs instead of eliminating the program entirely. It looks like final budget vote is June 18, but things are looking much more promising. The Austin water polo community has really rallied together and shown how much this sport means to the athletes and families involved. If you’d like to support the effort and stay updated, you can follow this Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/save.aisd.water.polo/
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Great job by the water polo community to rally together and make this happen! Things are looking promising. Some news reports from CBS Austin that has been covering this story - USA Water Polo on X: "Huge shoutout to the water polo community in Austin and the way they’ve rallied to save their sport from being cut. More from @cbsaustin https://t.co/9xI758gWrc" / X
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Swim coaches punching a wall right now. 
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Living in SoCal for 40 yrs and then moving to Texas 4 yrs ago, I am surprised most of the top tier Texas high schools don’t go play in California tournaments. The way for Texas HS water polo to improve is to play against better teams. The top Texas schools bomb the Texas teams they play and it is a waste of talent. There are multiple HS tournaments each season in CA that teams could go to and the experience will improve Texas WP
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Giving some added perspective here to the comment about Water Polo outside of California. I have firsthand noticed this. I and my wife were planning to move to Indiana. I have three children that play Water Polo on SoCal; all girls. We were looking for a WP club in case we moved and couldn’t find one club outside of more than two hours away from Indiana University. We were checking out Indiana University to meet some people to just talk. Nothing crazy, just were spectators of the IU natatorium; just super impressed. (It was cool to see Mark Spence name on wall and all the swimmmers Indiana U. has had over the years). I got to speak with someone and asked where do many of your WP players come from. I’ve noticed there doesn’t seem to be much Water Polo out here in the state of Indiana. Lots of swimmers, but no Water Polo. IU also has a fairly good woman’s WP team. Everyone told me that the majority of all their Water Polo players come from California or international. No surprise here to that, we can just check rosters to find out. It’s sad to me that that region of the US has not 1, but 2 big division 1 schools (Michigan) and no major in state or near geographic development or recruiting.
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As someone that lived in Texas, I sure hope this gets resolved.
Well the best way is to get involved. Every youth sport needs volunteer parents to get behind their sport and push their sport.