I’m not saying you have to believe me. I’m just saying from my personal and interpersonal experience that clearing 1450 isn’t that hard if you come out of gymnasium.
Possible, but your assumption of a strong overlap between international academic high achievers and elite water polo players is likely flawed. Consider the average SAT scores from five top domestic water polo feeder schools: NHHS – 1050, JSerra – 1250, CC – 1270, SHP – 1380, and Harvard-Westlake – 1460. Only a student who is above average at a school ranked in the top 5 nationally and happens to be an elite water polo player could reasonably make the kind of claim you’re attributing to a large number of international players. I think you’re generalizing from a very small and possibly unrepresentative sample.
Anyway, not an argument worth spending much time on or having a big impact on college WP.
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PoloEnthusiast,
This is not what you wrote. You wrote: “Most international players I’ve come across will tell you that the college education they receive here is on par with their high school education.”
If you are trying to say that Stanford/UCLA/CAL/USC education amounts to what Serbian/Hungarian/Spanish/Italian/Greek polo players receive in their high school, it is pretty delusional, believe me 
Anyway, I have no desire to move this thread’s discussion in a very different direction. Cheers.
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Enjoying the thoughtful discussion here—many great points being raised. That said, I believe there is a difference between the past decades and current wave of international player participation in U.S. collegiate water polo. With the new House settlement rules coming into effect in 2025, we’re likely to see an even greater influx of foreign players. Unlike the past decades, where international participation was selective and balanced as demonstrated by the above charts and statistics, the financial incentives that are now tied to roster spots WILL accelerate this trend.
While diversity and competition are vital, I’m concerned this shift will gradually sideline homegrown talent. Over time, it COULD erode the development pipeline for U.S. athletes and weaken the long-term growth and sustainability of American water polo at both the collegiate and national levels.
As much as I love playing against and watching the best, I hope some bright minds in our sports/educators/etc.. can find a way to accomplish this in more balanced way without jeopardizing US youth.
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I respect the view that international players bring value, higher competition and in many ways, they do. But with these new rules shifting how rosters and compensation work, the scale might tip too far, too fast. Time will tell, but if we get this wrong, we risk losing the development and visibility of local talent. And once that erosion starts, there might be no coming back. (It might have already started as flag football and lacrosse is seeing record numbers of kids enrolling.)
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Princeton and Fordham are dramatic!
There are plenty of good coaches out there that would love to get top American talent to develop. You don’t have to go to a Big 4 to develop
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Princeton and Fordham did indeed change quite a bit, but they highlighted an interesting piece of the puzzle. They are among the programs who had the highest number of American players originating from states other than California.
There was a collapse in non-California participation running from 2010 to the COVID pandemic which appears to predate the rise in international players. This is the chart for all schools from the scraped dataset.
There does seem to be a bit of a rebound nationwide as of the COVID pandemic. It could be due to travel restrictions impacting recruiting, or it could be USAWP’s pivot to focusing their expansion efforts on Texas instead of the East Coast.
Historically, Princeton and Fordham have had a much higher percentage of non-California players. Their individual charts are much more dramatic than the national numbers.
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One note is I would wager a guess that Fordham has had the most non-California Americans of any team competing at NCAAs over the past four years and the most starters from outside of the state of California. The Rams have historically had high numbers of folks from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri and Illinois. I would argue that they still do a strong job at trying to bring in non-California kids.
There is a direct correlation between more international talent flowing in and Fordham moving up in the rankings from being a top 15 program to a team ranked first in the country last season. That being said, I am sure Fordham would have loved to have gotten Ryan Ohl or Gavin West out of their own backyard to join the other Greenwich kids on our team. Coaches are paid to win games and you can’t criticize the Fordhams or Princetons for recruiting internationally instead of sitting as a backup choice for someone looking at Stanford or UCLA.
I think the addition of more international players has helped bring parity to the sport as it enables Fordham, Princeton, Long Beach, Pacific to field rosters that match up with Cal, Stanford, USC and UCLA. The best game of last year’s NCAAs was USC-Fordham and that doesn’t happen without the influx of international players.
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This will likely come as a shock, as it did to me, but the team holding that title over the past four years is Pacific.
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Have you ever been to Stockton? Most California kids know what Stockton is like…
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I don’t think anyone is asserting that international players don’t make the quality of the game better. The issue is that it may not be a zero sum game and that the costs may far outweigh the benefits. Who could argue that 20 year old high school football players would make for a more exciting game? If all the sprinters were on steroids, wow, that would be amazing to watch! The 12 year old gymnasts at Olympics could sure do things the older competitors couldn’t.
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I follow high school water polo fairly closely and talk to kids regularly about recruitment.
Solid players (not top 10, but ALL-CIF caliber) were regularly talking to several college coaches prior to COVID. Similarly talented kids are now lucky to get a response from 1 coach.
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With the current recruiting climate, it’s clear that the landscape is shifting rapidly. European players, transfer portal athletes, older and experienced junior college athletes (with new eligibility status), and top 5 or so recruits from high school programs have real and deep conversations with college coaches. The rest of the player pool — which includes a large number of capable and dedicated U.S. athletes — is left waiting, hoping that once those spots are filled, there’s still room for them. This was never the case in the past with our without international players!
This new dynamic is not just unfortunate — it is a real concern for the future of the sport in the U.S. As roster spots become scarce and pathways to collegiate play narrow, many young athletes will see fewer reasons to stay committed to water polo through high school. The ripple effect will be significant. We’re not just talking about missed opportunities for individuals — we’re talking about a real decline in the development of homegrown talent.
The sport we all love risks becoming less accessible, less inclusive, and ultimately, less sustainable at the grassroots level. If we’re serious about growing water polo in the U.S., this needs to be addressed head-on — not after the damage is already done.
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I wonder if this is part of the reason some programs are not transparent and exclusive to some without a true competitive process, think ODP and their academy program as an example. With opportunities becoming fewer, I think you will naturally see some insiders try and protect visibility and opportunity to known quantities. This would further erode the sport at the HS levels. We have seen parents with influence do things along these lines to get in with colleges in the past that are public and documented.
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To think all this could be solved by having roster limits on foreign students just like every European club has against foreign invasion. Simple. Until they change their rules we should create limits. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lost.
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Water polo has its own specific issues (foreign players, minimal appeal outside of California) but the bigger issue is the dumpster fire that is now D1 collegiate athletics. Post House-settlement, there’s going to be significantly less money to subsidize the non-revenue sports (US Olympic Com freaking out about this), and ADs are going to look to cut programs, particularly men’s programs. Right now every D1 water polo coach should be spending significant time forming alumni booster groups so they can self-fund/endow programs when the cuts start. If a coach isn’t having that conversation right now with his AD, he’s not doing his job. Seismic change is happening right now.
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