I generally love what the WPW guys are doing. My gripe is that it’s predictable that when given a full slate of 22 new players at SMC, Wes chose to only talk about 5 international players. No room on the slide? How about another slide?
The “I don’t know this American, but this European you’ve got is an absolute stud” routine is getting old.
I’ll repeat my suggestion from last year.
Next year, if Wes gets the chance, he might consider announcing some U18 National League games.
Better better never best! The best players entering the NCAA this year are predominantly foreigners, like most years in recent memory. This year, however, there are a few great USA players entering college which we will highlight next week in our Best of the Best and Newcomers to Watch segments.
Appreciate the feedback and, rest assured, Id love to broadcast as many games as humanly possible!!!
One would think that U.S. talent is on par with the world’s best, given that the U20 team finished second, the U18 team finished second, and the U16 team finished fourth at their respective World Championships. The historical perspective is irrelevant and anachronistic.
Exactly Gibson. We are (likely) all US based fans, parents, coaches, players. While hearing about the upcoming college season, pumping up some of our local boys might do some good for the sport.
Also would be very helpful to give younger kids looking to play college polo some inspiration in hearing and seeing from/about players that may be from their own clubs / high schools.
And I’ll repeat mine, and add a new one. It would be great to see women’s NCAA coverage similar to what we see for the men’s season. It would also be good to see more coverage of D2 and D3 programs. Increasing visibility of these programs as an opportunity for young players who want to stay involved helps grow the sport.
If I understood what Pinta said correctly, Jack Vort and Andrej Grgurevic are both enrolled in USC’s graduate school and have practiced with the “club” team over the summer and are exploring options to play their 5th year with the recent court rulings.
Also, some more feedback: I think it would make for a better viewing experience if the coaches were dominating the interview and you took more of a back seat Wes. I think you’re too quick to jump in at times and you’re often cutting off the coaches mid sentence.
Finally, promoting the sport is great, but it’s also your job to ask the tough questions. It’s now been 3 out of the last 4 years that USC has lost in the title game. Pinta has failed to win a NCAA title as the lone head coach on the roster. 7 years is by far the longest drought USC has had between titles since they won their first in 1998. What needs to change? In more high profile sports, the coach would’ve already been canned. Does Pinta at all feel like his job is on the line? If coaches don’t wanna hear tough questions and choose to not come on the show because of it, that’s fine, but let’s ask the tough questions.
We agree. We did quite a bit for the Womens NCAA season including in person interviews last year. For D2 and D3, we are hosting the Mercury Awards that will be the first ever honor for D2 and D3 on a national stage. Doing our part the best we can!
In a small sport connected world where relationships are give and take I am not sure these type of hard hitting questions are realistic at this point in our sport.
Our final coach’s interview with the one and only James Graham of UOP. He breaks his ENTIRE class for the 2026 cycle right here on WaterPoloWednesday!
Wow, hot take on how combative Wes should be with the coaches who choose to come on the show. Permission to treat the witness as hostile? I’m not sure WPW needs to be Meet the Press.
The goal is not to be friends with the coaches; it’s to be a reporter and ask questions fans want to hear. In every single conversation, I hear the same thing, and it gets so repetitive. It feels as if we’re catering to the coaches’ needs.
You don’t need to be combative to ask tough questions.
Asking “Do you feel any pressure to win the NCAA championship after 7 winless seasons, whether that’s internal, from the athletic administration, or fans and alumni?” Or asking, “How difficult was it managing Herzer and Mills last year, and was there a time you had a feeling you may be losing one in the portal?” Asking more about the portal when a superstar like Apostolos Georgaras is in the portal, how does he approach those conversations? How much of a role are current players playing with transfers?
If we’re serious about growing the sport, then both sides can agree to separate their relationship from outside when conducting interviews. This is how it’s done in all major sports. Reporters and content creators have relationships with coaches, but they also do their job.
Those would have been great questions and I would have loved to hear Coach Pintaric’s responses. My guess is nobody puts more pressure on Pintaric than he does to himself, so I doubt he would flinch from a question about the pressure to win at USC if asked respectfully. And there are certainly ways to ask informative questions without coming across as aggressive or combative. To each his own, but does seem like a missed opportunity to get a little more insight into one of the sport’s top coaches and programs.
Moving this down so people have the link who want to watch the UOP interview:
UOP Class Release
Im a huge fan of what Wes and the WPW team are doing. They are out there creating content to help promote, grow and generate buzz about our sport. As passionate water polo fans, I think we need to recognise that we are a small sport and we desperately need to grow our profile domestically and internationally if we want to keep growing and staying viable as a sport, and Wes and the WPW team are doing their part to help the sport grow.
I’m all for criticism when it’s constructive, but come on, asking Wes to press these coaches and ask hard hitting questions isn’t going to work. The college coaches are busy enough, and the fact they even take the time out of their schedules to do these interviews is a privilege, they are not going to do these interviews if they start getting pressed like it’s an ESPN interview.
I think we all need to be a bit more grateful for this free water polo content that Wes and the WPW team are putting out. They really are generate a whole new level of buzz and excitement about the sport, and they are giving up their time to do this for the love of the game.
I really hope Wes and WPW keep going with this stuff, it’s hugely appreciated and love the lengths they are going to help our sport grow!
Keep it up lads!
Agree! We are lucky to have any insight at all! Thank you for all the content!
Agree and let’s support them. I think it is $5/mo, so they can expand the current offering.
I didn’t see UC Irvine. Was their an interview with Dan Klatt?