Women’s water polo coach commends growth of new programs nationwide

There’s a rousing trend occurring in women’s water polo.

No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo (4-1) played its final game at the UCSB Winter Invitational against Ottawa University-Arizona (0-6), a team playing in its first year of collegiate water polo.

The Spirit is currently the only team in the country listed as a member of the National Athletic Interscholastic Association. In other words, this allows OUAZ to play a college at any level ranging from junior colleges to highly-ranked programs like UCLA.

OUAZ coach Austen Ramer, a former volunteer coach for Longhorn Aquatics at Texas, spoke on why his team participated in a national tournament that included seven ranked programs.

“My philosophy is you don’t learn to swim in the shallow end,” Ramer said. “If you want to be the best, you have to play the best and compete against the best. For us, coming to this tournament and playing these teams, it’ll expose the things we need to work on and the process we’re taking in terms of growing our program.”

Ramer’s experience helping to build a squad in Texas highlights an odd statistic. Currently, Texas is home to only one official water polo program: Austin College, a Division III university.

However, UCLA coach Adam Wright noted a growing interest in the sport in the second most populated state in the country.

“A really intriguing place is in Texas,” Wright said. “A bunch of schools are actually making water polo an official high school sport.”

While only seven states boast high school teams on the women’s side, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, women’s water polo is tied for the third fastest growing sport in the last decade among high school girls.

During the 2008-2009 season, there were 18,418 nonclub exclusive athletes. In 2018-2019, that number jumped to 21,735 – an 18% increase. Only lacrosse (53.6%) and bowling (18.8%) increased more. Notably, football, basketball and softball decreased during this period.

Previously, water polo was considered a club sport in states like Texas. As such, NFHS cannot accurately determine the increase in participation in high school students.

However, USA Water Polo can gauge membership levels between 15-to-18-year-olds to determine if club water polo is experiencing a similar increase as high school.

In 2012, USAWP had roughly 17,000 members in that age group, but that number spiked 12.3% in 2019 as the organization reported 19,099 members.

With high schools in Texas, among other states, beginning to classify women’s water polo as an official sport, growth is only going to increase, and that’s a good thing, according to Wright.

“The more institutions we have, the more opportunities there are for student-athletes,” Wright said. “If our game’s going to grow, then we need to have more universities adding water polo.”

Currently, 75 of the 112 women’s water polo programs at any level are in California. While a student-athlete has over 800 colleges at all levels outside of California to choose from should they play football, there are only 37 colleges a student can pick from if they don’t want to play water polo at a California institution.

Wright noted how OUAZ’s participation in a national tournament, despite its inexperience, will help it grow as a program and hopefully encourage others to follow suit.

“Look, it’s really important for our sport that we continue to add programs,” Wright said. “The exposure it’s going to give (OUAZ) from a recruiting standpoint, but also the experience for the players will really help them down the road. It’s super exciting that a new program has been added on the women’s side, and it’s a journey, but over time they’ll improve for sure, and others may do the same.”

Biola University, a Division II program, is doing just that, as it’s set to add both a men’s and women’s water polo team for the 2021-2022 season. The Eagles serve as part of a recent surge of one of 27 teams added to the women’s side since 2006.

Sophomore center Ava Johnson, currently tied for second in scoring for the Bruins with seven goals, said OUAZ’s willingness to jump in headfirst at the tournament was not only challenging but inspiring.

“Water polo as a whole is a hard sport,” Johnson said. “I’m glad they’re here (at the UCSB Winter Invitational) and that we got to play against them. For a new team to come to this tournament and play teams that have been playing and competing for years and established a pipeline, it’s super impressive.”