Official Club Name: Del Mar Water Polo Club
Director of the Club: Brett Ormsby
On The Web: www.delmarwaterpoloclub.org
Club Coaches: Brett Ormsby, Greg Ormsby, Zach Wordes, and Jake Hodgens
Age Groups and Genders: 12U Boys, 14U Boys, 16U Boys, and 18U Boys
How did the club get started? Head Coach and 2004 Olympian Brett Ormsby founded the Del Mar Water Polo Club in the summer of 2008 when he moved back home to San Diego to accept a combined teaching and coaching position at Cathedral Catholic High School. Ormsby began to think about coaching as a future career after coaching part-time at UCLA, Harvard-Westlake, Los Angeles Water Polo, and San Diego Shores all the while trying to rehabilitate injuries and return to the United States Men’s National team. When Ormsby realized he was unable to get healthy for the 2008 Olympics, he decided that it was finally time to complete his transition into the coaching ranks. In doing so, he started the Del Mar Water Polo Club, with the original intention of providing a means for his high school team to continue playing water polo year-around. Since the club's birth in 2008, its scope has increased significantly to cater to athletes of all ages from across San Diego while providing them an opportunity to compete in elite water polo tournaments. An age group program, where Ormsby hopes to create a strong water polo base by focusing on the fundamentals that he grew up practicing himself, was started this past summer. Since then, the club has seen steady increases in the number of young kids participating.
Where is the home base? Del Mar Water Polo Club is based out of Cathedral Catholic High School.
Where do they play? Up to this point the club has mostly participated in and hosted local water polo events around San Diego. However, they have traveled to a few larger tournaments, such as Winterfest in Los Alamitos, where the 18U boys recently brought the gold medal back to San Diego. Last summer, while the age group team was just getting started, the older teams chose to travel to Europe (Croatia and Italy) rather than qualify a team for the National Junior Olympics. This summer the club hopes to participate in the national event at all levels.
Plans for five years down the road? First and foremost Del Mar Water Polo Club hopes to grow, both in numbers and experience, at the younger ages. The club has had a steady, positive growth trend so far. With a strong effort to go out and find new fifth, sixth, and seventh graders in San Diego interested in playing water polo, the club is confident that this trend will continue. Five years down the road, the club hopes that all the kids joining now will be ready to compete against the top clubs in the country, after learning the necessary fundamentals and skills from their experienced coaching staff.
The most important aspect of Del Mar Water Polo Club is preparing kids to move on to play water polo at successive levels, and after that, to be successful in their lives beyond water polo. With that in mind, the club hopes that in the future, it will have helped develop well-balanced young men, capable of contributing to collegiate and National team programs, and ultimately, being productive in their post-water polo life.
Traveling Abroad: Last summer, the Del Mar Water Polo Club spent two weeks in water polo training in Europe. They started in Dubrovnik, Croatia, playing against the age group teams of Jug Dubrovnik, Tony Azevedo’s club at the time, and one of the most storied clubs in the world. On the first day of the trip, the boys had a lifetime experience while walking through the town, when they were invited to participate in a pick-up water polo game, which some local residents were playing in the Adriatic Sea. Another highlight was scrimmaging the Croatian National Youth team. The boys and their coaches also watched a tournament featuring the National Youth teams of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Italy, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Next the club traveled to Rome to cheer on the United States at the 2009 FINA World Championships. European trips will be a staple of the Del Mar Water Polo Club in the future. Coach Ormsby says, “Playing water polo in Europe was such a formative experience for me. I will never forget my first two trips to Europe with Ricardo Azevedo and Long Beach Shore. I got the chance to play in a rock-bottom pool in Eger, Hungary and a pool in Vouliagmeni, Greece overlooking the sea. After that I was hooked and, fortunately, able to travel to Europe many times again with the United States National team. Now I want the kids I coach to have the same opportunities in water polo that I had.”
Big Men On Campus: In their early history Del Mar Water Polo has sent two players off to college and has more players in the pipeline with college water polo aspirations. Bernie Rogers at UC-Davis and Spencer Zender at LMU were the first two Del Mar alums to play college water polo. The club also has the following seniors already committed to playing college water polo next year:
Chris Fahlsing - UCLA
Stephen White - UCLA
Jacob Schrimpf - Pepperdine
Alex Johnson - UCLA
Colin Smith - California
Rex Butler - USC
In addition, Steven Perdew, Tommy Schofer, Andrew Ireland, Luke Syka, and Ryan Brunansky all plan to play collegiate water polo next year, but are undecided as of this time.
How To Get Involved: Just visit www.delmarwaterpoloclub.org to get signed up. This summer the club will be offering a free two week camp to new players. In addition each season the club offers a free trial period of three practices for new players.
