USA Water Polo

Official Club Name: Greenwich Water Polo

On the Net: www.greenwichwaterpolo.org

Director of Club: Terry Lowe

Coaches: Bill Harris, Paul Ramaley, Win Bates, Thomas Payton, and Field Garthwaite

Age Groups: House League 9-10 Yrs, 12U Boys and Girls, 14U Boys and Girls, 16U Boys and Girls, 18U Boys

How Did They Start?: The Greenwich Water Polo club is in its 12th year, however water polo has been going in the area much longer as the Fairfield County Swim League started age-group water polo over 25 years ago. The league through the help of Lowe has grown tremendously over the years, including three divisions: Midget (10 and under), Junior (11-13), and Senior (14-17). The league currently has some 20 teams participating in a variety of divisions. With eight of those teams being based in Greenwich it made an obvious choice for the Greenwich Water Polo Club to form.

Where Do They Call Home?: The home pool is Greenwich High School, a 25yd by 20yd shallow deep pool. The club also rents out the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich and the Yerwood Center in the Stamford, CT. When the club hosts events such as a recent Northeast Zone Tournament it is generally done at the Greenwich High School pool.

Who Do They Play?: The club gets involved in as many tournaments possible. They are currently focusing on the upcoming S & R Sport Junior Olympics. The club has qualified six teams for the event including 12 U boys and girls, 14U girls, two 14U boys, and 16U boys. In addition for the younger age groups at the middle school level the Speedo Cup is a major focus and Greenwich has been the zone representative in the last couple of years. Lastly the club also travels abroad and is taking an 18U boys team and a 16U boys and girls team to Italy this summer for competition and training.

Strong Coaching: The club boasts a host of coaches with a great deal of water polo experience. Bill Harris is the Head Coach at Fordham University and a veteran of the New York Athletic Club. Paul Ramley and Win Bates played collegiately at Johns Hopkins University while Thomas Payton played at Brown and Field Garthwaite played at Pomona-Pitzer. In addition Ramley, Bates, Payton, and Garthwaite all played at Greenwich High School.

What's Next?: The club's overall goal is to maintain the status that the club has already achieved as one of the top clubs in the East. They hope to continue to be regular contenders for spots at Junior Olympics and Speedo Cup. In addition at an event like Junior Olympics they hope to start finishing in the top half of the competition on a yearly basis. Despite a lack of consistent competition on the East Coast they continue to strive for excellence. They are also looking to bolster participation from the girls in the program, they are holding a special clinic this month only for girls to try and increase their participation.

The College Scene: Greenwich and the water polo community before the club was even established have a long history of sending players to the next level. Greenwich High School grand Jeff Stiling won a title at Stanford back in the 1980s while in later years Joe Cosentino played for a title with USC. More recently players like James Case at Santa Clara and Andrew Cosentino at Claremont have made immediate impacts on their squads. 

For an east coast program, Greenwich has produced captains for collegiate teams across the country, including two for powerful California team -- Carl Swan at UC Santa Barbara back in the 1980's and most recently Paige Lorenz for UC Berkeley women this year.  In fact, GWP's growth in girl's water polo has recently produced a number of collegiat players in Julie Ramaley at Villanova, Patricia Smith at Harvard, Lauren Lovallo at Wagner and Kristina Norrgard (now a GWP assistant coach) on her way to Claremont.

The club also cites John Loughran, the current head coach of the men and women at Loyola Marymount took one of the early Greenwich teams to their first Junior Olympics. Back in 1993 under the name Big Red Cardinal Water Polo the 16 and under squad recorded a top 8 finish.

How To Get Involved?: Interested parties can either try out for the house league or tryout directly for the travel teams. Both candidates can register online. Travel team tryouts are schedule on a periodic basis, for example the tryouts for this year’s Speedo Cup are at the end of August. Practices are typically held and then 13-15 athletes are chosen for the actual travel teams. For more information visit greenwichwaterpolo.com or see this brochure.