A Closer Look: Kansas City Water Polo
Official Name of Club: Kansas City Water Polo Club
Co-Directors of Club: Bruce Perry, Paul Trainor, Heather Cotten, Tim Rock, and Elton Ching
On the Web: http://sites.google.com/site/kansascitywaterpolo/
Age Groups and Genders: Only Masters Age Group currently
Club Coaches: Paul Trainor, Bruce Perry, Heather Cotten, and Tim Rock
Number of Members: 30
Home Base: Practices are held at the Roeland Park Aquatic Center in Roeland Park, Kansas
How did they get started? The club started in 2003 as a county recreation program but was then dropped. It was restarted through the efforts of Bruce Perry in 2004 after he moved to the area. Perry who is originally from the Northern California area and won a pair of NCAA Championships in his playing days at Cal in the early 80s, played on the Men's Senior National "B" Team before moving into the coaching arena that most recently included a stop at Campolindo High School. Perry called up all the original members and the initial membership was around 10 people for the first few months. Since that time members have come from all over the place including Australia, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Mexico, Turkey, and Uruguay.
The club has progressed from the first tournament they played in against some local colleges where they failed to score a goal to in 2006 winning first and second place.
Who do they play? The club competes in tournaments across the Midwest in places like Kansas City, Iowa, Chicago, and St. Louis. Some of the more recent competitions are The Kansas Invitational, Kansas City Invitational, Missouri Invitational, Monmouth Invitational, Chicago-Beached Whales Invitational, Clayton Sr. Invitational, and the Des Moines Invitational.
Coaching with experience: All the coaches at Kansas City have a strong water polo background. Along with Perry's time as an All-American, Trainor cut his teeth on University National Teams in Australia, while Rock has been invovled in water polo from Texas to Virginia. Cotten rounds out the group with a playing career that saw great success at San Diego State in the mid-90s and strong participation at the Masters level from then on.
Recent growth: While the club started out small they have grown in recent years by offering a consistent place to play. In addition they have tapped into the local high schools to encourage them in the sport of water polo. The club hopes to start conducting high school level clinics in the fall of 2009. In the next two to four years the club would like to see between four and eight high schools have a consistent program that would draw teams from other regions for competition.
Five years from now: The primary goal of the club is to continue to increase the awareness and exposure of all ages to the sport of water polo. With a strong aquatics background in the area, it's a prime location for water polo growth. In addition Kansas City Water Polos hopes to advance their masters water polo program by creating more age groups and competing in events such as the Desert Duel and Masters Nationals presented by S & R Sport. Along with that they would like to add age group teams at the 12U level to hopefully serve as a feeder program for high schools in the area. This hopefully would create a demand for more high schools to add water polo.
A goal of goals: Self-described as a grass-roots program the club started out with cages built from wood and pipes but as of late has been able to design their own goals and have them fabricated by a local aluminum company.
An opportunity for everyone: The club has seen all types of athletes come through their proverbial doors. From two swimmers who joined the club in it's early stages and later went on to play club polo to an exchange student from the Netherlands who found water polo to be her favorite American pasttime. The club remains determiend to grow the sport and provide an outlet for those interested to learn and play the game of water polo.
