Huntington Beach, Calif. – September 19, 2011 – USA Water Polo, the National Governing Body for the sport in the United States, today announced the first ever "Cap Campaign." Unveiled at the 2011 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Induction Benefit Dinner in downtown Los Angeles, the campaign features a wide variety of accomplished water polo players donning water polo caps to raise awareness of the fast-growing sport. The series of arresting images showcases television stars, Grammy Award winning recording artists, astronauts, surgeons, and more, each with water polo playing experience ranging from high school through the Olympic Games.
"I Am Water Polo" is the headline that anchors the campaign, featuring a star-studded lineup who volunteered their time to once again don the iconic water polo cap. The group includes recording artist Sean Paul, actor Ted McGinley, astronaut Steve Smith, consultant and inspiration for the blackjack-themed movie "21" Jeff Ma, actress and model Annalaina Marks, star of MTV series “Laguna Beach,” Cameron Brinkman, Olympians and surgeons Omar Amr and Margie Dingeldein, actor Clayton Snyder, world class chef Rohan Rambukpotha, and WNBA All-Star Jayne Appel.
“We hope to rally the water polo community here in the US around the defining image of the water polo cap,” said USA Water Polo CMO Jennifer Rottenberg. “We are grateful to the wonderful members of the water polo community who already have donated their time and their images to define the campaign, and we look forward to seeing what the imaginations of others in the sport have in store!”
The timeless images of "Cap Campaign" participants will be distributed via print advertisements for magazines nationwide and online public service announcements scheduled to launch in 2012. A website has also launched, featuring the tagline of the campaign,
www.IamWaterPolo.org, which will house larger galleries from the "Cap Campaign" photo shoots, interviews, and behind the scenes footage. In addition, USA Water Polo social media will be active in the campaign at a grassroots level offering water polo players the opportunity to submit their own "I Am Water Polo" images to the National Governing Body’s official facebook account (
www.facebook.com/usawp) where fans can vote on their favorite images with prizes to be awarded along with recognition in USAWP’s quarterly SkipShot magazine.
The campaign was photographed by notable celebrity photographer Michael Larsen, one half of the dynamic team of Larsen & Talbert, known for images appearing in publications ranging from USA Weekend to SELF Magazine.
Recording artist Sean Paul won a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album and played for the Jamaican Water Polo National Team until age 21 before focusing on music.
Actor Ted McGinley is known for roles on Happy Days, The Love Boat, Married With Children and Hope & Faith among others, over his 30 year career in show business. He was once a member of the USA Men's Junior National Team and earned a water polo scholarship to USC, where he was a two-time team MVP and Captained the team in his junior year.
Astronaut Steve Smith has taken part in four different space missions covering over 16 million miles on the space shuttles Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis and conducted seven space walks totaling nearly 50 hours. He played water polo at Leland High School and was also captain of the 1980 Stanford University Men's Water Polo Team that won the NCAA Championship.
Jeff Ma was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team that later served as the basis for the book "Bringing Down the House" and the feature film "21." Now a consultant to the Portland Trailblazers and San Franicso 49ers, Ma played water polo at MIT, served as a zone coach, and remains active in Masters water polo.
Actress and model Annalaina Marks has appeared on America's Next Top Model, as well as the tv series Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods and Kings and in the feature film “Maid of Honor,” among others. Marks was a three-time high school water polo All American at McDowell HS in Erie, Pennsylvania. She played water polo collegiately at Mercyhurst College and later for the New York Athletic Club.
Cameron Brinkman, a cast member on MTV's hit reality series Laguna Beach, also played water polo during his days at Laguna Beach High School, as well as competing in age group water polo for Laguna Beach Water Polo Club, TRAP Water Polo Club, and Breakers Water Polo Club. He played collegiately at the University of California, Irvine.
Omar Amr and Margie Dingeldein are both medical doctors, but before they began helping others in clinics and hospitals, they helped Team USA to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece where Dingeldein earned a Bronze Medal as a member of the Women's National Team. Omar’s water polo career began at Fullerton Aquatics, and continued at Fullerton High School, EAST Water Polo Club, and collegiately, at UC Irvine. Since retiring from his nine-year National Team career, he continues to play water polo at the Masters level, for Newport Water Polo Foundation.
Actor Clayton Snyder played Ethan Craft on the hit Disney show Lizzie McGuire and the feature film "The Lizzie McGuire Movie." Snyder’s club water polo resume includes Golden West Water Polo Club, Seal Beach Water Polo, Long Beach Shore, and SOCAL. He was a member of the Los Alamitos High School team, then went on to play water polo at Pepperdine University and recently helped the USA Men's National Team to a fourth place finish at the World University Games. He has also played for the Olympic Club and for Promogest Quartu (Italy).
Chef Rohan Rambukpotha has served as Personal Chef to actors Adam Rodriguez and Mekhi Phifer and has cooked for the likes of the late Rosa Parks, former President Bill Clinton, Snoop Dogg, and Method Man. Classically trained at Le Cordon Blue, Paris, he currently heads a gourmet food delivery service in Los Angeles. He competed for the Terrier Water Polo Club, Brooklyn, NY, and won a Junior Olympic Gold Medal playing for Annapolis Water Polo and competed in club water polo at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also represented the East Coast at a USAWP National Junior Team Training Camp.
Jayne Appel, an All-Star for the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars was a four year starter at Stanford University and also helped the USA Women's Basketball Team to Gold at the 2010 FIBA World Championships and has her sights set on London 2012. Appel was a three-year varsity athlete in water polo at Carondelet High School.
To see what participants of the cap campaign are saying please see the attached quote sheet.
About USA Water Polo
USA Water Polo, Inc. is the national governing body for water polo in America, overseeing our United States Olympic program as well as 20 different championship events annually, such as Junior Olympics and Masters National Championships. With more than 40,000 members, USAWP is also the sanctioning authority for more than 500 Member Clubs and more than 400 tournaments nationwide. USAWP is committed to the development of the sport nationwide. It fosters grass-roots expansion of the sport, providing a national system of affiliated clubs, certified coaches and officials.
Official USA Water Polo Sponsors
24 Hour Fitness, Active Media, American Pistachios, Aquahydrate, Big Fish Payroll Services, Capital One, Colorado Time, H2O Audio, Intercontinental Hotels Group, iSport, Jostens, Kaenon, KT Tape, Ludus Tours, Malibu Wellness, Mikasa, Ospraie Management, PowerBar, REUSE Jeans, Sea Federal Credit Union, Squar Milner, SwimOutlet.com, Stemilt, TURBO, United, VIDA Organic Life Massage & Water Marque.
About Larsen & Talbert
Larsen&Talbert is the husband and wife photographic team of Michael Larsen and Tracy Talbert. They met in high school where Michael was the yearbook photographer and Tracy shot for the school newspaper. In 1997, they married and launched Larsen&Talbert Photography. They have been specializing in their unique brand of celebrity portraiture and lifestyle photography for magazine and advertising clients for over 13 years. Their fun, colorful, flattering portraits have appeared worldwide and have been featured in magazines such as SELF, Esquire, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Playboy, USA Weekend, Good Housekeeping, Guideposts, People, US, and First for Women. Commercial celebrity and lifestyle clients include Fox Broadcasting, Disney, Turner Broadcasting, The Game Show Network, Warner Brothers Television, Babies R Us, and JBrand Jeans.
USA Water Polo Cap Campaign Quotes
"Water polo to me was a huge part of my life, eight years, my whole high school and college, something that I was super passionate about and love to encourage other people to play. I've just been in love with the sport since the first time I played it." - Annalaina Marks
"For me it was important because I'm obsessed with water polo and I think everyone should play water polo. I think it's good to get the word out. A lot of people don't really know about water polo and since it was such a huge part of my life I just want to share that with other people." - Annalaina Marks
"One it's discipline, it's friends, competition, getting focused, it means all those things to me because it gave me all those things." - Sean Paul
"I love that it's a sport that has evolved and it keeps evolving…the game got faster." - Sean Paul
"It was a real close knit group of friends that I grew up around playing water polo, great experiences playing water polo, great friends, a good vibe for discipline." - Sean Paul
"I think it is important, I'm trying to promote it even in my own country, I've had people like Genai Kerr come there and do an invitational meet, we are trying to give it some form of exposure there in Jamaica. Also trying to promote it worldwide, it's an excellent sport, great for kids to do, I don't think it's big enough yet in the international community." - Sean Paul
"For me water polo was my pathway to my dreams so in some ways it was kind of a gateway. It also provided me with all these important life lessons that came in very handy in very stressful situations, riding rockets into space and preparing myself to work in adverse conditions where you had to work quickly but carefully. Water polo really taught me all these life important lessons. It taught me how to overcome adversity." - Steve Smith
"You'll find sometimes when your involved with a sport like water polo it gives you these lifelong friendships too." - Steve Smith
"Everyone has so many different organizations they can get involved with now, many more than we did, and I'd like to see water polo's popularity grow. I think having both the boys and girls youth see some of the people who contribute to our society nowadays came from water polo would be really important and I'm hoping that they'll see the ad campaign and understand water polo can lead anywhere in the world, and for me, it lead to out of this world." - Steve Smith
"I would consider it the greatest experience of my life, it's the experience that made me a man, that taught me so many life lessons that you get from sport, ones that I've been able to pass down. (It was) invaluable, beyond words, got me through school, high school, and college, it was the greatest gift I gave myself." - Ted McGinley
"I'm so proud of the time I put in the pool, so proud of the people I met along way, just to be asked to do this was exciting for me. I love it when I run into people who remember me from playing water polo as opposed to what I do now, which is an actor. It's rare that anyone remembers me but it's fun when I run into guys that played water polo who, we can speak in terms of water polo and what it was like and how we played, it's the great camaraderie. I was so excited to be asked to be part of this because I'm proud of it. I'm more proud of this probably than I am my professional career." - Ted McGinley
"A lot of the relationships and friendships I've made have been through water polo especially afterwards. I'd say in some respects my masters water polo experience has been even more fun than my high school and college career just because I've gotten to play with a lot of my good friends from all around the US and it's helped me have a way to stay in touch with them, a way to go on trips and just have a ton of fun going to places like Las Vegas, Arizona, all over the places we travel." Jeff Ma
"Water polo in a lot of ways is what has defined me, I was a coach for probably 10 years, all my friends and my wife is a water polo player, it defines me and my friends, it's probably one of the biggest things I've done in my life in terms of dictating who I am and who my friends are and what my life's going to be." - Jeff Ma
"I think anything I can do to support USA Water Polo is important to me because how much I've received from the sport and how important the sport is to me. - Jeff Ma
"I think it is important for water polo to have a huge awareness about it. I think it brings so many positive things into people's lives in terms of social circles, a different atmosphere of what people might be used to in terms of indoor sports, getting people outside, out in front of the TV and away from all that. Anything that brings kids to be active and get involved with other kids I think is a very positive thing." - Jayne Appel
"A grueling sport that I don't think many people realize how tough it is until they actually watch a game, it kind of brings the competitive atmosphere out in sport and provides a lot of fun for all the people who watch." - Jayne Appel
"Water polo has helped me with a lot of life lessons and character and how to deal with people and how to carry yourself, lots of lessons on accountability." Clayton Snyder
"It's been an overall very positive journey, I'm here now, made it to the National 'B' rank, trying to get up a little bit, it's something that I hope to be will be a part of the rest of my life." Clayton Snyder
"I think water polo deserves a lot more attention than it gets, just to have a broader base of people that know about water polo, just to realize, just to get the attention it deserves, (to get) more numbers out there, people playing the sport, I think if more people just knew about it, more people would be into it." Clayton Snyder
"Its definitely taught me some life lessons, discipline, teamwork for sure, all around a fun game, it takes a lot to be a water polo player. Just staying in shape is half the battle sometimes playing water polo, discipline--definitely, for sure, teamwork-- absolutely." - Rohan Rambukpotha
"Water polo holds a big part in my heart, I've always loved the game, loved playing water polo and anything that can support USA water polo I'm down for." -- Rohan Rambukpotha
"My experience playing was incredible, getting to go to the Olympics was probably one of the best moments of my life, playing for my coach in college pretty much taught me everything I know about being a man, my whole water polo experience has been absolutely incredible." - Omar Amr
"I want to support USA Water Polo, I want my kids to play water polo, I want my grandkids to play water polo, so it's got to be around, so anything I can do to support it, I do." - Omar Amr
"Playing on the Olympic team was intense, and awesome. It was hard work but definitely playing in international tournaments, Olympics, with those teammates, it was just an awesome experience." - Margie Dingeldein
"Water polo has given me so much, I had such an amazing experience, so much fun, I just want more people to try it." - Margie Dingeldein