Wednesday, October 28, 1998
NCAA status nears for women’s varsity teams
WPOLO: Growing sport will rise to national level with
eligibility for funds
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Women’s water polo becoming a NCAA championship sport was never
a question of if, but when. When there were only five varsity teams
in the nation five years ago, it seemed doubtful if colleges would
have the 40 teams required to be eligible for NCAA championships by
the year 2000.
This month, New York’s Hartwick College announced it will move
its women’s water polo club team to the Division I level.
Hartwick’s addition brings the collegiate varsity team total to 40
and makes the sport eligible for a fully funded NCAA
championship.
"It’s huge," said Nicolle Payne, former UCLA All-American goalie
and current national team member. "The sport has come a long way,
and it’s still growing. It’s exciting to watch it progress and
become an NCAA sport. It’s going to be great for the girls to be
able to play in a NCAA championship."
Hartwick expects to begin varsity competition in the 2000-2001
academic year, but U.S. Water Polo, the national governing body for
the sport, is working with collegiate conferences to petition the
NCAA to sanction the championship as early as possible, targeting
the spring of 2000.
Women’s water polo is currently governed by the Women’s
Collegiate Rules Committee, which does not have any affiliation
with national governing bodies like the NCAA. With a relatively
small number of participating colleges, rules and protocol
concerning championships are less formal and even qualified club
teams can participate.
USWP helps fund the national championship, but it doesn’t
provide any specific governance. As an NCAA sport, the national
championship will be fully funded, which is the major difference
between the current and future situations.
Another difference is that the championship will be comprised
only of varsity teams, whereas currently the national championship
can have club and varsity y teams. And the number of tournament
participants is likely to be reduced from the current cap of
16.
"In the administrative level, there’s certain amount of
credibility now that can be associated with women’s water polo
because it’ll be an NCAA championship sport," said Guy Baker, head
coach of the UCLA water polo program and the U.S. women’s national
team.
"Potentially where it can help the sport is that some of the
bigger schools outside of Pac-10, like the Big 10 and SEC, will
hopefully want to add on women’s water polo as part of their
growing women’s sports program," Baker added. "If we can get those
schools to come aboard, we can benefit as a bigger sport."
Women’s water polo has taken a giant stride in size and
popularity within the past several years. In the early ’90s, it
wasn’t even sanctioned as a high school sport in Southern
California. Most UCLA upperclassmen who participate on the women’s
team, Payne included, remember practicing and competing with the
boys on their high school teams not so long ago.
Title IX and subsequent legal pressures over gender equity
prodded the NCAA to declare women’s water polo as an emerging sport
– one intended to provide additional athletic opportunities to
female student athletes – in 1993.
Since then, numerous colleges and universities have added
women’s water polo as a varsity sport (UCLA added it in the
1994-1995 school year) and helped dramatically increase the number
of high school and overall female participants. USWP enrolled 1,960
females in ’94; that count rose to 7,936 in ’97, more than a 400
percent increase.
The sport earned even more recognition in September of 1997 when
the International Olympic Committee approved it as an Olympic sport
for the year 2000 Sydney Games. And the latest news, with
Hartwick’s squad marking 40 collegiate varsity teams, has affirmed
the legitimacy of women’s water polo as a respectable sport.
"It’ll exciting to have the first NCAA women’s water polo
championship and first Olympic championship in the year 2000.
That’s a tremendous leap," Baker said.
USWP’s Collegiate Water Polo Association, a division that
promotes and assists colleges to add women’s water polo to their
athletic programs, has been a major player in the increase in
collegiate teams. Commissioner Dan Sharadin serves as the
collegiate director and was a significant influence in getting all
these schools, including Hartwick, to adopt the sport.
"Hartwick’s been a five-year project," Sharadin said. "I met
with them on numerous occasions over the last few years, and you
just continue knocking on the door. And eventually, you get
fortunate in a sense if the university decides to do it.
"Hartwick College had some gender equity needs so they went
ahead and decided to add water polo. And it really is a good fit
for them."
Sharadin said it usually takes two to three years for him and
the collegiate association to get institutions to add a sport. But
if the school has its own agenda, the process goes much faster.
"Our goal is by the year 2000, we have over 50," Sharadin said.
"We have our work cut out for us."
Also the agenda for USWP is proposing a legislation to the NCAA
championship cabinet. The legislation will request that the
championship be funded by the NCAA, and it is also working to bring
the championship date nearer.
"Regulations require a two-year waiting period," Sharadin said.
"We’re going to ask for that waiting period to be waived, the idea
being that since there haven’t been a lot of championships added in
the past few years in the emerging sports – crew being the only
one, and that was listed four years ago – we might be able to get
this through quickly."
While the sport continues to grow, UCLA still remains dominant
in the collegiate circuit. UCLA’s team has won the collegiate
national championship three seasons in a row out of its four year
existence. Baker predicted it will take some time before the new
programs become highly competitive.
"For the next four or five years, it’ll still be UCLA, Cal,
Stanford and USC who are going to battle for the NCAA
championship," he said. "It’s still going to take awhile for the
newer schools to catch up."
While the new generation of women’s water polo will enjoy the
benefit of participating in a NCAA championship, former collegiate
players, like Payne, won’t get to display the NCAA championship
label to their list of accomplishments. On the other hand, a
championship is a championship, like Baker said.
"It would’ve been cool to play in a NCAA championship, but I
don’t feel I missed out on anything," Payne said. "Our team still
accomplished a lot, winning the national championship. It’s pretty
much a same game, just under a different name, and it’s good for
the sport."
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