The disruption of the sport of water polo in the United States by the COVID-19 pandemic presents USA Water Polo with the singular opportunity to align club age brackets with international standards. Shifting the the current age brackets to 11u, 13u, 15u, 17u, 19u & 21u would provide the following benefits to the water polo community:

Complications with agency coordination

1) Clubs are currently under pressure to prepare for Junior Olympics (JOs) at a time when available pool space and team participation is in question. Currently JOs are slated to occur in November and December with qualifications targeted for dates in September and October. These dates occur in the middle of the high school season and will exclude those athletes.

2) The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)  has stated that the rules will not allow high school players any waivers due to the pandemic. Again, this means that those players will be excluded from JO qualification games and will have only one one week of practice with their team prior to the national championship.

Player Preparation

3) The United States will produce better players when aligned with international age group brackets and rules due to the facilitation of global team match-ups allowing for better competition and exposure to top talent.

4)  Aligning with international age brackets allows for a higher level of play at and beyond the 19u brackets allowing post-college competition to return in summer for club participation. This will produce players who are better prepared for international competition.

Recovery

5) Aligning with international age brackets would allow those players who have missed a large portion of the 2019-2020 season to gain lost playtime experience and compete with their teammates in a national tournament before advancing to the next age group.

Financial

6) Due to the uncertainty produced by the pandemic and the resulting complications listed in 1-5, a majority of clubs will sit-out this year's JOs. Forcing JOs to occur this year will generate limited revenue but not the revenue that’s needed to sponsor the national team and the national league. Aligning age brackets will allow USA Water Polo to maintain a normal level of revenue for future JOs by minimizing the risk of alienating participants and their families by dropping or forcing the compromised 2019-2020 national championship.  

These are only a few of the reasons why USA Water Polo should align age group brackets with international standards. Let us offer our players a reasonable pathway to higher level play while respecting the losses that they are experiencing in playtime, participation and team partnership.