Water Polo Update for 12/3/07

Last week the Foothill League met to discuss athletics in its quarterly meeting. Water Polo was slated to be on the agenda based on our progress in getting this approved for the fall of 08. This meeting is attended by each principal and his athletic directors.

As many of you recall we have tried for over a year to get invited to participate in these meetings unsuccessfully. Well we finally got our chance with an invitation to attend and be available for questions as they came up by the attendee’s.

Rob Gapper who has been the district sponsor led off the discussion letting all in attendance that we have been working with the district on implementing a program and the detailed investigation we have gone through to prove the program in terms of cost and implementation.

Many good questions came from the forum that Rob & I addressed. At the close of comments the forum was asked if there was a need to for a Polo subcommittee to further research the program and the group said no, that since the principals had been the primary team to this point that they should continue to see this through to implementation as no fatal flaws were identified.

This is good news. The principals really have only 2 hang ups of which one has been solved, and the other (transportation) is on a path to resolution. The principals are looking for a specific increase in the transportation budget to cover Polo, just like they do for every other sport. Rob has taken this concept back to the Superintendant and we are awaiting final confirmation that the district will be able to provide the additional transport funding.

I speaking with Rob, and other attendees of the Foothill League meeting we are still on the path to go in front of the school board for approval in Jan. As the meeting date is identified I will be sure to let you know as it would be great to see a nice showing to this final piece of the puzzle.

An another note Jim Ferguson, Coach Loporchio and I met with the Aquatic center and Regional Director for US Water Polo just before Thanksgiving to discuss bringing the Men’s Masters Water Polo finals to the Aquatic Center. This would really help bring some great publicity to the sport and the facility. We also discussed ways USWP can help the district implement a program once the final approval has been granted by the board.

It is getting very exciting now and we really appreciate all your support with letters and words of encouragement. It is my hope to see our kids competing next year at the aquatic center.

See you at the pool.