In my opinion JO’s is a U.S. Nationals tournament and is ment for U.S. citizens. While I understand that some teams bring in these Hungarians in the end that isn’t really helping the players on the team and is in fact hurting them and taking away play time. It’s a bad look for USA Waterpolo that they allow foreign citizens who don’t even play with those clubs during the year play in a U.S. Nationals tournament brings into question the goal of JO’s. Is it to develop American talent and be a junior Olympics or a showcase where we see who can bring the best International.
These are all my opinions and I understand if someone’s opinion is different from mine.
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I agree that JOs is an equivalent of a US National Tournament, but at the age groups where international players are allowed to participate the level of parity is rather low. At 18u in particular, there were probably at most 4 teams that probably had expectations that they could win the whole tournament. There are probably another 4 that thought that they could get hot and make a run to get into the final four, and once you get in all bets are off. Since the international cap was instituted two years ago, no team with international players has upset the competitive balance at the top of the tournament. The 18u final four had zero international players (correct me if I am wrong on Lamo or Del Mar, but I know the final was all domestic players).
For the other 40 teams in the Championship division, it’s not about winning the entire tournament. It is about playing in a competitive environment and seeing how well you can do. And more importantly than that, JOs is the most significant event for college recruiting. It is the only time where the entire water polo world desends into one place. For a team that is on the bubble of Platinum and Gold, it is in the best interest of their teams to place as high as possible for visibility. The difference between being in a Platinum group and Gold group on Day 2 is that you are at a pool where there are at minimum 4-5 college coaching camped out all day taking in games. I am not saying you can’t get recruited from Gold Division, but it is not the same opportunity that you have playing in the higher level games. If an international player raises the level of your team to where it helps the recruiting process of your domestic players, then clubs are incentivized to bring them on. Sending more players to college supports the mission of your players making the next level, and also serves as a point of marketability for your club to support growth.
In the end, we all want what is best for the kids. Having the Youth Brazilian Team get third in 16u was not good for anyone from a competition stand point. But middle tier teams having an international player supporting their domestic players to be as competitive as possible is not destroying the competitive integrity of the tournament, in my opinion. I could easily be proven wrong if in the next few years a mediocre club brings in two world-class European players that run rampant through the tournament to the title. But I haven’t seen that since the cap was introduced, and I think USAWP has found a happy medium.
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What’s this ‘we’ stuff? There are specific people responsible for enforcing the rules and there are paths to submit concerns to them. ‘We’ (ie: anonymous message board folks.) aren’t them. If you’re truly concerned submit your evidence and you’ll find out if you’re right or not. Your post on this board does nothing but raise speculation, inuendo, rumors, etc…and ‘WE’ don’t need that.
One sometimes overlooked reason for bringing in foreign players is to help small clubs from outside California field teams at all. It’s a struggle to pull together rosters with enough kids who can play at a decent level and especially as kids get older becomes a significant impediment to player retention. Many non-california coaches know the pain of combined team politics and trying to fill out rosters for JO’s and other tournaments and foreign players can really help. One, because they give kids a chance to learn from and play with good players and second they don’t cannibalize from other teams in the Zone.
Many clubs play with international players throughout the year then have to pare back for JO’s. None of these teams are competing for the top spots.
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