This is a friendly reminder the 14U/12U/10U deadline to enter the SWZ NJO Qualifier (June 8-9 in Pearland) and the USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics is this upcoming Thursday, May 23rd at 9:00 pm PT (SWZ Zone NJO 14U/12U/10U Qualifier – Event Information, click here).  Teams will need to register for the Southwest Zone Champs/NJO Qualifier (pay via check at the tournament) and then the online process will automatically direct you to register for the USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics (will need to pay for NJO Entry fees online at time of team registration).  The 14U/12U/10U Roster Deadline for the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier is also Thursday, May 30th at 9:00 pm PT.  Rosters for Southwest Zone NJO Quals will only be accepted via the USA Water Polo roster verification system.  There will be a “Roster Lockdown Deadline” on Monday, June 3rd at 9:00 pm PT.  Any roster changes made between May 30th and June 3rd will incur a $100 late roster fee.  No changes will be made to rosters after June 3rd (no exceptions).

Below is all the needed information for the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier/USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics.  The 18U/16U deadline to enter the SWZ NJO Qualifier (June 14-16 at the CFISD Natatorium) and the USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics is Thursday, May 30th at 9:00 pm PT (SWZ Zone NJO 18U/16U Qualifier – Event Information, click here).

USA Water Polo NJO’s Website:  https://usawaterpolo.org/sports/2018/12/19/junior-olympics.aspx 

NJO’s Preliminary Zone Allocations:  https://usawaterpolo.org/documents/2019/2/19/2019_Preliminary_Allocations.pdf 

NJO Qualifier/NJO Registration Process:  https://usawaterpolo.org/documents/2016/8/25/_uswp_genrel_2016_17_misc_non_event__JO_Registration_Instructions.pdf 

14U/12U/10U SWZ NJO Qualifier Information:  June 7-9, 2019 at the Pearland ISD Natatorium, 4141 Bailey Road, Pearland, TX 77584.  There will be two all deep 25 yard courses with warm-up space between the two courses.

• Event Information:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/ViewEvt.wp?EventID=25372 
• Team Registration:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/Registrations/TeamRgs.wp?rgs_EventID=25372 
• Team Registration Deadline for NJO Quals/NJO’s:  Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Teams/Clubs will need to enter both NJO Quals & NJO’s.  This will include payment for the National Junior Olympics.
• Roster Deadline:  Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Rosters will only be accepted via the USA Water Polo roster verification system.
• Final Roster Deadline:  Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any roster changes made between May 31st and June 3rd will incur a $100 late roster fee.  No roster changes after June 3rd, no exceptions.
• Club Affiliation/Age Verification/Gold Membership Deadline:  Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any ineligible athletes or coaches will be removed from the roster June 3rd at 9:01 PM (PT).

18U/16U SWZ NJO Qualifier Information:  June 14-16, 2019 at the CFISD Natatorium, 12550 Windfern Rd, Houston, TX 77064.  There will be two all deep 25 yard courses with warm-up space between the two courses.

• Event Information:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/ViewEvt.wp?EventID=25385 
• Team Registration:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/Registrations/TeamRgs.wp?rgs_EventID=25385 
• Team Registration Deadline for NJO Quals/NJO’s:  Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Teams/Clubs will need to enter both NJO Quals & NJO’s.  This will include payment for the National Junior Olympics.
• Roster Deadline:  Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Rosters will only be accepted via the USA Water Polo roster verification system.
• Final Roster Deadline:  Monday, June 10, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any roster changes made between June 6th and June 10th will incur a $100 late roster fee.  No roster changes after June 10th, no exceptions.
• Club Affiliation/Age Verification/Gold Membership Deadline:  Monday, June 10, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any ineligible athletes or coaches will be removed from the roster June 3rd at 9:01 PM (PT).

USA Water Polo Changes to theConduct of Championships for 2019:

1. Initial Roster Deadline is changed from 15 days to 8 days prior to the start of JO Quals*.
2. Roster Lockdown and Club Affiliation Requirement changed from 8 days to 4 days prior to the start of JO Quals*.
3. 12U Mixed Division added to Session 2. Athletes who participate in 12u Boys or 12u Girls will not be allowed to participate in the 12u Mixed division or vice versa, including JO Quals.
4. Zones will be permitted to request a swap of a Championship Allocations (1-48th place) for a Classic Division Allocations (49-96th place) with approval from the Championship Finals Management Committee (CFMC).  Requests must be specific to age group and gender and must be submitted within 10 days following the conclusion of the qualifier or July 1st, whichever comes first, to events@usawaterpolo.org. Zone Chairs are the only people allowed to make the requests on behalf of their zone, requests made by individual clubs will not be reviewed. 

The Dallas St. Marks boys defeated Richmond Foster 7-5 to take the 2019 Texas High School Water Polo Championship and the Richmond Foster girls defeated  Southlake Carroll 8-7 for the girls title.  Complete scores and final standings can be found here:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DthrhEQ7Et_-3KGcbS_1FYIvXEk9i68zcth42t3TIb8/edit#gid=0

Good luck to all teams this upcoming Friday-Saturday, May 3-4, 2019 at the Texas High School Water Polo Championships at the UT Swim Center in Austin, TX.  The tournament brings together 16 boys teams and 16 girls teams from across the state for a two day championship event.  USAWP Texas Development will be providing real‐time game updates and live stats for every game at the State Championship via The Fosh, http://www.thefosh.net.  Fans can follow the action for FREE from the stands at the event, across the state, and around the globe on a cellphone or online.  Below is the direct link to The Fosh website and an online score link for the tournament.

• FOSH Website:  The FOSH main website is http://www.thefosh.net.
• Online Scores/Results:  Texas HS State Champs – Schedule/Results (click here)

Below is the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier tournament information.  For 2019, the SWZ NJO Quals has been divided up into two separate tournaments:  14U/12U/10U Divisions on June 7-9, 2019 at the Pearland ISD Natatorium and the 18U/16U Divisions on June 14-16 at the CFISD Natatorium in Northwest Houston.  The Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier Tournaments will be the qualification/seeding events for the USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics for the Southwest Zone.  Only teams attempting to qualify for NJO’s will be allowed to enter the tournaments.

Below are all the information, dates, links, deadlines, etc. specific for the Southwest Zone NJO Quals events.  Please pay close attention to the deadlines listed for each weekend.  For 2019, there are two sets of team entry deadlines, roster deadlines, and club affiliation/age verification/membership deadlines (deadlines based on specific event dates).  Additionally,  the USA Water Polo changes to the Conduct of Championships for 2019 are listed at the bottom of this post.

Entry Fee:  The entry fee will be $500 per team.  All teams will play 4-5 games for the tournament.   Make checks payable to Southwest Water Polo.  Please send entry fee payments to Southwest Water Polo (for the Southwest Zone NJO Quals ONLY), c/o Joe Linehan, 2932 Chris Lane, Grapevine, Irving, TX 76051.  Payments will not be accepted online for the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier (mailed or brought to the tournament).  Payment will be required for NJO Registration when completing your online entry process (pay later for Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier).

Athlete Eligibility:  An athlete’s age for the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier and NJO’s is determined by their age on August 1, 2019 for both boys & girls (*see exception below).  Athletes MUST be Gold Members of USA Water Polo and have the proper Club Affiliation in order to be rostered for the Southwest Zone NJO Qualifier and the National Junior Olympics.  Athletes also must complete the Age Verification online at the USA Water Polo website in order to be eligible to compete in either event (one time only process).  *The one exception to this rule will be for those graduating senior athletes who turn 19 before August 1st.  These athletes can play in the 18U Division as long as they graduate High School in May/June 2019 (must turn in transcript to USA Water Polo and have them approve the exception).

USA Water Polo NJO’s Website:  https://usawaterpolo.org/sports/2018/12/19/junior-olympics.aspx 

NJO’s Preliminary Zone Allocations:  https://usawaterpolo.org/documents/2019/2/19/2019_Preliminary_Allocations.pdf 

NJO Qualifier/NJO Registration Process:  https://usawaterpolo.org/documents/2016/8/25/_uswp_genrel_2016_17_misc_non_event__JO_Registration_Instructions.pdf 

14U/12U/10U SWZ NJO Qualifier Information:  June 7-9, 2019 at the Pearland ISD Natatorium, 4141 Bailey Road, Pearland, TX 77584.  There will be two all deep 25 yard courses with warm-up space between the two courses.

• Event Information:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/ViewEvt.wp?EventID=25372 
• Team Registration:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/Registrations/TeamRgs.wp?rgs_EventID=25372 
• Team Registration Deadline for NJO Quals/NJO’s:  Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Teams/Clubs will need to enter both NJO Quals & NJO’s.  This will include payment for the National Junior Olympics.
• Roster Deadline:  Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Rosters will only be accepted via the USA Water Polo roster verification system.
• Final Roster Deadline:  Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any roster changes made between May 31st and June 3rd will incur a $100 late roster fee.  No roster changes after June 3rd, no exceptions.
• Club Affiliation/Age Verification/Gold Membership Deadline:  Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any ineligible athletes or coaches will be removed from the roster June 3rd at 9:01 PM (PT).

18U/16U SWZ NJO Qualifier Information:  June 14-16, 2019 at the CFISD Natatorium, 12550 Windfern Rd, Houston, TX 77064.  There will be two all deep 25 yard courses with warm-up space between the two courses.

• Event Information:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/ViewEvt.wp?EventID=25385 
• Team Registration:  https://webpoint.usawaterpolo.com/wp15/Events2/Registrations/TeamRgs.wp?rgs_EventID=25385 
• Team Registration Deadline for NJO Quals/NJO’s:  Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Teams/Clubs will need to enter both NJO Quals & NJO’s.  This will include payment for the National Junior Olympics.
• Roster Deadline:  Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Rosters will only be accepted via the USA Water Polo roster verification system.
• Final Roster Deadline:  Monday, June 10, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any roster changes made between June 6th and June 10th will incur a $100 late roster fee.  No roster changes after June 10th, no exceptions.
• Club Affiliation/Age Verification/Gold Membership Deadline:  Monday, June 10, 2019 at 9:00 pm (PT).  Any ineligible athletes or coaches will be removed from the roster June 3rd at 9:01 PM (PT).

USA Water Polo Changes to the Conduct of Championships for 2019:

1. Initial Roster Deadline is changed from 15 days to 8 days prior to the start of JO Quals*.
2. Roster Lockdown and Club Affiliation Requirement changed from 8 days to 4 days prior to the start of JO Quals*.
3. 12U Mixed Division added to Session 2. Athletes who participate in 12u Boys or 12u Girls will not be allowed to participate in the 12u Mixed division or vice versa, including JO Quals.
4. Zones will be permitted to request a swap of a Championship Allocations (1-48th place) for a Classic Division Allocations (49-96th place) with approval from the Championship Finals Management Committee (CFMC).  Requests must be specific to age group and gender and must be submitted within 10 days following the conclusion of the qualifier or July 1st, whichever comes first, to events@usawaterpolo.org. Zone Chairs are the only people allowed to make the requests on behalf of their zone, requests made by individual clubs will not be reviewed. 

The Southwest Zone wishes to establish a formal ‘Club of the Year’ award. This award is focused on contributions made to the expansion of water polo within the Southwest Zone.  A ‘Club of the Year’ will be awarded to both an Age Group ‘Club of the Year’ and a Masters ‘Club of the Year’ and will be based on earned points from several categories accumulated over a calendar year.

Club of the Year points can be accumulated in four areas:
(1) Participation in USAWP National Level events;
(2) Sponsoring of new referees;
(3) Sponsoring of new water polo clubs;
(4) Membership growth (Future Definition).

General Operation Rules

The spirit behind the ‘Club of the Year’ is to benefit all water polo players within the zone.  This goal will be applied in any required evaluation by the Southwest Zone Board for situations not covered by these rules explicitly.

Declaration of points earned should be sent by email to:  ralbach@usawaterpolo.org

For national event participation, all claims for points must be declared within one week after the event’s conclusion and must include the team’s official USAWP verified roster.

For sponsorship of new referees or clubs, all claims for points must be declared at the time the sponsorship initiates and then points may be awarded at the end of the year if the sponsored entity fulfills the requirements of these rules. The last date for which claims can be declared will be 15 November of the current year.  All declarations are associated within a calendar year unless relevant to exceptions explicitly mentioned.

All scoring disputes regarding the proper award of points will follow the same process as currently defined for Connor Cup scoring.

USAWP National Level Event Participation

Events that will generate participation points are:

Age Group Events: Rocktober, Junior Olympics and Champions Cup.  Five (5) points will be awarded for each team from a club that enters in any qualified Age Group event, but with a maximum of ten (10) points per club per event.  Age and gender divisions within an event are not considered different events for earning participation points. Points awarded in this category will be applied only to the Age Group ‘Club of the Year’ scoring.

Masters Events: Masters Nationals.  Five (5) points will be awarded for each team from a club that enters in any qualified Masters event, but with a maximum of ten (10) points per club per event.   Age and gender divisions within an event are not considered different events for earning participation points. Points awarded in this category will be applied only to the Masters ‘Club of the Year’ scoring.

For participation points in USA Water Polo National Level events, the majority of the team’s official entry roster must be comprised of Southwest Zone members.  If the roster contains Southwest Zone members from more than one Southwest Zone club, then participation points are distributed according to the following formula:

-One (1) point for the participating club

-All remaining points distributed by percentage to the respective clubs represented by players on the team’s official roster.  Any fraction resulting from this calculation will be truncated.

Example 1: Club A is entering a team in the Masters Nationals event.  Of the 10 members, 5 are from Club A; 3 are from Club B; and 2 are from Club C.  Club A gets one (1) point for acting as the entering entity. The remaining points are then distributed according to the roster percentages as follows:

2 points for Club A (50% of 4 remaining points = 2); 1 point for Club B (30% of 4 remaining points = 1.2); 0 points for Club C (20% of 4 remaining points = 0.8). The final point in this example is not allocated and the net point count for the clubs with participants is 4.

Sponsoring of New Referees

The Southwest Zone wishes to encourage the growth of certified referees and will award existing clubs that sponsor new referees.  Referee sponsorship is defined as any activity driven by a club that results in new referees completing the tasks defined below and will result in the award of three (3) points for each new referee.  Referees for both USAWP and TISCA High School will be accepted.  If a club sponsors a new refereeand wishes to receive points for that sponsorship, then both the club and the referee  must declare the sponsorship.  The sponsoring club must also determine whether they want their points applied to ‘Club of the Year’ scoring for either the Age Group or Masters category and this must be decided at the time of the sponsorship declaration and cannot be changed.

Referee sponsorship points will be awarded when the referee has completed all required accreditation to become certified AND works a minimum of 10 officially sanctioned games within the Southwest Zone. Sponsorship is only applicable to individuals whose USAWP referee membership started the year of the sponsorship declaration and had not been a referee for the prior two calendar years.

Example 2: Club D has recruited 2 new referees (X and Y), neither of which has been a referee during the previous two years. Referee X becomes certified and works 10 officially sanctioned games that same calendar year.   Referee Y becomes certified but does not finish their 10 officially sanctioned games until January of the next year. Club D receives 3 points for referee X, however club D won’t receive their points for Referee Y until the following year. <Note that the Referee Y example is one where the calendar year is NOT a disqualifying factor for points>

Example 3: Club A declares the sponsorship of 3 new referees and decides that they want points for referee 1 to be applied to the Masters category and referees 2 and 3 to be applied to the Age Group category.  If all 3 new referees become certified and work 10 games, then Club A will be awarded 3 points in the Masters category and 6 points in the Age Group category.

Sponsoring of New Water Polo Clubs

The Southwest Zone wishes to expand the number of clubs in the zone. These may be either a USAWP club, a High School program, or a CWPA program and will award existing clubs that sponsor new water polo clubs  Club sponsorship is defined as any activity driven by a club that results in the creation of a new USAWP club, a new high school program or a new CWPA program that completes the tasks defined below and will result in the award of ten (10) points for each new USAWP club, five (5) points for each new high school program and three (3) points for each new CWPA club.

Club sponsorship points will be awarded when either the new high school or CWPA program competes and fully participates in a full season or the new USAWP club wholly competes as an independent entity in either 2 local leagues or 3 Connor Cup designated events within a calendar year.  Points will be awarded in the year in which the season or eligible events are completed. The new club or program must not have existed in any form in the previous 2 calendar years. If a club sponsors a new club/program and wishes to receive points for that sponsorship, then both the sponsoring club and the new club/programmust declare the sponsorship.  The sponsoring club must also determine whether they want their points applied to ‘Club of the Year’ scoring for either the Age Group or Masters category and this must be decided at the time of the sponsorship declaration and cannot be changed.

Example 4: Club B declares the sponsorship of a new USAWP club and a new high school program and decides that they want points for the USAWP club to be applied to the Masters category and the high school program to be applied to the Age Group category.  If both new clubs/programs complete the minimum competition requirements defined above, then Club B will be awarded 10 points in the Masters category and 5 points in the Age Group category.