USA Water Polo has announced a rescheduling of its 2020 calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic, with events aimed at restarting in August. It includes a restructuring of the National Junior Olympics.
The 2020 Masters National Championships, originally scheduled for June 12-14, will be held in Orange County, Calif., Aug. 21-23. Attached to that is the 2020 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame induction luncheon on Aug. 21.
The 2020 National Junior Olympics were originally slated for July 18-26. Instead, they will take place in two sessions overseen by local organizing committees based out of Stanford and Irvine. Session 1 will be for 10U, 12U and 14U boys, girls and mixed divisions, hosted by Stanford Nov. 21-24. The 16U/18U boys and girls competitions will be hosted in Irvine Dec. 27-30. Those changes require finessing the schedule around high school athletes, and USA Water Polo “is in active discussions to clear participation eligibility.”
One other change is the Welcome to Texas Shootout, originally slated for May 23-25. It will take place Sept. 5-7 in San Antonio.
The following events are postponed “until further notice” (original dates in parenthesis):
- Olympic Development Program Girls National Championships (May 22-24)
- ODP Boys and Girls NTSC (May 22-24)
- Clearwater Beach Challenge in Florida (May 16-17)
- Great Lakes Classic in Michigan (June 27-28)
- Golden State Invitational in California (July 10-12)
The men’s and women’s senior nationals (originally July 10-12 in Irvine, Calif.) is cancelled.
“That we can pivot in the face of this pandemic to reschedule the lion’s share of our 2020 programming is a tribute to our community working together during a very difficult time,” Christopher Ramsey, USA Water Polo Chief Executive Officer, said in a press release. “In reformatting the calendar, our first priority has been the health and safety of players, coaches, officials, club administrators and families. We also wanted to ensure that we could secure outstanding venues and experienced officials. Finally, we wanted to be sensitive to club and scholastic calendars, since we are all in this together, and we wanted to do our best to fashion a revised program that would meet the needs of our USA Water Polo community.”