Water Polo Player Career
Water Polo Player Career
The Real Poop
You want to be a professional athlete. You like to swim, you're good with your hands, and you’ve got a good arm—why not water polo, right? After all, it looks like such a nice, gentle sport.
Just kidding. Water polo ain't for the weak of heart. If you're worried about bruises, maybe you should take up swimming, or even better, competitive crocheting.
But if you want to make money, you may want to think about looking at some other career paths. We'll be frank with you—there is no money in water polo.
Correction, there's no money in water polo unless you're a water polo coach or teach others how to play water polo. Then, maybe there's a modest teacher's or high school sports coach's wage. Maybe.
According to the Bleacher Report, water polo is officially ranked The Toughest Sport in the World. Take that, rugby.
Water polo combines the full-contact aspect of a sport like football or ice hockey with the skill to get a ball in the net using only one hand—all while the athlete is constantly treading water. And of course, there's all the kicking, smacking, pinching, punching, and crotch grabbing (yes, there's a reason they wear their suits two sizes too small; there’s less to grab hold of that way).
Water polo has been an Olympic sport for men since the second games in 1900, and for women since the 2000 Summer Games. But don't let the game's long Olympic history fool you—this is no race walk. If you want to go pro, you'd better be fierce, fast, athletically gifted, and live in Hungary or Croatia (if you're a guy that is—women have been pretty successful in the USA).
The USA Men's Team won the silver medal in 2008. But the sport is dominated by Croatia, that won the gold in 2012 and Hungary, that won it for an entire decade before Croatia took over. So if you're a guy who wants to play with the big shots, you'd better make like Tony Azevedo and get your passport.
If you're a woman, you won't have to go quite so far to be among the best of the best. Team USA has won a medal every year since the women's teams began competing in 2000: silver in 2000, bronze in 2004, silver in 2008, and the big daddy—Gold in 2012.
Water polo involves a lot of eggbeatering, more commonly known as "treading water for extremely long periods of time" (which will do wonders for your hips when you get older, by the way). There's also a lot of swimming back and forth, passing the ball using one hand, and faking it, all while your opponent is literally pummeling you to get a hold of the ball until you get it in the net or "die."
If you want to play NCAA water polo in college, your best bet is to either play on your high school's team (if they have one), or join a water polo club. If you have hopes of going to Nationals and the Olympics...mazel tov and good luck.
After that, most of your famous, Olympic medal-winning polo players become coaches at colleges or high schools, or host clinics for U.S. Water Polo.
Some, like Terry Schroeder, go on to get a chiropractic degree and start a business, while managing to coach a top college team and hold a summer clinic in Malibu for young polo hopefuls. Chase that dream, Terry.
If you have your heart set on playing polo—terrific. It's fabulous exercise, a wonderful team sport with a great tradition, and it may help you get into college or get a scholarship if you are one of the best of the best.
But make sure you study something useful in school that will help you make money once your body gives out (you'll notice there aren't many older water polo players, and for good reason). Get a teaching degree if you want to coach. Most high school coaches need to be able to teach a subject and have a credential anyway. Are you good at math? Science? English? Pick your poison and be an education major by day, and water polo beast by night.