When the eight best water polo teams in the state gather Saturday at the Brother Rice Tournament, they will bring with them more than just swimsuits and caps.
They will have their badges of honor. Or at the very least, badges of interest.
“Ask Me About Water-Polo 2000” read the black and white pins affixed to the lapels of the water-polo coaches. And if you do indeed ask them, they would be more than happy to talk your ear off.
Saturday, the Brother Rice event not only signifies yet another chance for the best eight teams to battle for king of the pool honors, but for these coaches, its players and fans, it’s yet another chance to earn more recognition for a sport to which they’ve given their hearts and souls.
A coalition set up by Fenwick coach Dave Perry and Rick Marsh, president of the Illinois Water Polo Association, is attempting to have the Illinois High School Association recognize water polo as a spring sport by the year 2000.
This, by the coalition’s own admission, will be an uphill battle. The process has been attempted several times since the Chicago Catholic League started playing organized water polo in the early 1960s. There are just 32 boys and 19 girls teams in the state.
The key to building the sport’s popularity may come down to IHSA recognition.
But the IHSA is not likely to recognize a sport unless at least 15 percent of the state’s 756 member schools offer it.
“If the IHSA recognized it, it would probably double the amount of teams right away,” said Brother Rice coach Jim Mulcrone, whose 20-1 team is the favorite Saturday, playing host to Mundelein, Fenwick, Loyola, Oak Park, St. Rita, St. Patrick and Waubonsie Valley beginning at 8 a.m. The tournament championship will be decided at 8 p.m.
“Look what happened with boys volleyball,” he said. “(The IHSA) recognized it and boom, they had 80 (more) teams.”
Water polo coaches are using the success of boys volleyball and even girls soccer as clear-cut examples of how the IHSA could help their cause. By their own admission, these coaches in the past have looked at the IHSA almost as an adversary.
However, with Marsh leading the way, they now look internally to try and show the IHSA that they are worthy of its trust.
“I knew that if we were going to undertake something like this, we had to be organized,” said Marsh. “I believe the only way we will achieve significant growth in this sport is with IHSA recognition. But first we needed a game plan.”
It started in January with the selection of a committee to help build the sport’s momentum from within.
Joining Marsh and Perry in this group were Sandburg’s Jim Caliendo, Stagg’s Pat McGrath, Waubonsie Valley’s Tom Musch, St. Patrick’s Rich Norman and Mundelein’s Pat Barry.
Next came a survey, which was mailed to more than 130 schools throughout the state that have swimming programs. The survey asked three questions: “Do you have a team?” “Would your school like water polo as a spring sport?” and “Would you be interested if the IHSA sanctioned it?”
“The results indicated that this would be a pretty popular thing,” said Fenwick’s Perry. “What we want to do is draw up these results, go to the IHSA and say, `We have this many teams playing and this many more interested in joining in. Now would you give us a probationary period to try and make it work?’ “
“Our goal is to position our sport in a positive way so that the IHSA would be happy to recognize us,” said St. Patrick’s Norman.
“We don’t want to be adversarial. We want to provide the IHSA with as much information about our program as possible and prepare ourselves to be ready to make it work.”
The 32-team field took another step in the right direction last year, replacing their former two-tiered system of “open”–or more established programs–and “novice”–newer programs–with four eight-team divisions, broken down evenly based on the finish of last year’s state tournament. The idea is to give a more appealing, conference-type look to the state tournament.
Then there were the pins. Marsh had 600 made and distributed throughout the year and plans on making up several hundred more to hand out at this year’s state tournament, beginning with sectionals April 29 at York.
IHSA recognition would mean more than just a possible increase in the sport’s awareness. It would mean that, among other things, coaches, who currently work for little to no money running a water polo program, would receive a salary.
The rest is in the hands of the coaches, as well as school principals, athletic directors and whomever else may have a positive influence with the IHSA.
“If we go to the IHSA next year, and they review our information and say `no,’ they will see me every year,” said Marsh. “As we get more and more teams associated with it, we will earn a lot more speaking power.
“We’ve been told over and over again by so many people that this will be impossible. But we want to do it, because it would be our legacy to leave.”
