USA Water Polo, A Sport on the Rise; Analysis of 2018 Membership

USA Water Polo, is the governing body for water polo in the United States and is the home of our Men's and Women's National Teams. Youth development and growth of the sport are responsibilities that also fall upon USAWP. It was a great pleasure to look at the USA Water Polo membership data following the 2018 year to be able to see the trends that are forming within the sport of water polo.

One of the biggest questions I had regarding membership was the number of female to male athletes within the USAWP organization. The data collected at the end of the year showed that 64% of the water polo community is male. Although it is an overwhelming amount of males to females, the percentage did decrease from 2017 in which 65% of the population was male.

In the past 10 years the US Women’s National Team has established itself as the leading program in the world having won the gold medal in both the London and Rio Olympic Games. It is due to their outstanding performance and rapid growth that I initially thought that the female to male membership would be closer. Although my hypothesis was incorrect there has been a 6.67% increase in female members in the last year. Showing that USAWP is having a positive trend in acquiring female members. These memberships include players, coaches, referees and club administration.

While the 6.67% increase is very promising, only 490 women are registered coaches of the 1,728  coaches in California. Meaning only 28% of coaches are women. In order to grow as a sport and to become more diverse it is important for the number of female coaches to increase and have great representation.  

It is also very clear while looking at the data that California is the home of USAWP members. Currently USAWP has 48,120 members of that 33,133 are California based members. In total only 6 states in the US have over 1000 members, at least three states do not have a single registered member of USAWP. California

USA Water Polo has worked hard over the last couple year to expand water polo throughout the country. These efforts can be seen in their numerous championship tournament throughout the nation. Some of the different states include Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Washington. USA Water Polo also conducts an Olympic Development Program, teaching young athletes all over the country the skills taught to our Senior Level athletes.

The work being done to expand water polo seems to pay off. Almost every state has an increase of member during the 2018 year, only 10 states did not have an increase in their memberships.  The sport of water polo is not at the heights USAWP wants it to be but the important takeaway is that they are continuously growing.

In conclusion I feel strongly that the data shows a very compelling story about USA Water Polo membership. It is clear USAWP has a rich culture in California and is working to expand the same culture nationally. The number of female members compared to male is currently skewed but with a constant growth each year. It is important for USA Water Polo to continue their journey of creating strong athletes, both male and female, as well as expanding their reaches on a national level in order to see their sport grow and develop with time.