If you wish to gauge the state of collegiate water polo in America, simply ask Matt Anderson. At the moment the top coach of the Connecticut School males’s and ladies’s groups, for 12 years (2003-14) Anderson led the College of Michigan girls’s program—piling up 332 wins, 10 CWPA titles, 4 NCAA berths and one Olympian—two-time medalist Betsey Armstrong. He has additionally been a fixture on the NCAA water polo circuit, chairing each the boys’s and ladies’s committees.
[On The Record with Olympian Betsey Armstrong—New Member of USA Water Polo Hall of Fame]
Now in his seventh yr in New London, Anderson spoke just lately about his peripatetic polo expertise, how life within the Large Ten differs from the New England Small Collegiate Athletic Convention (NESCAC), what comes subsequent for his Camel girls and the way the NCAA should take care of NIL (Identify, Picture, Likeness) points now roiling its ranks.
– You had been born in West Germany, grew up within the Midwest, moved to California, ended up at San Jose State then took the ladies’s teaching job at Michigan. After greater than a decade in Ann Arbor you took the Connecticut School job. How do you retain monitor of all of your polo journey?
I’ve been well-traveled. [Laughs] Once I graduated from highschool in San Diego, I had Large Ten connections with my mother and father and sister attending Large Ten colleges. However I didn’t know plenty of the faculties outdoors of California. Then, once I went to Michigan, I didn’t know the Connecticut School’s, the Washington & Jefferson’s [in the East]. They weren’t within the area of the faculties I competed towards.
– Connecticut School could also be a DIII program however you play Brown, Harvard and Princeton, Northeast Water Polo Convention groups. Will you proceed to play NWPC groups in seasons to return?
Once I first received right here, it wasn’t the Northeast Convention, it was the bigger Collegiate Water Polo Affiliation. We had been a part of an Ivy League group with Brown, Harvard, MIT, Iona. Then, the shift was to get to a degree of faculties which might be our friends athletically and size-wise—and compete with them.
For 5 – 6 years within the Mid-Atlantic [Water Polo Conference], we had been profitable, taking second place in 2016, third in 2017 and 2018, going to the DI convention championships and doing nicely. However in the end what occurred was the 12-hour bus rides to Salem, to Washington & Jefferson. The return rides had been wreaking havoc on the youngsters and what they had been actually right here for: teachers.
Coach Matt Anderson and his Connecticut School males’s crew in Perugia, Italy in 2019. Picture Courtesy: M. Anderson
Why are we taking 24-hour spherical journey bus rides? Profitable is sweet but it surely’s not why we’re taking part in polo. We would like the youngsters to deal with what they need to do, which is teachers.
So, we switched again to the Northeast Convention, figuring out that with the appearance of USA Water Polo-led nationwide championship, we’d all the time have an avenue to a DIII nationwide championship. Final yr we hosted the East Coast DIII championships out of which MIT and Hopkins superior to the ultimate 4.
[Sagehens Win National Championship Over CMS, 13-12]
We knew that avenue was there and our emphasis modified to the youngsters’ having fun with their expertise right here. Let’s get out of those 24-hour weekend rides and get again into the convention with Brown, Princeton and Harvard—with the understanding we would choose the video games we had been speculated to play.
– The Camels did compete on this yr’s NWPC Championship.
Till we play a double round-robin we’re all the time going to be the #7 seed—and that’s effective. Neither Connecticut School or any DIII goes to often beat St. Francis, Harvard and Princeton three video games in a row. We hope to have an opportunity to, however the consistency of a roster is totally different at DIII then DI.
– Properly, that nearly occurred in 2015 when Johns Hopkins beat St. Francis, Brown and dropped a one-goal choice to Princeton within the finals of what was then the CWPA Japanese Championships.
They did. Hopkins and MIT have had that risk. These are the faculties [the Ivies] recruit towards. If you would like a medical [career] you take a look at Stanford, you take a look at Hopkins. Harvard and MIT are all the time battling for a similar sort of recruits. It’s the depth that in the end will get to you.
[Tigers Claim Eastern Crown Over Upstart Johns Hopkins in CWPA Final]
I used to be referring to a small college like Connecticut School, W&J and so forth. To have the chance to try this is much and few between.
– Speaking taking part in alternatives to athletes is a giant a part of the how the game grows.
I’ve had the posh of going from large DI to small DIII. An enormous a part of doing that is PR, the entire communication of what’s on the market and discovering these athletes acceptable for the college they lastly uncover.
McCulloch MacPherson, Brooklyn-based athlete getting into Connecticut subsequent fall. Picture Courtesy: Christiane Mack
There are nice alternatives on the East Coast or within the Midwest if they might simply discover a bit additional the lecturers and discover out if the game they need to play is obtainable. It doesn’t imply that it’s a must to have been a highschool All-American to play on the subsequent degree.
Quite a lot of gamers have the chance to play however should not conscious of all the faculties accessible to them. Individuals who play membership and journey to totally different locations for tournaments open their eyes to schools across the nation which have membership or varsity applications they will play [for].
Whether or not it’s a Carthage School within the Midwest or a Penn State Behrend or W&J or Mount St. Mary’s—the variety of youngsters in the event that they had been to achieve out to the college and see if they may match academically, they might discover, extra so on the East Coast the potential for a roster spot could be very viable in comparison with some West Coast college who get so many youngsters. An excellent quantity of SCIAC [teams] find yourself reducing folks as their rosters will get too giant.
– What are your ideas concerning the nationwide DIII championship which supplies two males’s and ladies’s groups from the East an opportunity to make it large in California.
You all the time need to end in addition to you might. A few years in the past we completed prime two or prime three within the East, however you marvel how it could be in case you performed these West Coast groups on the finish of the yr.
What you’ve seen with the boys’s DIII championship is that it didn’t go as plan. The discuss is all the time [about] Pomona-Pitzer. They’re a beautiful program whose sights are on beating West Coast DI groups. They’re getting youngsters in academically, they’re placing within the monetary assets however lo and behold, Whittier pulls off the upset two years in the past.
This yr you will have Claremont-Mudd-Scripps [play] a aggressive sport with Hopkins and presumably if MIT was within the 2/3 sport possibly MIT would have had the prospect. [In the final] it’s Pomona-Pitzer, they’re within the Prime 20 and CMS was inches away from successful the DIII nationwide championship, a sport that went to OT.
That’s the great thing about having a closing 4, what you suppose is written can usually be totally different [then the results]. You have got Cal, USC and UCLA; out of the final 19 years they’ve gained 18 nationwide championships on the boys’s facet. On the ladies’s facet USC, UCLA, Stanford are the one ones to win a girls’s nationwide championship in 21 years.
With Whittier successful it, CMS only a fraction from an upset and Hopkins and MIT being extraordinarily aggressive, and different colleges attempting to get there—like Austin, Connecticut School, W&J—something can occur on the DIII degree.
Anderson along with his College of Michigan girls’s crew in 2013. Picture Courtesy: Michigan Athletics
– You loved super success in Michigan. How is it to go from Ann Arbor to teaching a small liberal arts school in New London.
An enormous a part of that is the tradition appropriate for you on the time. My years teaching DI and the nationwide youth crew and being the ladies’s nationwide “B” crew head coach was great, taking the crew to the WUG (World College Video games) in Shenzhen China and successful the primary medal for the USA in 23 years (silver). Once I was in my 30’s and early 40’s, DIII was not one thing that match my tradition. Now that I’m in my mid-50s with a few youngsters at house, the “pedal to the steel” life-style isn’t the proper tradition.
There’s Scott Reed at Macalester who additionally went from DI to DIII, so we have now seen either side of it. At DI the main target isn’t all the time on the 360 levels of the child. The massive half is the athletic half after which college matches into that.
DIII is what a scholar athlete is actually about. 270 levels of the 360 is concerning the scholar facet. Then you will have the athletic half that matches in.
You have got youngsters that need to compete, which might be pushed however possibly didn’t have the chance or the expansion spurt or on the finish of the day didn’t have the fervour or vitality that’s wanted at a giant DI Energy 5.
Anderson in Barcelona teaching his Camel girls in 2019. Picture Courtesy: M. Anderson
Having youngsters of my very own I do know and perceive what a small DIII college is attempting to impression. Once I was at Michigan it was all about my tradition [in that] you’re right here, the college has quite a bit to supply, it’s an incredible college, go discover what you’ll want to do—however in the end [athletics] is what you’re right here to do.
When youngsters are on the lookout for faculties, they must determine what kind of tradition they need. The place do teachers match? The place do athletics match? Clearly, each can occur at a Harvard, at a Stanford. However it’s a must to determine the kind of life-style [and] tradition you need in school and discover that faculty that matches accordingly.
– Are you preserving watch on how the most recent coronavirus wave might impression the 2022 season?
COVID’s gonna be round; it’s by no means going to get to the purpose the place it wipes everybody out as a result of then it’s not gonna be round anymore. It’s going to mutate to the place it should survive and turn out to be just like the frequent flu—we’ll all the time have to pay attention to it.
The query is: Will it have an effect on the season? I believe it should and it might have an effect on some colleges going distant for the start of the semester or after spring break.
We had been lucky [at Connecticut College]. It felt like I used to be at a DI once more. We practiced from the start of September all the way in which till April once we usually solely get that 10-week span. I’m not allowed to do low season practices with the youngsters; I can solely do them in the course of the championship season. That introduced us a possibility to follow on daily basis. Granted it was solely an hour to an hour and a half, however we did it for the psychological facet.
Our faculty being an inclusive, small school, everybody will get examined [and] we have now to put on masks.
The priority is that some locations may take not take this critically sufficient that it would have an effect on the flexibility to have a season with out bumps. What considerations me on the ladies’s facet is we’re scheduled to exit to California to Pomona; I might see being instructed: No, we’re not getting on a airplane.
– As you take a look at ahead to the Camel girls’s upcoming season, what are your hopes and expectations?
The preview I might have given two years in the past when it was speculated to be the primary DIII girls’s championship, [was] there’s little doubt in my thoughts: We had been going to be there. Ourselves and both Macalester or Austin. We had been totally loaded; then we go as much as Harvard one weekend earlier than we’re speculated to board a airplane—then instructed all the pieces is shutting down.
Camels’ polo gamers in Barcelona, 2019. Picture Courtesy: M. Anderson
I like my crew, however they’ve solely performed two video games within the final 24 months. I’ve Maria Promote, one of many prime three gamers on the East Coast who can carry the crew. However I haven’t seen this crew in a sport.
I went from a veteran crew to I’ve a junior who has solely two video games of school expertise. You take a look at a crew like Austin which is overloaded with gamers and expertise to that time they don’t have sufficient spots. In Texas they’ve depth and expertise.
We’re going to be aggressive, however from a training standpoint it’s a must to have depth if you wish to make the Closing 4. You’re solely pretty much as good as your back-up goalie—and I solely have one goalie. That was my motto once I was DI as a result of that’s how essential having depth is.
Irrespective of how good Melissa Moreno, certainly one of my captains, or Maria are, we don’t have six for six and may stand up to accidents. I like my crew and we’re going to be aggressive with anyone. The query is: Will we have now the depth?
Austin has a senior group: 8 – 9 ladies who’ve been collectively for 4 years. It’s Texas so that they proceed what they do throughout this time and have much more taking part in expertise. They’re the crew all people is chasing.
You have got Wittenberg, Carthage and Augustana’s coming in. The query is: do we have now the expertise and the depth to resist the re-entry into taking part in, half the faculties had a full-fledged season final yr—we didn’t. It gained’t be truthful to fit and say we’re going to be first; or we’re going to be ninth as a result of we’ve solely performed two video games up to now 24 months. It’s going to shake itself out.
I’ll say, it’s only a matter of when Connecticut School will get within the Closing 4—it’s not a matter of when. We have now probably the most CWPA championships of any college. We’ve all the time been aggressive, and we all the time shall be. Proper now, it’s simply too early to inform. With 11 gamers we don’t have the depth to sort out among the large squads that I’d wish to sort out.
– As an administrator for the NCAA, I think you’re conscious of the looming impression of NIL (Identify, Picture, Licensing) on non-revenue sports activities. How does this initiative to pay collegiate athletes complicate the funding for Olympic sports activities?
I don’t suppose lots of people perceive that on the finish of the day it does have a trickle-down impact. You take a look at Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams. Oklahoma soccer is clearly capable of NIL—now the entire sudden after an incredible freshman yr for one of many nation’s prime ten groups [Williams] says he’s going to enter the switch portal. As a result of there’s college on the market that may supply him more cash.
That’s precisely what that is.
Lane Kiffin mentioned this greatest when he tweeted: It’s all about who can supply me probably the most cash.
The Alabama quarterback, the Ohio State quarterback, Quinn Ewers—who earlier than he performed a sport had 1,000,000 {dollars} in endorsements—transferred to Texas.
Caleb Williams, Oklahoma quarterback. Picture Courtesy: Oklahoma Athletics
You may say, nicely that’s effective and dandy Anderson, however what does that must do with us? On the finish of the day, the self-supporting applications are going to must depend on alumni. You’re going to have sports activities that may proceed to drive the college and you then’ll produce other sports activities—it might be that colleges say: We have now 26 sports activities; you six sports activities you’ve received to begin supporting yourselves. Like what UConn did in reducing sports activities like girls’s rowing, males’s swimming—a giant a part of that’s that they knew that financially it was going to be laborious to run a giant athletic program with NIL as a result of the taking part in discipline isn’t degree.
By that, I believe that plenty of DI’s will look to take the DIII mannequin. DIII’s elevate cash for his or her applications. You’ll see plenty of: Coach, you need to exit to California, you’re gonna must fundraise.
Being on the NCAA committee for years, folks say we act sluggish. However we transfer slowly as a result of we’re taking a look at issues accurately from as many angles as we will. It’s humorous as a result of you will have Jay Bilas—he’s a lawyer and commentator who’s complaining that the ‘NCAA is holding youngsters again, they’re not letting them earn money’.
Then we are saying right here’s Identify, Picture, Likeness and Bilas says: “Oh my God, you’re not regulating it, NCAA isn’t controlling this.” You’re being a hypocrite, Jay. The NCAA is permitting athletes to do what they need however you need them to regulate issues like they did earlier than, and that’s what led you to complain—the management the NCAA had—and now you need them to convey again management?’?
The NCAA is wanting to determine how this impacts what we’re right here for, which is all of the sports activities—not simply soccer and basketball.
It’s going to profit the Energy 5 however [what of] the smaller colleges? The St. Francis PA’s, the Bucknell’s. Are they going to begin shedding gamers who’ve turn out to be good and now they’ve a possibility to go someplace [else]? It is perhaps solely a $5,000 or $10,000 endorsement however sufficient to make the child go away the college.
It gained’t have an effect on plenty of smaller water polo applications, however I consider it will likely be: That is what we will do if we will discover the help to do it. It’s not a optimistic for all of the sports activities. It’s a optimistic for some scholar athletes however I see it affecting the standard of faculties supporting as many sports activities because the can as a result of financially they’re going to must deal with the sports activities that drive the athletic division—not the non-revenue sports activities.
