Junior Olympics is one of the largest tournaments in the sport and takes place each and every summer. Last year we had 3 athletes that competed under SLO Water Polo Club's umbrella in a coastal all star team. It is a great opportunity for some high level games against teams from all over the country. USA water polo operates by age brackets (14U, 16U, 18U). Water polo age is determined by the athlete's age on July 31st of 2024. An athlete who is 16 on 7/31/2024 can compete in either the 16U age bracket or the 18U age bracket. An athlete who is 17 by 7/31/2024 can only compete in the 18U division.
Junior Olympics Qualifier Tournament: June 14-16 for 16U and 18U (games in Fresno/Clovis). June 7th-9th for 14U (Sacramento).
Junior Olympics Tournament: July 20th-23rd in the Bay Area
SLOWPC will host open tryouts for our JO's Teams this next week after CIF.
Tuesday May 7th at Morro Bay HS and Thursday May 9th at San Luis Obispo High School, Both from 6-8PM.
What we will need is that they bring their USA Polo ID and or a Screenshot of their active USA Polo Membership. They need a bronze membership for the tryout but if they make the roster will have 3-5 days to upgrade to a gold membership. They will also need to fill out the following form.
https://forms.gle/en9fHrdAQBhxxYcj8
Pricing will be $350 for Competition Dues. Competition dues will be invoiced to athletes prior to each competition (100 for quals and 250 for JO's) We will run 3-4 County Wide practices a week in the afternoons for those groups to prepare for JO's. Finalized practice schedule will be sent off after we get the rosters. There will be a registration fee for practices as well. Depends on your High School Registration for summer as it is included with some of them.
A lot of our athletes should give the tryouts a shot and should consider trying to play JO's this summer to get more experience and exposure in the sport.
This summer will look a little different than last summer. I will not be coaching as many practices this summer (with taking some family time to welcome my wife's and I's new boy in June!) but will be working with Coach Askew and Coach McRoy to still try and give our athletes a full practice and game schedule this summer. I am still working with our coaches to solidify who is coaching what day and the specifics on time but expect all Paso practices to be in the mornings (somewhere in the 7:00-10:00am range) to limit conflicts with those athletes who commit to doing Junior Olympics which will have practices in the afternoons. Below you will see the expected game schedule, dead weeks where Paso cannot practice or meet with coaches outside of school time and the start of high school water polo at the end of the season. I am also adding the rough draft of the High School fall schedule which will have games being added and confirmed as we get closer to the start of the season.
Expected cost at the moment for athletes planning to play games with PASO this summer off season is $300. I will have a link sent out once the registration page is up and ready.
We will be operating under SLO water polo clubs team umbrella to make it easier for athletes to be roster with SLOWPC for Junior Olympics and our team during the summer. Please make sure when registering with USA water polo to switch your athletes club affiliation to SLO water polo club. If you already registered for the 2024 year please go into your athletes membership page and select club affiliation and change it to SLOWPC.
Please note the game schedules and try to block those afternoons (SLO summer league on Wednesdays and Thursdays) and those weekends listed for tournaments. If your athlete is 16 expect them to play both 16u and 18u games days as frequently as possible. If we have enough athletes then we will register 2 teams for the tournament day weekends.
PLEASE FILL OUT the Tournament Availability Form. Doing so will help me have an accurate head count for summer water polo games.