Northeast Water Polo News: New Haven Upends Greenwich; Brooklyn Girls Enjoy Success
As any Northeastern water polo player knows, the region’s top club is Greenwich Aquatics. For the past eight years teams from the affluent Connecticut town have dominated competition up and down the Eastern seaboard, winning almost every competition they enter.
This superiority has been regularly on display at the Tri-State League, a decade-old age group competition sponsored by Greenwich Aquatics. Since 2013 clubs from New York, New Jersey and elsewhere have traveled teams to Connecticut—ostensibly for local bragging rights, but almost always ending up as foils to Greenwich success, particularly in the fall and spring, when the league culminates in tournament play.
Having their way with local foes ad nauseam has encouraged Greenwich coaches to look past local challenges and focus on California competition—occasionally at their club’s peril. In the past five years, 14U Greenwich teams have dropped 14U Tri-State finals matches in 2019 to Capital—from Washington, D.C. and in 2018 to Chelsea Piers, from nearby Stamford,. But in ten years of Tri-State finals competition 12U teams from Greenwich had never been beaten.
Until now.
Last December, Tri-State 12U and 14U playoffs took place at the Greenwich YMCA pool on consecutive Saturdays. As expected, the Greenwich 14U squad took top honors, pummeling a Brooklyn Hustle side 19-8—a loss that assured the visitors their highest-ever finish in league play. The following weekend Greenwich fielded the top two seeded teams in the 12U bracket, and when #1 Greenwich White opened play by dominating a Brooklyn 12U boys’ side, the stage appeared set for an all-Greenwich final. Second-seed Greenwich Blue—undefeated in league play like its White counterpart—was expected to beat third-seeded New Haven Hydra, creating an all-Greenwich final.
The Greenwich YMCA pool—site of much joy for the home Greenwich Aquatics club and disappointment for visitors. Photo: Greenwich YMCA
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Tri-State 12U championship. New Haven, a squad significantly set back by the Covid-19 pandemic, more than proved their worth. Their semi-final match, tied 3-all after four quarters, was decided in favor of the Hydras during penalty shots. An unbroken streak of Greenwich success in 12U tournament play was now on the line in the final.
The result? A stunning 11-5 victory by the upstart Hydras over the top Greenwich squad, giving the visitors the 12U title and an early Christmas present.
Andy Lewandowski, the New Haven coach, spoke effusively about how his team has progressed the past few months.
“We have a really strong group of 11- and 12-year-old players,” he said. “Like many teams, COVID set the group back. Last spring they were young and struggled against more experienced competition.
“But the team worked hard since last June and I’m really happy with how they played,” added the head Hydra. “They were unselfish, were fierce competitors and had a lot of fun training and competing as a group.”
Despite the unexpected setback, all Indicators are that Greenwich Aquatic’s impressive run of local dominance—especially in older age groups—has yet to peak. At the 2022 national Junior Olympics last July in California, the Greenwich 18U boys’ side finished 14th in Platinum, the top competitive bracket. An 18U squad from Connecticut Premier—the successor program to Chelsea Piers and Greenwich’s main rival in the Nutmeg state—finished third but in Gold, or lower, bracket. A joint Navy/CT Premier 16U girls’ side was the top finisher in the JOs Gold bracket, also in California; Greenwich 16U girls finished 13th in Platinum—and decisively beat their instate rivals 15-8 during JOs.
[Chelsea Piers Cuts Youth Water Polo due to Covid]
Despite positive results on this coast, the gap between other Northeast programs and the region’s undisputed champs has not narrowed significantly.
A girls’ team grows in Brooklyn, again
One of the notable winners from the recent Tri-State 12U tournament was a girls-only team from Brooklyn. Consisting of players who have been together for a number of years as well as relative newcomers to the sport, the Hustle have gelled under the leadership of Layla Behzadian, their head coach, and her husband Mike Byrd. Veterans of West Coast polo—though Byrd was a captain for the Harvard men’s team—the husband-and-wife team have focused on a grass-roots approach to building a coed program in New York City.
Joy etched on the faces of the Brooklyn Hustle girls, a NYC-based team making its mark.
“Our girls’ team has been a couple of years in the making,” Byrd said by email. “Instead of recruiting players from other clubs to form a team like we’ve done in the past, we have been focusing more on growth and development from within.”
Byrd’s comment references the last time a competitive girls team emerged from Brooklyn. Five years ago, a combination of girls from as near as Park Slope and far away as Washington D.C never had sufficient time to develop cohesion before qualifying for national competition. Some of the individual parts were strong—including Elektra Urbatch, who last spring became the first-ever New York City player to sign a letter of intent to play for UCLA. But after a successful run at the 2018 Junior Olympics, the girls went their separate ways. It’s taken until now that a homegrown group has discovered that developing bonds of friendship first can lead to success in the water.
“By creating a team environment and dedicated practices, the girls enjoy practicing and playing together,” Byrd said. “It started slowly, but the progress has been tremendous.
“We’re now setting our sights on Junior Olympics and more competitive tournaments for our 12U and 14U teams,” he added.
Lofty goals indeed. Like the New Haven squad, the Brooklyn club experienced a long layoff due to Covid-19, only regularly getting back in the water a year ago. The pandemic had a profound effect on membership; more than half of the club’s 110 members is 12 years old or younger, and almost half of the team’s roster is girls.
Results from Tri-State were good; the Hustle finished with a flourish, winning both of their games in the tournament playoff. The Brooklyn girls ended their first season of competition with three wins, three losses and one tie.
It’s a welcome sign for water polo in the Big Apple–and suggests that continued Greenwich superiority will be challenged, an encouraging development for the sport in the Northeast.