Ted Bresnahan: Water Polo Lifer
CORAL SPRINGS, FL. At the South Florida International Water Polo Tournament (SFIWP), where the weather is warm and the competition enticing, it’s impossible to keep passionate water polo followers away. Teams from all over the region—and as far away as California and Connecticut—arrive at the Coral Springs Aquatics Center to experience this event’s regional charms.
[In the Brilliant Florida Sun, Let the Games Begin… Again!]
More than the clubs—24 of which sent a total of 54 teams to this three-day tournament last February—are the lifers, the fans, followers and former coaches who just cannot get enough of this brutal but beautiful sport.
At the center of this group is Ted Bresnahan, for 27 years the men’s’ water polo coach at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. Sitting in an easy chair under the brilliant Florida sun, the ol’ ball coach, who retired from Hopkins polo in 2018, is intently watching 18U boys and girls battle back and forth, taking notes and chatting with coaches, referees and passersby.
Hopkins Pool, where Bresnahan spent 27 years beating the East’s best. Photo: M. Randazzo
As he recounts his current activities—refereeing here and there, visiting with Mike Schofield, the former Navy coach who’s also down in South Florida, or checking in on Greater Baltimore Swim Association (GBSA), the swim club he founded in Baltimore back in 1990—Bresnahan is as relaxed as any in this retiree paradise.
[25 Years In, Ted Bresnahan Continues To Push Johns Hopkins Water Polo To New Heights]
In a conversation that ranges from his friendship with Michael Phelps, Baltimore’s most famous swimmer, to East Coast polo battles between Hopkins, Navy, Princeton and St. Francis, Bresnahan weighed in on SFIWP, which he’s been attending since he relocated to the area four years ago and how this tournament is stocked with enough talent for him to start a new polo program, anywhere, anytime.
- A year after this tournament was cancelled because of COVID-19 here we are in Florida watching water polo at one of the country’s nicest outdoor venues.
If you look around at the stands, you’ll understand polo’s back and it’s back in a big way. Every pool here is filled, there’s enthusiasm from the participants to the coaches. I’m refereeing high school [matches] here on an intermittent basis [and] it’s back!
Water polo is back! We’re good to go.
- What’s a benchmark of this is that three teams from the Northeast—which has hit so hard by the pandemic—are here. How important is that as a marker of where the sport is?
It’s super important. Just look at the smiles on the faces of these coaches and parents. It’s back to where it was—the pandemic hit everyone, including me, very hard. To see this, and to see high school [played] down here and again the similes on the faces of the coaches and participants… it’s quite amazing that [the sport] is so resilient.
- It’s helpful that COVID cannot survive in chlorinated water! For players and parents who have no prior experience with tournament play, what’s happening her in Coral Springs really opens eyes about how passionate fans can be about the sport of water polo.
If you can’t sit poolside and figure out how passionate it is then something’s wrong with you. Michael Goldenberg’s done a great job with this tournament. I saw it for the first time a few years go—when I was officially retired from Hopkins—and I said: Why isn’t every coach from the East down here recruiting?!
[On The Record with Michael Goldenberg of South Florida Water Polo Club]
Max Schlegel [current Johns Hopkins coach] and I are still very close—I talk to him every week, I’m still close to the program. I’ve got a couple of guys who are looking at Hopkins right now. I can fill three college rosters with the guys who are playing down here.
Bresnahan with his Blue Jays in 2018. Photo: Johns Hopkins Athletics
They’re all good kids, good coaches. I think this should be a must-stop for anyone building a program.
- That’s a great point for East Coast athletes. You hear about all the college prospects coming out of California, but there’s kids up and down the coast that don’t realize there’s a polo future available for them in college.
I’m looking at a team from North Carolina and their formations their running—I go: Where have I seen that before? Now that I’m getting older it took me a while to figure out! It was Doug Peabody who ran it at a Navy tournament 20 years ago! That’s where it was.
When I saw Eric Gordon, I went up to him and asked: How long did you play for Doug? He said he didn’t play for Doug but coached with him for many years. I answered I could see that in the pool and on the deck in your mannerisms.
It’s still a gigantic family. I’m not only recruiting for Hopkins I’m doing things for friends of mine in different universities—Hey, look at this kid! He’s looking at you.
I can be their eyes and ears down here, and a phone call will suffice. I’ll get these kids to visit campuses. I met with three or four guys already this weekend.
- I see that all the time: kids get a sense of what’s possible for their polo futures. Now, what’s been impossible for the East is to get into a final—or even a semifinal—of the NCAA men’s tournament. You’ve got some strong programs at Bucknell, Harvard and Princeton hoping to change that.
I’m not gonna pretend to be able to answer that question! [Laughs] I have many years of thoughts on it.
Main pool at Coral Springs Aquatics Center. Photo: M. Randazzo
We just don’t have the culture California has and we don’t have the numbers. If you’re going to school to play water polo or to make the national team, it’s not going to be the East Coast. It’s gonna happen at the top four schools. The scholarship money’s not available in the East as well.
If you want a great education—I’m not saying the West Coast is not—you want some of the best education in the world, go DIII. Go to Hopkins. Go to MIT. Go to Pomona-Pitzer. Go to CMS [Claremont-Mudd-Scrips]. There are guys out there that I coached against for years and I’m tight with them now.
People have to look at the big picture. Are the national team coaches looking at East Coast players? I’m not really sure. I had a young man, Sean McCreery, who was national Division III Player of the Year three years in a row and Coach [Ricardo] Azevedo had him going out for the national team [in 2005].
- As an East Coast guy, which I am, and so are you, I want to see Harvard succeed when they travel out West, or Brown of Princeton or St. Francis Brooklyn. But are we getting closer where the East can beat teams ranked 6 – 10 if not 1 – 5?
When we go out West—and when I say “we” I’m speaking from the Hopkins point of view—I hear we gotta beat these guys from the East. I start laughing because nine of out 10 of my players are from the West Coast!
Again, let’s look at the big picture. Those guys from the West Coast [who came East] understood what education meant. Not everybody’s going to be on the national team. Not everybody’s going to be able to pick up a contract in Europe. What will [Hopkins players] have? A graduation from one the greatest schools in the country.
But I think it’s growing, especially on the DIII level. And there’s some damn good players at DIII who can hold their own. In my time at Hopkins, we beat every DI program in the East. But that was with a conglomerate of different players: from the East, a lot from the West. Players from St. Louis, Chicago. Heck I took them [from] anywhere!
As long as they had talent, I’d go up to them and ask: What are your SAT [scores]? Then I’d talk polo later! [Laughs]