On Deck With Conn College’s Jeff Passwater: Coast-to-Coast for Water Polo

A career in water polo is not for the faint of heart—and Jeff Passwater is no shrinking violet. He’s played and coached all over the U.S. and beyond: St. Louis (high school); Indiana (Purdue – college ball); Brown, Pacific, McKendree, Austin College and now Connecticut College as an assistant coach.

Throw in a stint as the Trinidad and Tobago head 17U men’s and women’s coach for the 2019 Pan American Youth Water Polo Championships, and Passwater has been there and definitely done that.

In a recent visit to an age group practice in Brooklyn—a new stop in his peripatetic tour of all things polo—Passwater spoke about his impressive resume, the continued fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and how he and Matt Anderson, Conn College’s head men’s and women’s coach, are rebuilding Camel polo.

- You’ve seen American water polo from so different perspectives different vantage points. Growing up in St. Louis, spending time as an assistant to Felix Mercado at Brown, working for James Graham at Pacific, returning to the Midwest to work with Colleen Lischwe at McKendree and now at Connecticut College. These varied vantage points give you a privileged view of the sport in USA.

How is it to be in the Northeast—and  with an opportunity to rebuild a program at Conn College?

Being in the Northeast, I couldn’t be happier. It’s is an amazing opportunity—based upon the [school’s] history, which is significant. Rebuild is a good way of putting it. We had an amazing season as far as student athlete experience. Everybody had a really good time.

One of the things I mentioned at the beginning of the season, wherever your dials are at right now—as far as intensity, knowledge, what you want out of the season, how close we are as a team. If those are at one or at 10—we’re going to turn that up a little bit each day. And we’re going to care about each other a little bit more, and maybe gets a bit more intense.

We’re gonna focus on getting a little bit better every day with more focus on intensity and teamwork.  The more we mean to each other, the harder we’ll work together.

It was a unique challenge, but one that I think Matt and I did a good job with—because everyone was smiling at the end, and everyone is coming back. We had six players who had never played water polo before on the team.

Everyone—coaches and athletes—had to be patient with each other. We’re teaching eggbeater to some. At the other end of the spectrum, we have Maria Sell, MVP of the CWPA Division III-East Region. She scored over 75% of our goals and is spectacular.

[Maria Sell Named Most Valuable Player of CWPA Division III-East]

I think from a student athlete perspective we certainly met that challenge.

- To get where you are now involved lot of twists and turns in a lifetime of polo.

It’s the same everywhere I go. I’m there to learn, I’m there to get better, I’m there to take another step. Some steps are bigger than others. Those first steps at Brown were pretty big.

When I got to Pacific it felt like I splatted on the windshield then hung on for dear life. Once I was able to get my bearings I learned a tremendous amount, James’ programs run smoothly, compete with Pac-12’s [that have] four times Pacific’s budget as he discovers somewhat overlooked talent.

He’s worked with eight or nine Olympians Their choice to attend his program helped them get there… and they’d all tell you that.

Being near my hometown at McKendree I got to learn a lot with someone from [St. Louis], which was important. Going to Trinidad was literally a whole other world. I learned a lot from Mark Lawrence about starting a new program in a new area. He did a fantastic job turning that team into a giant happy family. Texas is so vital to collegiate growth and Mark has developed a blueprint for that growth.

I have been so lucky. I talk to Coach Mercado almost every day. That man is probably the best person I know. He, like the other people I’ve worked for, are unlikely success stories. It’s great to see other folks [have] found their way to successful careers in this sport.

- You’ve seen so much polo around the States. You’ve seen James Graham in action, understand how he prepares his athletes to beat the country’s best programs. How does this knowledge translate into success for the Camels of Conn College?

Matt is a great resource for me. We discussed that we had things this season that neither of us had come across in our college coaching careers—just because we were dealing with players who were new, and players that were juniors / sophomores playing their first college season. We were presented with numerous opportunities to get better as coaches and, when discussion solutions, he’d say: What about this? He was teaching me how to view the potential outcomes of each choice.

It was a new dimension of thinking for me. It was clear he wanted me to see every angle imaginable: Typically, I would think, this is what we’ve got to do and we’re going to explain it like this. Matt [would say]: What about this perspective? You saw A, B and C, what about X, Y and Z?

[Connecticut College’s Matt Anderson on Camel Water Polo, Life in Division III]

I’m here to learn; I can call upon a number of experiences—when this happened at Pacific, when this happened at McKendree, when this happened at Austin or at Brown—but those are four different programs. and there’s four different answers to the same problem.

Now that I’m at Conn College it has its own solutions. So far this has been fun and eye opening.

- Coach Anderson stressed the academic experience at Conn College—which is not what’s usually stressed at top DI programs, though Stanford is an obvious exception to this. Which presents its own set of issues for DIII programs because coaches are ultimately paid to win, not just on the academic / athletic balance of their students.

Our student athletes are student, student, student… and athlete. It is a challenge. For a number of reasons, we aren’t focusing on winning right now, that will happen eventually. Our successes are measured differently. We have about half the time of other programs to train, in terms of weeks, at least right now. Conn has been successful in the past with these restrictions, and there is no reason to think we won’t be successful in the future.

And, we couldn’t have anyone on campus for two years—recruits or any perspective athlete weren’t allowed to visit. We have a great flyover on YouTube but that doesn’t necessarily close the deal like visiting the campus. And [other schools were] dealing with some version of that.

For the first time in two years our athletes are going through the reps of trying and failing. Throwing a bad pass and getting countered. Getting a goal scored on them they should have made a block on.

All those things can weigh on a player. The sheer amount of pressure that they put on themselves given that it’s the first time they’re playing was something we had to be aware of and coach appropriately. Matt and I were focused on having a good year. We [all] were going to be smiling at the end of this year, regardless. That was our “good”.

If that means redefining what success is, redefining what winning is, so be it. We can figure that out. Everybody’s gonna have a smile at the end of our season.

- Let’s talk about the continuing effects of COVID. The long break appears to have put more pressure on programs and athletes to play and succeed, even more so than the usual issues that a regular season of play presents.

Especially in the spring times for the women’s season. In some cases, there were two or even three times where the rug was completely ripped out underneath them. 2020 happens, we’re shutting down, and for the first few months the thought is: It’s okay, we’ll be back next year.

A lot of schools came back in 2021 and started in March, practiced for a couple of weeks and then had that rug ripped out from underneath them. There would be an outbreak on campus, an athlete could unknowingly be in a situation where they were exposed—and that could completely end a season.

If you spend time in a locker room, the typical tension and finger-pointing doesn’t get easier when you add that kind of stress.

Dealing with that uncertainty—and I guarantee there was uncertainty in January when a lot of teams started—it’s like: When is the other shoe gonna drop? Are we actually gonna play? Are we actually going to the airport? Are we going to take off? Are the referees going to be at the pool?

Oh, ok, cool, we are gonna play games… finally!

Considering that, the fine-tuning of 6-on-5 or 6-on-4 play can be lost—and everybody can get frustrated with that. Coaches, players, fans. It’s all because we’re not used to taking these reps, trying and failing. Going on trips, staying in hotels for the first time in a couple of years.

Am I wearing a mask? What do I do for breakfast? Is the Starbucks open across the street?

There are many new, stressful situations. And [the athletes] are 19 and 20 years old.

If there’s not a brake pedal in your coaching for that situation, or your parenting or with your teammates… we all just have to sit back and relax. We’re slowly getting back into this thing.

We need to have a good team experience. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s never perfect, but let’s make extra sure not to forget that this year.

- Because it’s so difficult to play, I’d say water polo is the ultimate team sport—and if you’re not on board with your teammates it’s really hard to have success.

That first disagreement that can happen—you’re in the water January 4th or 5th, something happened where you missed a swim set or missed a pass on 6-on-5… and the coach got a little upset. How much stress is in that first [observation]? “Hey, can you watch your passes?” “Can you hit me a second earlier on this?”

In those typically tiny interactions, there’s so much more stress. If they’d been playing for two years, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

That’s a thing that can be overlooked, and I’m guessing most coaches in the country figured out at some point in their season that players should take a deep breath and get on the same page with one another.

- You're here in New York City because Cully MacPherson, one of your recruited athletes, plays for the Brooklyn Hustle. What’s your impression of the hurdles New Yorkers face to play water polo?

If the problem is pool space—and I’m not super familiar with the number of pools in the area—the fact of the matter is it’s an alarmingly fun sport. People tend not to leave it once they start it. We just have to figure out how to market the thing.

It’s a common problem in cities across the country [is] : finding pool space and figuring out a way to get kids. How many times do you do bring a friend for free, or set up a splashball session? Set it up under the guise of water safety. Every coach gets in the pool with those squishy Kap7 balls and every kid has a blast!

Also, why can’t eggbeater be a part of water safety classes? People in these buildings that go to basketball courts or soccer fields and do amazing things with the ball. The only thing stopping them from doing it in a pool is eggbeater kick. When you’re learning to keep your head above water, for me the easiest thing to do is eggbeater kick.

I’ve been thinking about this the last couple of years. Trying to teach water safety to people in underserved areas, if we can add eggbeater kick to a water safety program, water polo’s got a big win there.

- Part of the problem is that kids in NYC don’t realize they can play past high school…

There’s certainly a goal to grow this sport collegiately, probably in the next ten years we’re looking to add a dozen or more programs. There is an opportunity to play at the next level, and I can tell you from my experience, every level of athlete has a place in college water polo, either club or varsity.

You can figure out a way to fit this into your academic life, and I can tell you that if you do choose to include athletics or water polo in your life, you’re more prepared when you walk across a stage and get that diploma. You don’t have to ask yourself: What now?

If you’re used to planning your day, planning your time because you have to go to practice, film, study group, group project, weights, go hang with teammates and get coffee, that’s a full day. That’s a full day not planned by mom or dad, it was planned by you because you want to live a full life including extracurricular activities. These activities involve a team. Well, then you have to not let your teammates down. There is a place in every society for someone that makes the team better.

That’s the answer to what now.