Covid has had profound effects on water polo as it is practiced throughout the United States. This conversation is hopefully the first of several in which we discuss exactly how the pandemic has altered high school and club programs in a variety of states and localities. Brian Flacks is a now well-known name in the industry having coached at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, in addition to founding on of the nation's most successful clubs, LA Premier. Paul Splitt is a multiple-time state high school championship coach who currently heads up the program at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnatti, Ohio. He is also a founding member of Moose Water Polo (best club name in the US?), and leads the Youth boys ODP team for the Great Lakes Zone. In a frank discussion of how the pandemic has hit their programs we talk about the vast differences between Ohio and Southern California, and delve in to observations of how demoralizing it is for athletes to be limited by the various restrictions in place.

Today one of the most accomplished water polo athletes in US history: a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Cutino award winner while starring for National Champions Stanford, she recently took the reins at one of the most prestigious programs in the USA, Corona del Mar High School. It’s Melissa Seidemann who covers her prestigious career, the challenges of coaching a powerhouse high school team during a pandemic, and shares some frank memories of a generational shift within the US Women's Team after the London Olympics.

This week we feature Chris Oeding, who has quietly become one of the best coaches in the country. He’s currently an assistant on the USA Women’s Senior National Team, and is Head Coach at Long Beach City College, which he’s led to seven California state community college championships. At Corona del Mar High School he was CIF player of the year in 1988, then went on to win three NCAA Championships with the Cal Bears, plus a co-player of the year award. That led to a career with the USA Men’s National Team including two Olympic Games appearances: 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Melbourne. He spoke with Lala Kocsis via instagram back in May.

One of the USA's already-risen stars is from a small town in Central California. Loomis' Alex Obert never made an ODP travel team, and when he was first called up to the US Men's National Team upon the arrival of Head Coach Dejan Udovicic, it was his first ever time on any USA squad. We talk to him about his rise from relative obscurity to a starring role at the University of the Pacific, which lost in one of the most heartbreaking overtime NCAA championship matches ever in 2013. We go over that rough terrain, talk about getting on UoP's radar, and cover his pretty meteoric rise to both Olympian and European professional status. And for news on water polo in Texas be sure to subscribe to the TXWaterpolo Podcast ( https://www.txwaterpolo.com/category/podcast/ ) via most of the major distributors.

The title says it all. Michael Randazzo and James Smith spoke with two of the rising young coaching talents in the collegiate ranks. Austin Ringheim and Max Schlegel are both recent hires at MIT and Johns Hopkins. Their schools are among the most challenging in the US and are now even more so with the pandemic going on month seven. Schlegel and Ringheim talk about the difficulties faced by their student-athletes, give their best guesses about what comes next for their programs, and look back fondly on the year that was 2019, when both teams took part in the first ever Division III Championship Tournament in Whittier. Meanwhile, the first USA Water Polo competition since the spring is taking place in Central Texas. Take a listen to the latest TXWaterpolo Podcast ( https://www.txwaterpolo.com/2020/10/09/pod-more-central-texas-festival-thunders-fall-tourney-gold-coast-coach-tom-davis/ ) to hear how the event has shaped up, including the many Covid-19 related rules put in place by the hosts. And, just in case you were in the market for some Total Waterpolo gear, here you go ( https://rytesport.com/collections/twp-sports-llc ) (and thanks!).

On a day when another collegiate varsity program is cut we dive in to a more positive story. Alyssa Diacono was announced as head coach for the new program at Mt. St. Mary's in Maryland way back in pre-lockdown days. We speak with her about her new job and her time as an athlete in Australia and Malta. Then Lala Kocsis's conversation with Jessica Gaudreault from an interview they had back in June. The Canadian national team goalie talks about what's going on in Canadian water polo during the lockdown, and about her time in Bloomington playing for Indiana University. We will have more on La Salle's decision to cut men's varsity water polo in the coming days.

We've threatened to do it for too long. Now it's here. It's the first of hopefully many Total Waterpolo Podcasts. Today we feature two conversations. First, Total Waterpolo contributor Michael Randazzo speaks with Nioka and Nathan Thomas from Australia. Nioka will be the first non-American on the Anteater women's water polo squad. And her dad, two-time Olympian Nathan, joins the Zoom call to share his thoughts about his daughter's future in the States, his career with Barcelona as a professional, and his time atop the Australian water polo pipeline. Then, Preslav Djippov, who was recently hired to lead the new men's program at Westcliff University in Irvine, talks with James Smith about his Bulgarian background, making it to the USA, and of course, his job at the newest varsity water polo program in the nation.