A Santa Cruz player forces her Davis opponent to quickly pass the ball. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Eyes on the prize; Santa Cruz finishes the weekend 3-1 to tie Berkeley and Davis for first. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Last weekend, UC Santa Cruz was host to a series of club-league women’s water polo games as the Slugs were sent to do battle with several teams, including rivals UC Davis and UC Berkeley.

UCSC opened the weekend with a tough loss against the Davis A team 8-5, a team that UCSC head coach Brian Fischl considers to be a big opponent.

“They’re our biggest rival, definitely one of the better teams here today along with Cal Berkeley,” Fischl said.

Team president Nila Ward was hopeful that the weekend was not lost.

“It was pretty rough — we were really amped for that game because we were basically playing for the first-place seed, which I think we can still end up with by the end of this weekend,” Ward said.

The team bounced back with a commanding victory over Davis’s B team 16-5 later in the day.

“This last game was really great, we got all of our players in — it was an easier team though, too,” sophomore Laura Rudolph said. “A lot of different people scored goals, and it gave us a chance to work on our plays and get our shots in.”

However, Rudolph knew that the team shouldn’t become overconfident.

“You never know how the game is going to be. You’ve just got to go in and play your hardest, and have to work for it,” Rudolph said. “We can’t get cocky.”

The team continued its dominating streak into Sunday, defeating both CSU Maritime and CSU Fresno handily by scores of 14-1 and 13-2 respectively. Overall, UCSC finished tied for first with UC Berkeley and UC Davis, a result that didn’t surprise many considering that the women’s water polo team used to be an National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III team on campus, but was cut by the athletic department due to budget constraints.

Head coach Fischl, who played for the men’s water polo team for three years before it was cut, says the difference in play between NCAA and club level can easily be distinguished.

“It’s almost a night-and-day difference between the game, the speed, the pace, the overall competitiveness of it — at the club level [it’s] a lot less significant,” Fischl said. “At the NCAA level every team is looking to win. It’s serious.”

Senior Kelley Gentry has seen the team play at both levels and also noted the differences.

“It’s a lot different — we’re student-run now, we organize all the tournaments and all the games, and the level of play is so different,” Gentry said. “There are a lot of dirty moves in the water that you wouldn’t normally see as much at the NCAA level.”

Gentry also said that there are certain expectations that come with being a former NCAA team.

“I feel like a lot of teams are really gunning for us because we’re ex-varsity — we kind of walk around and wonder ‘Why does everybody hate us?’” Gentry said, and laughed.

The team members are looking to push themselves with their next games, taking place at a tournament at the University of Pacific (UOP). Fischl looks forward to seeing his team be challenged by the NCAA teams.

“We are going to go play a couple of NCAA teams at UOP in two weeks,” Fischl said, “which will give us a taste of what it’s like to play a more competitive team, because despite us being a club team we’re still good enough to be a Division III team.”

Meanwhile, Gentry believes the team has what it takes to continue their winning ways.

“We have a talented team, and it’s nice to think that we’re number one, but we do have to keep working at it,” she said. “But I absolutely believe that we’ll be number one by season’s end.”

UCSC water polo coach, Alan Cima. Photo by Rosario Serna.

Alan Cima has been the head coach of the UC Santa Cruz men’s water polo team and the co-head coach of the women’s team for the past nine years.

Despite his laid-back demeanor, a more careful look makes clear the strain Cima has endured, both personally and professionally, in the face of a dying UCSC water polo program. Though visibly agitated as he discussed OPERS management, Cima has worked hard to remain even-tempered and calm as he watches the program he loves fade away.

In his office, lined with the All-American certificates of past water polo players, Cima sat down with City on a Hill Press to discuss the negative consequences facing water polo and other UCSC athletics due to recent budget cuts.

City on a Hill Press: The pool has been in relatively bad condition all season, ending with its current closure. How has that affected the water polo teams?

Alan Cima: The pool deck is being rebuilt and the pool is being resurfaced, [but] that doesn’t really affect us that badly. Originally, the closing of the pool was supposed to happen earlier, so we couldn’t schedule any home games during that time.

And then with the program being dropped, we had no program during the normal scheduling season. We had to try and fit games into the schedules that all the other teams already had. Most people were more open to playing a second game only if we traveled to their home pool. Usually we have more teams that want to come here, but because of the scheduling timing it wasn’t true this year.

CHP: How does the current water polo program compare to the one you saw when you first started at UCSC nine years ago?

AC: Well, the water polo program has gone through three or four coaches in two or three years. Overall, the program from then till now has better athletes, more fit and more disciplined practices and certainly more success.

CHP: It seems that in the last couple of years the water polo program has been in danger of getting cut. How have the current budget cuts been directly affecting the water polo teams and coaches at UCSC?

AC: In terms of last year’s budget cuts, that is when OPERS management decided that they needed to cut the water polo program, but then it was reinstated for one year, which is this season. Clearly the budget cuts are impacting the whole OPERS department and so it’s impacted water polo in sort of a major way, with them eventually deciding to drop it.

CHP: Do you think that the cutting of water polo was mainly a question of money?

AC: Realistically, the year I got here water polo hardly got any money from the university anyway, though it’s improved through the years. After the announcement of the dropping of the program last year we raised about $75,000. When the reinstatement for one season was announced, we asked the donors if they still wanted to continue to donate. We ended up giving back about $20,000 because, as one donor put it, “Who wants to donate to a funeral?” In 10 years as a varsity program water polo has raised more than $400,000 in donations.

CHP: Through what outlets does the water polo program get most of these donations?

AC: Supporters in general. Alumni, parents who are part of the unofficial parent group, people that have played against us in years past. It varies.”

CHP: What is the reason behind OPERS management effectively ending the program from here on out?

AC: They’ve switched their story from ‘cost-cutting’ to ‘lack of infrastructure,’ which has yet to be defined. The parent group offered to raise money — $25,000 per year — to give to the athletics department to help pay for infrastructure for all sports, but that was refused.

CHP: What has been the response from other water polo programs, players and coaches regarding the end of UCSC water polo?

AC: Water polo in California is pretty big, but outside the state not so much. All the other UCs were worried, such as Cal and UCLA, to name a few.

CHP: What does the future for the UCSC men’s and women’s water polo programs look like?

AC: At this point, it looks fairly negative because they’re dropping the program. It was a decision that was made with inaccurate information.

CHP: What would your argument be to get OPERS management to bring UCSC water polo back?

AC: Well I think that if they look at California and serving the students that are here and the students coming up through high school, I think they’ll discover that they should bring back water polo because it’s sort of part of the mission of the UC. That mission has traditionally been to provide education, leadership and athletic opportunities to students. There are several hundred students that are here that want to play and every year there are 20,000 students who graduate high school in California that want to play.

The administration refused to allow the water polo team to continue, despite the fact that the team raised $400,000 in donations to fund the sport. On May 30 of last year, the team learned of the university’s proposal to cut their program and proceeded to raise pledge support. Now that the support and pledges are here, the university continues to turn its head away from reinstating the team for another year. 

It is vital that alternate forms of income are considered when UCSC is in such severe economic distress. Student organizations that are willing and able to provide for themselves should be allowed to do so, regardless of the inconvenience it places upon the administration as far as paperwork and processing. 

This, however, is not to suggest approval of privatization. To our dismay, Chancellor George Blumenthal said in a press conference with student media last week that “Private money is key to the future of our campus.”

This is not and should not be the case. The university is a public institution. The very name of the school speaks to the notion that it is an institution founded on deprivatization, not the reverse. The University of California is not a private university. 

We are asking the university to consider private donations when it comes to student life programs — such as water polo, club activities or Engaging Education (e2) — regardless of the fact that donors are willing, even in tough times, to preserve programs that give the university vibrancy, diversity, and life. 

We do not want private interests to encroach on our academic departments, where the disparity between certain divisions, such as the sciences, and others, such as the arts, is often in favor of the former. 

Ideally, we would live in a country and state where the funding for public education receives more than the measley 3.7 percent of the California budget that goes to the entire University of California system. 

But the reality is that we don’t. 

Our school and its programs need as much help as they can get. In the case of water polo, where the funds are there, it is laughable and tragic that our university’s administration would refuse money raised voluntarily by the team and its supporters for reasons that seem to be very unclear and inexplicable.

To propose that a team be cut entirely while the economy is low, or to imply that a public institution begin to lean excessively on privatization, reflects the inability of the administrators at UCSC to look to the long term. 

The economy in this country fluctuates. The economy has its ups and downs. And just as the bubbles of economic excellence burst when they float too high, so do the suds of the economic lows float upward once again.

This economic downturn will not last forever, so we should not implement permanent measures to privatize and alter the very core of its existence; nor, however, should the administration fail to recognize and accept alternate modes of monetary assistance to its programs, such as water polo, that are already saturated in promise and success.

Photo by Catie Havstad.

Jennifer Gunnell doesn’t know how much longer she can tread water.  

It’s 6 a.m. when the UC Santa Cruz women’s water polo team jumps in the pool to train, hoping that winning a championship could save their sport.  

Players say they cannot bear to look at each other with the thought that this could be their last practice, as the loss of their program seems immenent. 

“It’s more than nationals; it’s trying to save water polo,” said freshman Jennifer Gunnell, a defensive and offensive player who decided to attend UC Santa Cruz because of the water polo program. “They can’t cut champions.”

During the end-of-year athletics barbecue last year, water polo coaches Alan Cima and Danielle Mulford were told by administrative athletic officials, Linda Spradley and Ryan Andrews, that the UCSC athletic department was dropping the water polo program. 

Cima said the reason he was given for the cuts was that the athletics department had to implement the budget cuts by cutting a team. In response, water polo parents presented a written proposal, which promised $320,000 to financially support the program over the next four years. 

However, Spradley and Andrews rejected the proposal, dubbing the donation “soft money.”  The concern was that after students leave and graduate, funds from parents would no longer be available. 

Because so many freshmen committed to the university to play water polo, the administration reinstated the sport for one year. According to Spradley, this was to give athletes time to transfer if they wanted to continue playing intercollegiate water polo at a different school.

But Gunnell, who was aware of the cut and yearly reinstatement when she committed to UCSC, hoped the university would accept her sport’s contributions before the season was up, and revise their decision to cut the program. 

“[The freshmen] knew that UCSC was the place we wanted to go and we would take the risk,” Gunnell said on her way to the Western Water Polo Association (WWAP) Division III national championship. “I was ready to fight for this team because I knew this was the fit for me and playing for anyone else wouldn’t be the same as playing for UCSC.”

Gunnell, whose lowest grade to date in college has been a B, could have attended any UC or upper-echelon college but was drawn to UCSC by the water polo program.  She doesn’t regret her decision, though, due to the connections she made with the players and coaches on the team at UCSC.

If the sport is no longer offered at the intercollegiate level, UCSC will be the only UC that doesn’t offer intercollegiate water polo. Gunnell is staying optimistic, but fears for the future of water polo at UCSC. 

“One [more] year isn’t enough,” she said. “If water polo gets officially cut, we’re out of here.” 

Like fish out of water: The men’s and women's water polo teams have found themselves without a program to call home. Photo by Catie Havstad.

Funding an Intercollegiate Team

It wasn’t until after the parent group offered to set up a long-term fund that decision-makers brought up other reasons for cutting the program, Cima said. 

Aside from a lack of administrative staff and no institutional support, Spradley said the decision was based on the absence of an individual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) DIII title and less expansion of the sport on the DIII level, as well as other reasons. 

 “We had to cut them, we had to,” Spradley said, raising her voice defensively. 

Unlike most other schools, UCSC’s athletics and OPERS programs are combined. As the executive director of OPERS, Ryan Andrews has the ability to make decisions that affect the athletic department. 

“The decision to cut a sport was purely financial and predicated on the fact that we were facing budget cuts,” Andrews said. “The other factors were only considered when trying to decide which sport to cut.”

After the news about the cuts broke, Mike Huff, father of second-year Connor Huff, and other water polo players’ parents organized to raise funds.  

Huff, who has worked for UC Berkeley’s athletics department for 30 years as an operations and maintenance manager, knew that Princeton University’s DI water polo team once faced cuts and now operates as a fully self-funded team.

“If the university were to allow [water] polo to exist, the team would be able to fund the operational costs or a part-time person to help with infrastructure issues,” Huff said. 

“Infrastructure” refers to the administrative staff members within the athletic department. As budget cuts continue to take effect, administrative staff positions are the first to go. Recently, the department has just dropped the position of Sports Information Director.   

Huff also authored a written proposal that offered to establish a “Friends of UC Santa Cruz Water Polo” fund similar to one that UC Berkeley uses to support its aquatic program.   

The proposal offers to pay $80,000 each year for the next four years totaling up to $320,000.

In a press conference held with student media last week, Chancellor George Blumenthal said looking for outside donors is a way to fight off budget cuts.

“Private money is key to the future of our campus … we’re in a financial crisis,” he said.  

However, Spradley said she rejected the proposal because the money is not guaranteed to be there in four years, when the students whose parents started the fund will most likely graduate. 

Spradley said that all other intercollegiate sports on campus are required to raise 50 to 60 percent of their budget. However, she did not distinguish the difference between the fundraised money coming from other NCAA sports, which is also not guaranteed to be there in the long term, and the “soft money” coming from water polo.  

Andrews said that all NCAA sports have some institutional support. 

“NCAA teams represent the university and therefore should receive funding (in part or full),” Andrews said in an e-mail addressed to senior water polo player Heather Stewart. “That has been the distinction at UCSC between a club sport and an NCAA sport. To have a team be 100 percent fundraised is setting a precedent I do not want to create.”

Unfortunately, playing for a club team isn’t an option for many intercollegiate water polo players after playing two years of NCAA water polo.

“All the girls who have played [intercollegiate water polo] for two years can’t even play club,” Gunnell said. “The boys’ team asked that water polo be an exception, but the committee [who regulates club sports] said no.”

Stewart was the first to question the cuts last August when she heard that both Spradley and Andrews did not accept financial support to keep the program.

In the e-mail, Andrews went on to explain that allowing an NCAA team to be 100 percent self-funded would “blur the lines between club sports” and intercollegiate sports. He also said that giving an NCAA team the chance to be fully self-funded would create expectations from club sports also seeking NCAA status. 

The NCAA did not reply to confirm whether or not institutional funding is a requirement of their organization. On its Web site, there is no implicit mention of institutional funding as a requirement. 

“Typically, what it means to be an NCAA sport is that the school wants you as a program,” Andrews said regarding institutional support as a definitive aspect of NCAA sports. “To me it’s a requirement. I’m not sure if it is [for] the NCAA. I don’t know what they require.” 

More Money, More Problems

Coach Alan Cima said in the 10 years water polo has been at the university, the team has raised more than $400,000, mostly from parents and fundraisers.

“The year I got here water polo hardly got any money through the university, anyway,” Cima said. “Though it’s improved through the years. After the announcement of the dropping of the program last year we raised about $75,000. We [ended up] giving back about $20,000, because as one donor put it, ‘Who wants to donate to a funeral?’”

Even water polo Olympian Natalie Golda offered support in order to keep the program alive at the intercollegiate level. 

Golda, a three-time NCAA national water polo champion and two-time Olympian, is a product of UC water polo. Golda sent a letter to the chancellor asking the university to reconsider the decision to cut water polo. 

Andrews said in an e-mail, “Although I appreciate and applaud the community rallying behind water polo and agreeing to provide funds, this is only a short-term solution.” 

Spradley said that some teams occasionally fall short in fundraising and that the athletics department is left with a deficit. As of last year, the department is $85,000 in debt.    

“The teams that I have can’t even raise their own money,” Spradley said.  “And if they don’t, it comes back on athletics.”

Most of the NCAA sports have accumulated a debt over the years. Coach Cima said if the deficit for polo is an issue, then they should keep the program and request that the sport clear the deficit.    

“We were told that the accumulated loss did not matter,” Cima said. “If there is an issue, then they should just say that water polo has to clear that deficit to continue, like they did with Shakespeare Santa Cruz.”

The slugs stay competitive with an opposing NCAA team during a six-on-five play. Players say they will not give up the fight, and continue to push for water polo to remain an NCAA intercollegiate program at UCSC. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Two weeks ago, the women’s water polo team competed in the WWPA DIII Championships, where they placed third after being ranked seventh. 

WWPA is a NCAA DI water polo conference featuring 14 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams. Each year the WWPA hosts a championship for men in November and women in April. 

Heather Stewart earned an honorable mention this season. Her reasons for wanting first place went much further than glory. 

“We thought if we got first, how could they cut us?” Stewart said.

Placing first in the conference, which is different than placing first in the division, would have advanced the team to the NCAA DI, DII, DIII national meet in Maryland. 

Linda Spradley said the decision to cut water polo was partly because the sport does not have its own DIII national championship, which she thinks is necessary for recruiting purposes.  

“It’s not Div. III, it’s Div. I, II, III all together,” Spradley said. “Do you really think that a DIII is going to qualify for DI, DII national championship?” 

But Coach Cima said the combined championship has helped with recruiting, regardless of a title. 

“Players know that if they play for UCSC they will have the opportunity to play against all of the best teams in the country, not just those in a certain division,” Cima said. “I can’t tell you how many letters I’ve received from student athletes saying, ‘I saw your game against USC.’”

A Growing Sport 

Though invented outside of the U.S., water polo has been growing in popularity in the States — especially in California. Every water polo NCAA champion has been a Californian college, and no non-Californian college has ever made the finals.

According to Cima, there are 20,000 Californians who graduate high school wanting to play collegiate water polo.

One of the reasons Spradley gave for cutting the water polo program was that the sport is not growing at an intercollegiate DIII level. She said that last year there were only 15 DIII men’s teams and this year there are only 14 men’s teams.  She also said that the amount of women’s DIII water polo teams has gone from 19 to 18. 

But Cima feels this factor is irrelevant when used to decide which sport to cut.

“There are nine NCAA teams within 100 miles of Santa Cruz that want to schedule UCSC and play us,” he said. “I think that compares favorably with any other sport that UCSC sponsors.” 

What the future holds is still uncertain and despite news of demise, the team will keep fighting to protect what means the most to them. 

As Stewart prepares to graduate in the spring, she can’t help but get emotional.

“I look at my teammates and I don’t want the administration to deny them their right to play,” she said. “Water polo is one of the best things that happened to me at UCSC, hands down.”