Team shows 'club' title doesn't matter

The IU club men’s water polo team has a winning attitude – and tendency – whenever it takes to the pool.

The men finished first in the 16th annual Dogwood Invitational at the University of Tennessee on April 18 and 19, beating Auburn, Virginia, Central Ohio and then Illinois in the championship game. The team won the tournament for the first time since 2002.

“We really played a great tournament and came back from down 6-1 in the third quarter to beat Virginia, which was one of the greatest games I have been a part of in my three-year career here at IU,” said junior Conner Keefe, club president, in an e-mail.

Goalie Evan Burns received the tournament MVP award, blocking three penalty shots in the final game.

The team will not play again until its fall tournament at the end of August.

During the offseason, the team members are encouraged to do weight training and keep active as well as take part in hometown water polo programs.

As a club sport, members said they do not have to make as much of a commitment to water polo, which works out well for most of them.

“Club sports are not as intense as a varsity sport,” Keefe said. “They’re a little more laid-back, we practice a bit less, we do a lot of traveling, though, that a lot of Division I athletes get to do.”

The varsity women’s water polo team often helps the club team, and vice versa.

“When we have our home tournament, they help run the shot clock, scoreboard and help run concessions, and then we reciprocate,” Keefe said.

While the teams are helping each other out and even playing host to some tournaments, they still have a great time.

“The best experience I have had has been hosting the Big Ten Championships this past fall,” junior and next year’s treasurer Andrew Shepard said.

Even with the team being a club sport, there is plenty of room for great games and fond memories, team members said.

Brian Luth, the team’s current treasurer and a senior at IU, has been playing water polo all four years.

Luth said he remembers games back to his sophomore year where they defeated rival teams, such as Purdue, multiple times through sudden-death matches.

“It was very satisfying to demoralize Purdue in this way,” Luth said.

Because of the long history of the team as a club and the structure of the Big Ten, it seems the men’s water polo team will remain a club for the years to come.

“We’ve done club for a pretty long time now – about 20 years,” Keefe said. “It’s pretty much set in stone. Every other team in the Big Ten is club for men’s water polo.”

There are always going to be both pros and cons to making the leap from club to varsity level, but the players seem to place more weight on the positive side of being a club.  

“I like that water polo is a club sport,” Shepard said. “It allows us to stay competitive in a sport we love without the commitment of a varsity sport.”

With no near hopes of changing, the players find the love of the game more important than the title a team is given.

“With it being a club sport, we have more flexibility as a team to change practice, go to new tournaments, have a more relaxed atmosphere and just enjoy playing the game,” Luth said.