Rice University Water Polo Club

The Rice University Men's and Women's Water Polo Teams are student run club programs who compete in the highly competitive Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA). The teams are funded in part by the university's club sports foundation, as well as through individual dues, team fundraisers and private donations.

As part of the CWPA Texas Division, Rice University competes against other regional club teams including:

• University of Texas - Austin
• Texas A&M University
• Baylor University
• Trinity University
• University of Houston
• Texas State University
• Texas Tech University

In addition to a series of regional tournaments in Texas, Rice travels to invitational tournaments throughout the U.S. as well as the opportunity to represent the Texas Division in the CWPA National Collegiate Club Championships each year.

Since Rice Water Polo is club sport, we do not compete as a Division I Varsity program nor do we offer athletic scholarships of any kind.

Rice Water Polo was founded by students in 1998 and has quickly developed as one of the top club programs in the Texas Division. Since 2001, Rice has produced thirteen CWPA All-Conference players, two Player of the Year recipients and three CWPA All-American. Previous All-Conference players include:

Molly Heinz	Mike Bader
Millie Marmer	Aaron Hammer (CWPA All-American '03)
Kelly Benedict (2003 Player of the Year)	Russ Carrington
Jeannie Malanowski	Garrick Malone
Alex Woodruff (2004 Player of the Year and CWPA All-American '04,'05)	Chris Ottolino
Emily Spears	Dave Lynch
Julia Follick	Dean Burke
Jess Schumer (CWPA All-American '05)	Nick Hambley
Laura Timmerman	Luke Gilman
Jennifer Morton

The water polo teams at Rice have players with various levels of experience from novice to national caliber athletes. No experience is necessary and the team does not cut any athletes interested in playing, however a strong swimming background is highly encouraged.

Each season lasts approximately 3 months. The Men's team will play from late August through early November while the Women's team will play from late February through early May.

Practices are typically held 4 days per week, with evening practices falling on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and afternoon scrimmages on Sundays (Practice Schedule). Tournaments are held on weekends and some entail traveling on Friday afternoon with a return on Sunday evening.

Academics at Rice University are always priority number 1 and Rice Water Polo prides itself in having not only one of the most successful sports teams on campus but also in maintaining one of the highest team GPA's. Rice University has produced over 30 CWPA All-Academic honorees and both the Men's and Women's teams are consistently one of the highest CWPA All-Academic Teams in the nation.

If you have any questions about the program or would like to schedule a visit please contact our head coach or one of our club presidents (Contacts).