The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
April 24, 2011
We buy memberships like the rest of the USPA, but it ends there often. Very few Americans get to play the high goal as it is and the West, well they are far away from the bests Polo anyway, so it must be that they should stay away. That is just the way it is. I do not blame it all on the Handicap Committee, but a lot of it falls into their lap. The few American high goaler’s rarely help either. If they are looking for a low goal player they turn away from the locals. It will continue as in the system of 2011 it seems all young players with potential are being raised here and the East Coast is getting a pass. WHY ?
Well here is my opinion. I side with the way it is laid out for the Handicap Committee formula. The locals rate most of the players, at least up to 4 goals so the National reps rarely see any of the West Coast kids even play. A few National people here and I mean a few like maybe like 3, but I doubt that many never see East coast Kids either. So how are they to judge? It is not their job really. They are more for 4 and above the way I understand it. For sure here on the West Coast and in the East, a 0 goal 18-year old with a little talent is going to smoke a 50 year old desk man most of the time. So do we punish him in the middle of the year and eliminate any chance of him or her gaining the needed momentum to reach new heights? I understand the older players attitude why is he still one goal or 0? Well it really should be. What are you or me if we cannot keep up because next year there will be another young gun coming.
In Florida it is not the average weekend warrior voting. It are the people who played polo or who are playing the big polo now doing the handicapping. There is a difference. To me the cure would be, as Dale Smicklas said ” lets have U.S. Games like all under 22 1 to 3 goal players who want to compete meet for a tournament then handicap them and in the mean time find American talent to put on U.S. teams. This also could be done at 4- to 6-goal level. There will not be many, but maybe we can have two teams under 30.
I find the new U.S. Team idea helping for sure, but it is still very limited. If the USPA wants to grow they need youth and power and this will be a start. I know for a fact it is never done to take the best to the FIP. We either could not get the people because of jobs or politics or help from the org. We went to Australia and had 5 people because we had no funds to get to Semis and have no alternate. Carlos Arellano’s kneecap tore back but our alt. was a 2 goal player, so Carlos bit the bullet and played, but it was not fair for him as you may know it hurts and they have medical rules in FIP. France was the same. Joe Barry got clocked in the first game and we are out of it because of his injury. We never were financially able to get the best team and we raised money ourselves to help players that did go. Mexico was a joke. The East Coast picked players and we offered to challenge them with a West coast team and they would not do it or let us try. The result … they never won a chukkar.
The West Coast has been shooting itself in the foot for a long time. That’s why Kelly Beal, Hector Galindo, Jeff Hall left the West Coast. The first two players noted are from Texas, but played on the West Coast and then left. Jeff Hall moved to Texas. Now we have lost The Mannix’s, Fred and Julian. We’ve also lost Bob and Robert Jornayvaz. They are doing fine in Florida Polo and will not come back, unless Al Haagen turns CA Polo around, which he is trying to do. It was a definite move forward this year for West Coast polo as Empire could become the Empire out West and across the nation.
If these kids get hammered now in the handicap system they will stop and soon know they need another life. In some ways that is good because there are better lives, but like all sports some have dreams and in most sports. You get a little room in Polo and you get a little time. For these kids it will be very a very short time. First the demand is low and second if you are overrated in comparison you are overrated period. And someone else will get the job. Why do you think there are no Americans on Open teams?
Handicaps and experience why? Our boys and girls never get on the field! You can learn from a video, but it is only a small amount of help if you do not feel it and experience it. The American rule will help, if we stand behind it, which is doubtful with all the politics involved. I often hear they will leave. Let them go out to the ranch and see how long before they miss Sunday 3 PM at IPC or Empire or Eldorado. It won’t be long I bet. Others say they will go to Argentina or somewhere else. Fine. They will save a lot of money on Pros, but it will never be the same and it costs money to travel. How many families or friends will fly down to see you where you are just a wealthy foreigner? Arms will welcome and be raised for you, but doors will be closed when they know it just for Polo season and it will not be Palm Beach or California at that time of the year. They have their own season and you will not be invited without a big fat checkbook and farm Polo will be it.
My opinion and we all have one, hire Dale Smicklas to run USPA. I do not care who is President ,V.P. or Gov. they do not get paid so they are never going to see it as a job, so they can still take the credit. Reporters and glory just bring U.S. POLO BACK. It would be nice to see something made in the USA where is Adolphus Busch?
See ya.
Please give an example of a ‘young 18 yo’ west coaster who is over-rated as compared to his east coast peers? I have played w/ and against a few very talented west coast kids, and their ratings was less than mine. Perhaps I’m overrated?
tds,
I believe what Steve is referring to is that most if not all the handicaps that a player receives on most of the “east coast” are based on what those doing the handicapping see in Florida in the winter. Those handicaps are based on high goal polo played there in the winter. When that same philosphy is applied to players on the “west coast” it is entirely possible that we are simply not comparing an “apple to an apple”. It sure would be nice to have someone on the handicap committee, or even the Executive Director who is based in Florida and spends quite a bit of time up and down the east coast would actually take the time to travel to the “west coast” and go to as many clubs as possible and handicap players based on the “east coast” so that they might actually have a chance to compete given the opportunity. Its also possible to create a “west coast” handicap as well as an “east coast” handicap so that for “west coast” tournaments a player could have a high enough handicap level for the various tournaments they play yet at the same time give those same players an “east coast” handicap in the event that they have an opportunity to play in the east. Yes, it would take time and creativity but why wouldn’t someone from the “east coast” and a part of the USPA actually make it happen? That I will leave alone…
If I am not mistaken, the chairman of the national handicapping committee is from California and plays there. So the issue isn’t really about apples to apples or the national guys not seeing enough West Coast players, I don’t think. The issue Steve seems to be raising, at least to begin with – sometimes hard to follow the trail – is that the young players on the West Coast are being raised and the young players on the East Coast are not.
I was in both places this winter, although I spent far more time in Florida than California. There were a couple of young players, Jared Sheldon and Wiley and Hank Uretz come immediately to mind, who played very well and seemed to be the difference makers on a lot of teams. I would have to look but I am guessing those boys were raised.
On the other hand, you had A LOT of young 1 -3 goal talent in Florida, players like Mason Wroe, Matt Coppola, Wes Finlayson and Steve Krueger among others. A few of them were raised I think but on a percentage basis, probably not as many.
Steve is correct this is not a national handicapping issue. Until you get up to 4 or even 5 goals or start playing a lot outside your circuit, your handicap is really determined by your club delegate and circuit handicap chairman. Those are the people who see you play – at least they should. And at that level, you are handicapped relative to your competition. If the boys on the West Coast are that much better than the players around them, then their handicap should go up.
It does not matter what their handicap is compared to someone on the East Coast if they never play on the East Coast. The handicap is relative to the players on the field with you, or likely to be on the field with you. The players in Florida play against much more talent than the West Coast (sorry but it is a fact) and therefore you would expect their handicaps to be held down more. Relative to the other people on the field with them, they just aren’t as good.
I don’ think this is a USPA issue. I think it is a question of how competitive is the West Coast? Which is exactly where I think Steve ended up in the end himself. Why have all the better players and sponsors left?
Remember, people get what they settle for. The only people in polo who can change anything is the people who write the checks. You can make all the rules you want, form committees and change leadership and none of it will make a bit of difference. The only way something changes is if enough people writing checks decide that it should. That is how free markets work.
And BTW, related to TDS’ comment, I don’t know you so I have no idea if you are overrated or not but I would say that many sponsor players are. It is either an ego thing, a money thing (-1 can’t play in as many tournaments), or a club delegate stroking a sponsor. And I can say that because at the moment I am probably overrated as well. But most sponsors writing big checks don’t want to be a -1.
After thinking about this for a few weeks, and reviewing Team USPA roster, I came to a similar conculsion as KS. In general, there are kids from the east playing 20 goal polo, and kids from the west are playing 8 goal polo, with the west kids carrying a higher handicap. I’d assume that for the TEAM USPA kids, this will all work out in the wash, and the west kids handicaps should be recalibrated. Crowder’s main thesis was so poorly developed, I just didn’t get where he was coming from.
I suspect DAS has a point as well. I will acknowledge that USPA has done a decent job of dispatching folks to our area for helping w/ club development, and “pressing the flesh”. We’ve had a representative every year the past 5 years or so. But of course, these visits are not providing opportunities for comprehensive review of handicaps.
My experience may not be representative of all the west coast kids.