CWPA Releases 2012 Women's Collegiate Club Northwest Division Schedule

The Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) has released the schedule of games for the 2012 Women's National Collegiate Club Northwest Division.

Comprised of Central Washington University, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Seattle University, University of Oregon "A", University of Oregon "B", University of Portland, University of Washington and Western Washington University, the division will feature two regular season tournaments prior to the division championship event on April 14-15 at Central Washington.

Competition begins on February 11-12 at Woodburn Aquatic Center in Woodburn, Ore. as the teams will clash in an 18-game tournament before the regular season concludes on March 3-4 at Central Washington in Ellensburg, Wash. with another 18-game event.

The regular season competition will set the field for the division championship as the teams will converge on Central Washington a month later for a 15-game tournament to determine which program advances to the National Collegiate Club Championship tournament at Florida State University on May 4-6 in Tallahassee, Fla.

In the history of the division, Oregon has been the dominant force recently by capturing seven consecutive championships (2005-to-2011) and eight-of-14 crowns since the division began in 1998. Overall, only three teams have captured a Northwest Division title as Washington (1998-to-2001, 2003) and former club program Simon Fraser University (2004) join the Ducks of Oregon with championship plaques. In addition, four programs have reached the division title game as Oregon (2001, 2002, 2005-to-2011), Washington (1998-to-2009), Simon Fraser (1998, 1999, 2003, 2004) and Oregon State (2000, 2010, 2011) have combined for the 28 championship game berths.

For detailed game schedules, click here.

Tony Azevedo Offers Clinic in Tacoma

Tacoma’s Puget Sound Polo Club will host Tony Azevedo’s Water Polo Clinic on Sunday, January 29, at Curtis High School, in University Place. The clinic will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and costs $150. It is available to both male and female high school athletes.

Azevedo is regarded as the top water polo player in the world. He has been a member of Team USA since he was 18 years old and was a member of Olympic Teams in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). Tony will appear in his fourth Olympics this summer at the London Games. A four-time collegiate player of the year (2001-04), he set the school-record for scoring as a Stanford Cardinal with 332 goals. While still in college, Men's Journal named Tony the world's seventh-best athlete in 2003. Since graduating from Stanford, he has been named the U.S. Olympic Committee's Player of the Year three times and is currently playing professional water polo in Montenegro.

Also appearing with Azevedo will be Jake Kinne, a native Oregonian who played collegiate water polo at Long Beach State, and professionally in Europe. Kinne now coaches high school water polo in Oregon.

This is a great opportunity for high school athletes to train with and learn from two of the best water polo players in the world. Clinics like this are rarely available in the area, and usually require the time and expense of traveling to California.