Ramsey raves historic move

HUNTINGTON BEACH — When Chris Ramsey moved his family to Newport Coast from Greenwich, Conn. last year he definitely had the right idea.

That’s because he knew USA Water Polo was moving, too, ready to make history.

It took a year, but Wednesday, USA Water Polo formally announced that it will base operations in Huntington Beach, marking the first time in the history of the Olympic movement that a U.S. Olympic National Governing Body will locate its national headquarters in California. USA Water Polo was previously in Colorado Springs, home of the United States Olympic Committee.

“There is a wealth of water polo knowledge and tradition in California,” said Ramsey, the chief executive officer of USA Water Polo. “We wanted to be more directly connected to the bulk of our membership, and we wanted to develop ways to enlist their knowledge and skills to help build our sport in other part of the country.

With Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook at his side and national team captains Tony Azevedo and Brenda Villa sitting close by at Duke’s restaurant in Huntington Beach, Ramsey explained the cool feel for USA Water Polo as well as the logistics.

“The water polo culture has a lot of that beach flavor to it,” Ramsey said. “The relationship made sense.”

The move puts USA Water Polo in closer proximity to its national team operations in Los Alamitos and Thousand Oaks.

Azevedo and the rest of the men’s national team is training in Thousand Oaks. The men’s national team includes former Corona del Mar High star John Mann, as well as former UC Irvine standouts Dreason Barry, Genai Kerr, Rick Merlo and Jeff Powers.

USA Water Polo will formally name its Olympic teams for 2008 in June. Both men’s and women’s teams have already secured Olympic berths.

Prior to the Olympic Games, USA Water Polo will host the S&R Sport Junior Olympics in Irvine, California, in what has become the world’s largest water polo tournament.

— Steve Virgen