2001-2002 Annual Meeting

Women’s Meeting

The meeting was held Friday, December 7, 2001

In attendance: Daniel Sharadin, Commissioner; Tom Tracey, Director of Officials; Mike McDowell, Director of Communication; Scott Reed, George Washington; Jim Floerchinger, Harvard; Amber Drury-Pinto, Michigan; Sandy Sheridan, Hartwick; Mike Maroney, Hartwick; Christine Honig, Marist; Jim Kelly, Wagner; Barry King, Indiana; Keith Bullion, Grove City; Carey Heckman, Dartmouth; Luis Nicolao, Princeton; Jim Yeamans, Slippery Rock; Josh Heynes, Penn State Behrend; Don Sherman, Gannon; Todd Clapper, Brown; John Zeigler, Bucknell; Carl Quigley, St. Francis; Derek Ellingson, Queens; Allyson Gillespie, Villanova; Joe Linehan, U. S. Merchant Marine Academy

The meeting began with a discussion of the various proposals.

Women’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 1
The Commissioner made a motion to limit the ability to change the women’s varsity schedule on odd numbered years and that any change proposed on even numbered years must first have the support of 75% of the coaches present and eligible to vote. Allyson Gillespie seconded. Motion passed.

Women’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 2
Michael Maroney withdrew this proposal.

Women’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 3
Michael Maroney made a motion to create a seeding committee that will seed all women’s championships. Allyson Gillespie seconded. Motion passed.

Women’s General Proposal 1
Michael Maroney made a motion that women’s coaches must submit tournament statistics when nominating a player for the All-Tournament Team at Eastern Championships and that fees be increased to pay for a staff member to collate these statistics during the event. Allyson Gillespie seconded. Motion failed.

Women’s General Proposal 2
Michael Maroney made a motion that would require members to sign a two-year commitment to the CWPA in order to vote at a CWPA meeting on women’s water polo issues. Allyson Gillespie seconded. Motion failed.

Women’s General Proposal 3
Michael Maroney made a motion that a poll committee is created for the purpose of conducting a weekly poll that includes additional teams receiving votes and the number of votes they received. This poll committee will also serve as the body responsible for seeding the women’s championship events. Todd Clapper seconded. Motion passed.

A motion was made by Mike Maroney to include the top ten teams in the weekly poll, with any additional teams receiving votes listed at the bottom in paragraph form, including their vote totals. John Zeigler seconded. Motion passed.

Women’s General Proposal 4

Michael Maroney made a motion that requires a one-year suspension for any CWPA team that qualifies for a post season championship as the CWPA representative and fails to attend. Jim Kelly seconded. Motion failed. By consensus the women’s coaches are not supporting the National Collegiate Select Championship as an event that will mandate participation by CWPA teams that qualify to go. While they believe it to be a worthwhile tournament, it should remain the individual institution’s right to decline without penalty.

New Business

Allyson Gillespie made a motion that the Eastern Championship field consist of the top five teams from the Northern Division and the top five teams from the Southern Division, as per their finish in each of their respective championships. The remaining two teams will be chosen At-large by the Poll Committee, who shall also seed the tournament. Seconded by Derek Ellingson. Motion passed.

The format for the tournament was discussed at length and it was determined that the twelve-team format currently used will serve as the approved version.
Discussion included the role and make-up of the Poll Committee.

Keith Bullion made a motion that the committee be comprised of two members from the northern region and two members from the southern region and the chair be from the region that won the prior season. Todd Clapper seconded. Motion failed.

Barry King made a motion that the committee is comprised of one individual from each region (NY, NE, MS, AL) and the chair be selected during the annual meeting by a vote of the eligible coaches. Allyson Seconded. Motion passed.

Joe Linehan was voted as the chair. The meeting then divided into regions and the coaches from each region selected the following individuals to the committee: John Zeigler, Amber Pinto, Mike Maroney, and Jim Floerchinger.

The five-member committee will have the following duties and will serve one-year terms:
* Rank the top 10 CWPA women’s teams each week
* Seed the Northern and Southern Division tournaments
* Select the two at-large teams for the Eastern Championships
* Seed the Eastern Championships

The Commissioner noted that the poll committee must have two conference calls during the season, one immediately following the regular season to seed the divisional championships and one following the divisional championships to seed the Eastern Championships.

Men’s Meeting

The meeting was held Friday, December 7, 2001

In attendance: Daniel Sharadin, Commissioner; Tom Tracey, Director of Officials; Mike McDowell, Director of Communication; Scott Reed, George Washington; Jim Floerchinger, Harvard; Keith Bullion, Grove City; Carey Heckman, Dartmouth; Luis Nicolao, Princeton; Jim Yeamans, Slippery Rock; Josh Heynes, Penn State Behrend; Don Sherman, Gannon; Todd Clapper, Brown; John Zeigler, Bucknell; Carl Quigley, St. Francis; Derek Ellingson, Queens; Joe Linehan, U. S. Merchant Marine Academy; Russ Yarworth, Massachusetts; Roch King, Bloomsburg

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 1
The Commissioner made a motion to limit the ability to change the men’s varsity schedule on odd numbered years and that any change proposed on even numbered years must first have the support of 75% of the coaches present and eligible to vote. Mike Schofield seconded. Motion passed.

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 2
The Commissioner made a motion that the first available date for league competition will be the third weekend in September. Seconded by Carl Quigley. Motion passed.

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 3
The Commissioner made a motion to establish the following priorities in the scheduling process in order to clarify how the games will be assigned:

1. Satisfy institutional constraints regarding individual team travel
2. Satisfy institutional requests regarding time and location preferences while maintaining a fair competitive schedule.
3. Provide home games for as many teams as possible within the following parameters:

a. No team will be required to travel more than one hour from one site to another during the same weekend.
b. No team will be required to travel more than 30 minutes during the same day from one site to another.
c. Provide marquee match-ups for prime time on Saturday night.
d. Provide late arrival and early departure for teams traveling the longest distances.
e. Provide an opportunity for all member teams to have home games at least every other year.

Carl Quigley seconded. Motion passed.

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 4
Jim Yeamans made a motion to add a second cross-over weekend to the southern division schedule. Don Sherman seconded. Before a vote could be taken, a decision was made to split the meeting and have each of the divisions meet separately to arrive at a consensus for their respective schedules.

After reconvening, teams decided to withdraw all other scheduling proposals and the Southern Division decided not to act on Proposal 4.

In the Northern Division Todd Clapper made a motion to approve the schedule format as follows:
Teams will play a complete round robin schedule. The teams in the New England region (CT, Brown, MIT, Harvard, UMass) and the teams in the New York region will play their crossover games during two weekends of competition, one of which is in the northern region and one of which is at Fordham (or any other facility meeting maximum size regulations in the New York area). The crossover weekend must be in a 30-meter all-deep facility (Fordham meets the requirement by mutual agreement). Games between teams within the same region have the option to be pulled for home and home match-ups or played in a tournament format. Since CT College is further from other teams in their region, Todd Clapper indicated that Brown would go to Connecticut to play there. Likewise, Harvard and other teams indicated their willingness to play at Connecticut on Friday, on their way to New York City in order to ensure CT College receives home games. Lastly, teams must let the office know in advance if they prefer to play all of their crossover games on one day or extend their competition over two days. Derek Ellingson seconded. Motion passed.

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposals 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d were withdrawn

Men’s Varsity Schedule Proposal 6
Russ Yarworth made a motion to restructure the Northern Division Championships to the following 10-team format.

Joe Linehan seconded. Motion passed.

Division III Issues
The Division III issues were then discussed and by consensus, it was determined that the Division III regional tournament would be invitational in nature and not coordinated by the CWPA office. The host team would be responsible for sending the invitations, collecting fees and paying the officials.

Keith Bullion requested that a mail ballot be issued to the Division III coaches, explaining the seeding concept for women’s championships and asking if they want to continue their present policy in which every coach receives a vote or use the women’s method of selecting a poll committee. The Commissioner indicated he would send it out following the meeting.

Josh Heynes made a motion that the CWPA help coordinate a Division III National Championship that would be self-funded. Joe Linehan seconded. Motion passed.

Keith Bullion made a motion that the CWPA conduct a poll to establish a ranking of officials after the Division III Eastern Championship. The result of this ranking will assign the referees for the following year for the invitational and championship. Teams would be required to send in their poll as part of the mail ballot in the future, or be present to vote at the annual meeting. Seconded by Joe Linehan. Motion passed. Commissioner’s Note: Assignments based in part on availability. Ranking will only serve to create a priority list from which the officials are chosen based on their availability.

Keith Bullion made a motion that the Eastern Division III Championship Site Selection be adopted as follows:

Seconded by Josh Heynes. Motion passed.

The Commissioner requested that the Southern Division clarify their rotation within their regular season. Teams indicated that the schedule should be constructed same as last season. The crossover will alternate between regions. Teams in the Southern region will travel to Bucknell, while Johns Hopkins and George Washington will receive home games. Navy or Princeton will host the championship and crossover when it rotates to the region.

In the western region, three basic regions were established. W&J/Salem was region 1, Slippery Rock/Grove City was region 2, and Erie was region 3. It was understood that teams in each of these regions would not all get home league games each season.

Dates were established as follows:
9/21-22 Regular season event
10/5-6 Regular season event
10/12-13 Division III Eastern Championships
10/19-20 Regular season event
10/26-27 ECAC Championships
11/2-3 Division Championships
11/16-17 Eastern Championships
11/30-12/1 NCAA Championships
NCAA Championships are actually 12/7-8

The Commissioner stressed the importance for coaches to send their preferences regarding scheduling before the schedule is drafted. Coaches are required to send in their preferences by the week following the meeting.

The Commissioner stated he would develop a rotation for championships that posted the crossover locations for the divisions as well as the championship sites. The current rotation is as follows:

General Meeting

The meeting was held Friday, December 7, 2001

In attendance: Daniel Sharadin, Commissioner; Tom Tracey, Director of Officials; Mike McDowell, Director of Communication; Scott Reed, George Washington; Jim Floerchinger, Harvard; Amber Drury-Pinto, Michigan; Sandy Sheridan, Hartwick; Mike Maroney, Hartwick; Christine Honig, Marist; Jim Kelly, Wagner; Barry King, Indiana; Keith Bullion, Grove City; Carey Heckman, Dartmouth; Luis Nicolao, Princeton; Jim Yeamans, Slippery Rock; Josh Heynes, Penn State Behrend; Don Sherman, Gannon; Todd Clapper, Brown; John Zeigler, Bucknell; Carl Quigley, St. Francis; Derek Ellingson, Queens; Allyson Gillespie, Villanova; Joe Linehan, U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, ; Russ Yarworth, Massachusetts; Roch King, Bloomsburg

The Commissioner gave a presentation outlining the annual report for the organization.

As part of the Strategic Plan, Bill Bettencourt from Arena made a presentation soliciting the CWPA’s involvement in a partnership. The relationship would involve naming the Arena ball as the official ball of the CWPA. Arena would provide product and cash in exchange for certain requirements. The Commissioner indicated he would review the agreement and discuss the proposal with the Board.

Elections were held for the Board of Review. Jim Floerchinger, Allyson Gillespie, John Benedick, Loren Bertocci were named, with one referee still to be appointed by agreement from Loren Bertocci and Tom Tracey.

Elections for the Board of Directors were held and John Benedick was elected as the administrator, Scott Reed as the coach, and Stuart Sheldon as the non administrator/coach.

The Commissioner explained the crowd control policy approved by the Board of Directors this past year that will become policy for future competitive events.

The membership then considered the following proposals. The result of voting on these proposals included the mail ballots submitted earlier to the office.

General Membership Proposal 1
The Commissioner made a motion to add the following statement to the CWPA Code of Conduct: Consumption of alcoholic beverages or use of tobacco products is prohibited at all CWPA events by spectators, officials, coaches, and athletes. Motion seconded by John Zeigler. Motion passed.

General Membership Proposal 2
Amber Pinto made a motion to establish an All-Academic Conference Team for all levels and genders. The requirements would be:
* 3.2 or better GPA
* Completed the season with their team
* Competed/played in at least 3 conference games

Carey Heckman seconded. Motion passed.

General Membership Proposal 3
The Commissioner made a motion to create a standing committee to review nominations submitted for the Hall of Fame based on criteria previously established and to make selections as required. Allyson Gillespie seconded. The committee members include Todd Clapper, John Zeigler, Carl Quigley, Dan Sharadin. In the future, all members selected to the Hall of Fame will become voting members. Motion passed.

General Membership Proposal 4
The Commissioner made a motion to require the CWPA Office to assume the game management duties for the following events:

Eastern Varsity Championships
National Collegiate Club Championships
Division III National Collegiate Club Championships

Game management duties include:
1. Staffing the official’s desk and merchandise table. Teams would still be responsible for facility related set up and clean up.
2. Printing a tournament program.
3. When possible, printing a tournament shirt.

In addition, dependent upon availability from the CWPA staff, the host of a regular season contest or division championship may also request this service. The fees for this position will be generated from the gate receipts generated at the events. The host will not receive any portion of the gate. Amber Pinto seconded. Motion passed.

Officiating Proposals

Officiating Proposal 1
The Commissioner made a motion that the determination of a protest made following a game may only be appealed under the following circumstances:

1. The protest had to be filed in accordance with NCAA rules.
2. There must be grounds to show that the referees made a significant error in the process of reviewing the protest that prevented a fair conclusion.
3. If the determination of the protest is overturned, the solution to the problem must be reasonably managed or the initial judgment stands, regardless of its fairness. Reasonably managed means:

* The teams involved must not bear any extraordinary costs
* The CWPA must be capable of providing the support necessary
* There must be available time to solve the problem

To appeal the protest, a copy of the protest must be sent to the CWPA office along with a brief explanation regarding why the appeal is warranted, within 48 hours of the conclusion the event.

The proposal was seconded by Luis Nicolao. Motion passed.

Officiating Proposal 2
The Commissioner made a motion that will permit the CWPA to use video to review a protest, fight, or brutality under the conditions stated below. Seconded by Allyson Gillespie.

After some discussion, John Zeigler made a motion to amend the language to eliminate any reference to protests. Jim Floerchinger seconded. Amendment passed.

The Commissioner clarified that this motion would also include video to review brutalities committed during the contest that were missed by the official, provided a visible injury resulted from the brutality.

The original motion is submitted below, including the language that was removed and added.

Final Proposal
The Commissioner made a motion that will permit the CWPA to use video to review a protest, fight, or brutality under the following conditions:

During the tournament
1. Video will only be used in the case of protests and brutalities and not to review judgment calls made by the officials during a game. Video may not be used to determine goals scored, as this falls under the judgment responsibilities of the officials present.

2. Video may be used to review alleged brutalities missed by the officials, provided the alleged incident caused a visible injury.

3. A formal protest must be filed, or an unusual circumstance must surround the brutality before the use of video can be discussed. When determining the use of video to review brutalities, an unusual circumstance is defined as a brutality that was unique in its severity or one that injured another player, requiring a decision by the head official and the tournament committee regarding whether additional sanctions are necessary during the tournament for the purposes of protecting the other athletes.

4. The video must be made available to the head referee within five minutes of the game’s conclusion. The head referee in consultation with the tournament committee must make a determination within ten minutes.

5. Unless the video conclusively shows otherwise, the judgment of the officials at the time the incident occurred takes priority in the situation. The head referee, as chair of the tournament committee will be responsible for making the determination regarding whether the video is conclusive.

Video submitted to the CWPA office
1. Video will only be used in the case of protests and brutalities and not to review judgment calls made by the officials during a game. Video may not be used to determine goals scored, as this falls under the judgment responsibilities of the officials present.

2. Video may be used to review alleged brutalities missed by the officials, provided the alleged incident caused a visible injury.

3. All video must be submitted to the office by 5:00 PM EST within two days following the game. For tournaments ending on Sunday, this would mean Tuesday at 5:00 PM EST.

4. Unless the video conclusively shows otherwise, the judgment of the officials at the time the incident occurred takes priority in the situation. The Commissioner, in consultation with the Director of Officials, will be responsible for making the determination regarding whether the video is conclusive. Any observations from the video will then be forwarded to the Board of Review for their recommendations. When possible, the video will be sent digitally to the members of the Board of Review. Motion passed.

Officiating Proposal 3
Jim Floerchinger withdrew proposal

Officiating Proposal 4
Jim Floerchinger withdrew proposal

New Business
Allyson Gillespie made a motion to move the annual meeting to Monday instead of Friday. John Zeigler seconded. Motion failed.

Todd Clapper made a motion that the men establish a weekly Top 10 poll. Mike Schofield seconded. Committee will include Jim Floerchinger, John Zeigler, Joe Linehan, Price Atkinson, and one member yet to be named. Motion passed.

The Commissioner confirmed that the women’s Southern Division format would remain unchanged for the next two years, with the Mid Atlantic region using a double round robin format and the Allegheny region using a single round robin format. Rotation of sites will move in the following manner: Easterns rotates between North, South, and West regions. Southern Championships rotates between all regulation facilities, ensuring that Easterns and Southerns are in two different regions during the same year. The championship rotation will be as follows:

On even years the regular season tournaments will be held at Indiana and on odd years, at Michigan. The remaining tournament will be at Salem/Washington & Jefferson, Erie, or Grove City/Slippery Rock, with pulled games to ensure home contests at as many institutions as possible. Schedule approved by consensus with no dissent.

Meeting adjourned 6:30 PM.

Club Proposals

The club proposals were decided by mail ballot. Each team in the country had the opportunity to vote. The results of the voting are listed below.

Club General Proposal 1
The Commissioner made a motion to increase the rate of pay to officials on the club level over the next four years according to the following scale:

2002 $32.00
2003 $34.00
2004 $36.00
2005 $38.00

Motion passed.

Club Eligibility Proposal 1a
The Commissioner made a motion to establish the eligibility of a club athlete as follows:
1. If an athlete has participated on a varsity water polo team for any length of time (junior college or four-year institution), that athlete has a total of four years of eligibility, including the year(s) played on the varsity level. Furthermore, a redshirt year counts as a year of varsity competition.
2. Athletes competing on a varsity water polo team during a season are ineligible to compete for a club team during that same season.
3. Club teams competing for institutions with varsity programs must submit a roster to the office before their first week of competition. Additions may be made during the season, provided they are sent to the office a week prior to the athletes’ first date of competition. Failure to do so may result in the team’s forfeiture of games played with athletes not listed on the roster.

Example 1: A player competes for a varsity team and quits during his/her freshman year after a month. That athlete has used one of his/her four years of eligibility and is ineligible to compete for a club team during the season he left the varsity team. He/she may play for a club team beginning next season for a period of no more than three years.

Example 2: A player redshirts his first year and decides to quit prior to his sophomore year. He/she is eligible to compete for a club team a maximum of three years beginning with the next season.

Example 3: A player competes for a varsity program for four years. He/she is ineligible to compete for a club team on the graduate or undergraduate level.

Example 4: A player competes four years on a club level. He/she may compete for a club team during graduate school provided enrollment is full-time.

Motion Failed

Club Eligibility Proposal 1b
Chico State made a motion to establish eligibility for women's club competition as follows: Any athlete who has competed at the Division I level for over one year is ineligible to play club water polo in the CWPA. This includes athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and any athlete who name has appeared on a division I roster for more then one year.

Motion failed.

Club Eligibility Proposal 1c
Chris Borasi, Head Coach, (UC Davis) made a motion to establish club eligibility for women’s Pacific Coast Division competition as follows:

This proposal is to add a rule for the Women's Club Division in the Collegiate Water Polo Association, Pacific Coast Division, for the 2002 season. The rule would state that only graduate and undergraduate students at a university enrolled in the CWPA's Pacific Coast Division who have not completed four years of intercollegiate water polo may compete.

Motion failed.

Club Eligibility Proposal 2
Eppie Silva, Cal Sate University Fresno, made a motion to require that each member of the association write up a roster and submit it to the institution’s registry office. After they have verified each student’s status, one copy shall be sent to the CWPA and another to the championship host school. A referee or a host school advisor shall check the names along with a picture ID in order to verify each student. This does not have to be done for every tournament just the tournament that leads into nationals. If a school would like to add a player to the roster they must be verified by the school registry and copies must be sent and received before the tournament.

Motion failed.

Club Eligibility Proposal 3
Doug Reisenfeld, Miami University(OH) made a motion that any program fielding two teams in the division may, at any time, move a player up from a "B" team roster to take a spot on an "A" team roster. Once a player is "moved up", that same player can no longer play on the "B" team. This only applies to a move up from the "B" squad to the "A" squad. No player may be "demoted" to the "B" team.

Motion passed.