CIF approves regional water polo championships

The CIF San Diego Section Board of Managers voted June 5 to approve a proposal to initiate a regional championship for boys and girls water polo which would involve the CIF San Diego and Southern sections.

The first boys water polo championship would take place in December 2009 and the first girls regional championship would be held in March 2010. Section champions and runners-up would be invited to the tournament, which would consist of 16 teams and four rounds.

The CIF’s Los Angeles Section does not have water polo, and the CIF’s Central Section has both boys water polo and girls water polo in the fall, as do many Northern California sections. Although a common girls season would be necessary for a state championship, the regional championship will continue a trend of increasing the number of CIF sports with competition beyond the section championship tournament.

The regional championships will be under the responsibility of the CIF SoCal Water Polo Management Committee, which will include representation from the two sections. The structure of that committee will be determined by the CIF state office, which will also appoint the tournament director.

The champions and runners up from each CIF division will participate in a single tournament. The San Diego Section has two water polo divisions and will thus have four teams in the tournament while the Southern Section has six divisions and will send 12 teams to the tournament. The teams will be seeded #1 through #16 by a seeding committee comprised of the two section commissioners and the tournament director.

A request for proposal process to the state CIF office will determine the site of the championships, although with separate boys and girls tournaments it is likely that each section will hold a championship each year and that the locations for each gender will rotate from year to year. The San Diego Section includes San Diego and Imperial counties, while the Southern Section includes Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Inyo Counties, parts of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties, Los Angeles County outside of the City of Los Angeles, and all private schools within the City of Los Angeles (the Los Angeles Section only includes Los Angeles Unified School District high schools).

Ticket sales, Internet broadcast rights fees, corporate sponsors, and other funding are expected to cover the team travel, meals, and lodging costs as well as site management and officiating costs. Although mileage will vary due to location of school and lodging will be more expensive for San Diego Section tournaments than Southern Section tournaments due to more teams requiring overnight accommodations, the estimated total cost each year would be $44,600 for both tournaments.

The 16 teams in each tournament would compete in a four-round single-elimination tournament taking place Thursday through Saturday.