Wolverine Water Polo Club
In an effort to celebrate our sport even further, we have nominated our friends in Ann Arbor as this month's Baller of the Month! Congratulations, team!
When was your club founded? Our club was founded in 2016 but really got off the ground in spring of 2017.
Tell us about how your team was started? During the summer of 2016 the Michigan Men's club program held open practices and several of us began attending those. When the Men's club team went back to school in the fall of 2016, those of us who were not on the club team decided to continue having the pool time and it grew from there! We initially practiced at Huron HS, Saline HS but found our home at Skyline HS in spring of 2017.
Ohh look at how you've grown!
What a good looking bunch!
Do you have a team mascot or slogan? Our game caps have a wolverine slash mark on them, but no formal mascot or slogan.
Approximately how many active players do you have today? Our active numbers fluctuate significantly based on the season, but we currently have about 25 active players. Summers tend to be our busiest time when we have college students home for summer break.
Do you host a home tourney? Yes! We just hosted our home tourney - this year at Groves HS in Birmingham.
Tell us a bit about your tourney …. This was our 5th year hosting a tourney (1 year cancelled due to COVID and one year due to weather). We had 11 teams total - from Michigan, Ohio, Chicago and Nashville.
... And not to mention a killer after party showing from CWPC - some call it a boogie fever takeover ...
How many tournaments do you attend a year? On an average year we probably attend about 10 tourneys.
Any favorites? Well the LEC of course :) The past couple years we have really enjoyed attending Desert Duel in AZ.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, RINGO!
Do you have any memorable or fun tournaments or outings your club has? Our team has attended lots of fun tourneys - of course always having fun and crazy times at the Quarry. We've attended a few international tourneys - Iceland twice and Croatia once. A few other memorable ones (besides the LEC) are Toronto (best food!), Seattle (best hiking), Cinnamon Lake (best wine), and Chicago (best bowling alley).
How many Lake Erie Classics (Cleveland’s tourney) has your club attended? Seeing photo evidence of 3 - 2018, 2019, 2024, but feel there likely is another one in there somewhere!
Who knows .. but we've loved you being there!
How many days a week do you practice? Two days - Monday and Thursday evenings.
Tell us a little bit about your practices … do you run drills? Scrimmage all day long? Stand on deck for about 30 minutes debating whether we should get in, and then scrimmage all day long.
Sounds a little like our practices sometimes? .... ;)
Want to learn more about Wolverine?
IG: @annarborwaterpolo; Facebook: Wolverine Water Polo Masters Team
Practices: Monday and Thursday evenings at Skyline HS.
Who would anyone contact if they are ever in town and want to drop in? Contact our secretary (Dan) at wolverinemasterswp@gmail.com. We'd love to have you drop in!
A message from their team members ....
This clubs means a lot to it's players, here are some stories from their team ..
O boy so what water polo means to me! Man o man. Water polo has given me confidence in my life! This sport has developed me more as a human than I think anything in this world could have. Which is probably why I haven’t stayed away (I need more development) hahaha. But really water polo itself my god it’s the best sport in the world. It is such a community and such a kick ass sport! It is not for the weak and that’s what I have always loved about it!
Wolverine and this club. Very very special to me!! I left California and my entire water polo circuit in 2014. It was until 2020 that I finally moved to Michigan and was contacted from Paige to join the club and found my home! This club has given me back “a home”. I couldn’t imagine ever leaving this state now because I could not imagine leaving the family that wolverine has given me! I’m obsessed with these people!
From Cleveland ...
Wolverine has been a tremendous friend of CWPC for many, many years and we've loved every minute of it! We've traded players, shared tournaments, traveled together and best of all played some great polo together. Thanks for all you do for the water polo community, we couldn't think of a more deserving team.
CONGRATULATIONS, WOLVERINE!
