High School Girls Win as Board OKs Water Polo

Although their cause has not propelled them onto the evening news or ABC’s “Nightline,” some Ventura girl water polo players still talked about their Tuesday night victory in national terms.

After the young women lobbied the Ventura Unified School District over the summer, officials agreed Tuesday to cover the cost of starting all-girl water polo teams at Ventura and Buena high schools.

“It came down to what was right and wrong, and not money issues,” said Jordana Gustafson, a 17-year-old Ventura High senior who has played the rough sport for two years. “If the Citadel can break some 150-year-old tradition and allow girls to go to school there, then I think Ventura can have girls’ water polo teams.”

District officials were never opposed to spending $7,200 in the first year to hire two coaches, buy the needed gear and pay referees for the November-to-February season.

But Pat Chandler, assistant superintendent for educational services, said school officials had already finalized budgets by the time the girls approached the district about the teams, making it more difficult to come up with money for this winter.

Nevertheless, after a group of students and their parents packed a district board meeting in July and subsequently lit up the district switchboard with calls, Chandler said officials decided to find the money right away.

“I don’t think we had any idea that it was such a popular sport that people wanted to have,” Chandler said.

A record number of girls--nearly 40--have expressed interest in playing water polo at the two campuses in the coming school year. The surge in popularity of what was once mainly a male sport comes after a recent decision by the California Interscholastic Federation to make water polo an official winter sport for high school girls.

Under the winter sport designation, girls’ teams from Ventura and Buena highs will play in the newly formed Channel League, which includes three schools in Santa Barbara County. Three high schools in the Oxnard district have still not decided whether to join the league this year.

Ventura school board member Velma Lomax read the motion to approve the money for the teams, and board member Diane Harriman seconded the measure.

“We girls will take care of them,” Harriman quipped before the board voted 5 to 0 to back the all-girl teams.

Polo players, joined by their friends and parents, filled the district boardroom Tuesday night.

“It’s really good that they approved this because we really deserve it,” said 17-year-old senior Melissa Hall, a Ventura High senior who has played water polo for three years.

Without that vote, girls would have had to again try out for the boys’ teams--as they began in 1993--vying for playing time with teammates who are often faster swimmers and stronger throwers.

More recently, as additional girls have taken up the sport, they have formed their own club teams, competing with young women at other schools on an informal basis.

But because other schools in the region have thrown their support behind making water polo an official winter sport for girls, Jordana said players in Ventura were worried that they might be left out of the new Channel League without district backing.

“It’s not fair for just the boys to have a team,” Jordana said. “If there is enough interest, girls should have their own team.”

As part of Tuesday’s vote, the district also agreed to pay the ongoing $4,000-a-year cost for a girls’ water polo coach at each high school. Students will have to pay $40 each toward transportation costs to polo games during the season, and the schools or polo boosters will have to come up with any additional money needed for transportation and new equipment.

Barbara Wilson, a gender-equity consultant for the CIF, applauded the board’s vote, saying it shows that the district is in compliance with federal regulations that require schools to provide equal opportunities in sports for men and women.

“They seem to be being very reasonable about it,” Wilson said of the board’s vote.