by Danny Scheraga
One year ago in this column we wrote the following (if you remember it you can skip to the seventh paragraph): Polo is a microcosm of society. Anheuser-Busch just announced that the company was being sold to a Belgian company owned by Brazilians. The Empire State Building was just sold by a German company to an Arabian company. Our manufacturing has mostly been shipped overseas. The Morning Line printed the teams in a 12 goal tournament at an American Club in July. Out of ten teams entered, only one team had more Americans than the sponsor. Polo like our economy is being outsourced. John Rosene and Peter Rizzo have written articles in this the past two months addressing this issue. Where are American players, and what can be done to produce more?
Rosene observed that the USPA is not keeping up with the population growth and postulated that if the influx of foreign members were deducted from the total membership, perhaps the number of American players had actually decreased. He also correctly observed that a strong organization needs a strong base and the way to do that is to introduce many new players a few of whom will rise to the top as either professionals or team sponsors. He closed by recommending a marketing strategy mainly though television to attract the horse oriented youth from established horse farms and ranches who already had a support system in place to make polo affordable.
Rizzo addressed the changes that have occurred in American polo over the past 40 years. He addressed how the rise of professionalism has changed how the game is played. With the growth of professionalism has come a growth in foreign players and their support network of trainers, grooms, horse-shoers, etc. He mentioned that the USPA is considering an affirmative action rule to require one American player in addition to the sponsor on every team. He fairly pointed out that this may or may not work to redevelop American polo players. He also mentioned a key point that the cost/reward ratio in the United States might simply be too high for young American players to justify the effort to become a higher level player.
What does the Polo Training Foundation have to do with all of this? Marketing the sport as suggested by John Rosene and the rule changes that Peter Rizzo mentioned are the bailiwick of the USPA. The Polo Training Foundation is there to do exactly what the name implies. Train polo players and umpires. As the foundation has grown more resources have been used to broaden the base that Rosene aptly pointed out is necessary for a strong foundation. The USPA Intercollegiate-Interscholastic tournament program has grown by leaps and bounds as have several junior programs at polo clubs across North America because the PTF working closely with the clubs that host these programs has encouraged teaching more young polo players. Now the PTF and the USPA working closely with member clubs plan to expand that teaching concept by developing five regional teaching centers in major population areas across the continent. The long range plan is to get them up and running successfully with a combination of grants, endowments, and fees for usage and then move on to create more until there are learning centers in every city where it is practical to play polo. This plan will broaden the base from which the better players and sponsors will rise to the top and play higher goal polo.
The process of establishing training centers is a long slow one, however, so what can be done to address the immediate problem? Rizzo, in his article talked about, “in the good old days”; if you were and adequate player for your handicap, and had a reputation of honoring your commitments to play, that you would be given the opportunity to play on teams with higher rated players and thereby through the necessity of creating good team chemistry be mentored by those players. Mentoring is happening in spots across the country, but it needs to be encouraged more. One example of such a program is the ECAT tournament at the Brandywine Polo Club. Another example is the Young player’s tournament that was held at Steve Orthwein’s Port Mayaca Polo Club in Florida this past winter. This concept needs to be expanded further by encouraging professional polo players to give back to the sport, by helping younger players along, whether it be merely talking with them about polo or letting them apprentice in their training operations with the chance to get some great pointers on the practice field and perhaps eventually the game field.
Peter Rizzo concluded by stating that the changes that have occurred in polo may be inevitable. If, however, we don’t begin to try to redevelop our base, then it will be inevitable and there will be fewer and fewer American players. If however, the PTF, the USPA and most importantly the polo playing public work together on all fronts perhaps we can re-energize our base and begin to re-grow our American base. Then we’ll have the best of both worlds, a strong American playing population with international interaction. Perhaps the fact that so many people in polo are addressing the issue, an amalgamation of all these ideas will lead to better solutions. And if you extrapolate that to the opening paragraph comparing polo to society, maybe, just maybe, there will be enough people out there that America’s outsourcing will evolve back into more stateside production, creating equilibrium within the world economy.
Progress this year
Progress has been made on all these fronts in the past year. The USPA has hired Kris Bowman full time to oversee the development of the five regional centers and the PTF is working closely with the USPA to help develop the training curricula for these programs. The Great Plains Equestrian Center in Wichita, Kansas created by former USPA Chair Jack Shelton is being run by Dan Healy and with Kris’s help and assistance with a clinic by PTF instructor Wilbur O’Ferrall, students are flocking to their lesson program. Robin Sanchez at Brushy Creek Ranch in Burleson, Texas in conjunction with the Las Colinas Polo club has been attracting several new students to polo. Brandywine Polo Club home of the ECAT mentioned above has also been named as a training center where Scott Brown and crew are doing a great job attracting youth and adults in their training programs. The USPA is currently evaluating sites in California, Virginia, and Atlanta as possible future centers, so tremendous progress is being made in the development of training programs. The USPA is also following up on John Rosene’s suggestion to study the possibility of marketing the sport through horse oriented cable television. Both organizations are working to involve the US Pony Club more directly in polo. The USPA has also joined the PTF in promoting the ongoing education of instructors at the annual seminar to be held this year at Brushy Creek Ranch Novemeber 6-8, 2009.
Finally mentoring programs continue to grow, albeit not as fast as they should. Many players hire young students to work their ponies in exchange for chukkers. These programs need to be expanded and professional players need to be encouraged to incorporate the more talented into their operations, and use them to fill out teams where lower handicapped players are needed.
These programs, to become successful and gradually expand to most of the clubs across the country, need you the polo public to take part in this effort. If everyone does their share to help bring in new players, the future of polo in America will be back on solid ground.
Additional Inquiries
For any other questions regarding polo training or polo in general feel free to call the PTF office: 888-PTF-POLO (783-7656) or email dscheraga@polotraining.org.
