Water Polo Coaching Change?
I just saw that Michigan women's water polo coach, Dr. Marcelo Leonardi, is not returning next year per MGoBlue.com. From a pure coaching perspective, this seems like a big loss. Michigan won its conference (an odd mix of eastern US teams called the CWPA - Collegiate Water Polo Association) in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. The 2020 tournament was a Covid cancellation, so Dr. Leonardi and team won five of the past six championships.
On a national level, although Michigan did not win a national championship, Dr. Leonardi's performance has been excellent. Not surprisingly, the NCAA Tournament is dominated by California schools (probably half of Michigan's roster is from California). In the 20 years the NCAA Women's Water Polo tournament has existed, a California team has always come in first or second. In 2016, Michigan played Arizona State in a quarterfinal, and the winner was to be the furthest east team to ever make the NCAA semifinal. Yes, let that sink in. Michigan won, becoming the first team outside California to even make the NCAA semifinals. That team lost to eventual champion USC, 6-9.
So with that being said, does anyone know the cause of this coaching change? I couldn't find anything about it online. It is definitely a bummer to lose both Leonardi and Bakich in a short span, but hopefully a good replacement can be found.
So Warde's job just got a lot harder.
Seriously though, I never heard of Marcelo Leonardi before. Was barely aware of Michigan having a water polo program. Did not know that water polo was a California thing. But I'm glad to infer that we're better than the damn SEC at this sport.
Also...am impressed we have someone who can post three paragraphs on the subject.
Three paragraphs is about 2.5 more than I would have guessed.
So Warde's job just got a lot harder.
Sounds like Warde fired him?
where have you been? Michigan has had a nationaly prominent top 10 Womens water polo team for a decade or so
Nowhere near a pool, evidently.
My only contribution is that his football seats were directly in front of my family's season tickets. He and his wife are really nice people and got to know my family a bit from sitting in front of them at games the past several years.
Wasn't Harbaugh's daughter committed to play water polo at UM? I thought she'd be a Sophomore by now? I remember something about his daughter committing to play a water sport at UM...
Yeah, Grace is a jr on the water polo team.
https://mgoblue.com/sports/womens-water-polo/roster/grace-harbaugh/22575
She was a competitive surfer? That's badass!
well she was only allowed to eat steak washed down with whole milk growing up.
Must be going to Clemson!
Did they offer the good Doctor a million a year?
Is Marco still said during Polo matches?
Fish out of the water!
Interesting, my daughter is a water polo player and she has her heart set on Michigan. I looked at the roster and there wasn't one girl on the team from Michigan. One of her teammates brothers made it on the boys team. It is tough sledding if you are from the Midwest. That being said, Leonardi really did a nice job with the team. They were pretty loaded for being in the Midwest. I'm really curious as to the reason for the change.
If your daughter has her heart set on Michigan and wants to play water polo they do have a women's club team, which is pretty competitive and probably has a good balance between playing, socializing and studying.
My daughter played M club soccer ( they had two teams a few years ago, one was pretty serious and traveled all over at their own expense, the other only played other Michigan college club teams and just practiced a couple times a week) and is a good way for high school athletes to stay in the game.
I don't know anything about UM women's club water polo but here's a link.
https://umclubwaterpolo.wixsite.com/umclubwaterpolo/our-team
Water polo, like lacrosse, is a regional sport where the level of play is vastly better outside Michigan. It makes this job really tough because most girls come out of California. Michigan also has recruit over Harvard and Princeton, who are rivals. If a girl decides not to stay in California, UM has to convince them not to go to ivys. There are a couple of instate girls, but you can’t be competitive without lots of CA kids.
There will be a girl from the state of Michigan U of M's team next year. Emma Kaipainen from Ann Arbor Huron was the state player of the year this year and going to Michigan next year. I think she scored over 130 goals this year. I would imagine it takes someone that good to catch Michigan's eye. It will be interesting to see how she does in college after dominating HS.
Skyline also has an All-state sophomore that I imagine will be on the radar or college coaches if she isn't already. I also know of some other local kids that are doing camps in California this summer to hopefully get noticed by college coaches.
I saw her play this year. There are only a handful of top teams so the elite kids really stand out. We are on the west side and hope we can knock Hudsonville off one of these years.
There must be more to this story as Dr Leonardi was very successful and respected.
Pretty much the entire women's squad, including the reserves, are from California or are a foreign students. UM just hosted the women's NCAA championships which was a coup of sorts.
Because of Title IX, the men's polo program is just a club sport (that has lots of Michigan kids with almost an unintended reverse discrimination) as the numbers of men on the football team skew the male/female balance of scholarships.
The last 25 mens NCAA championship matches have been some combination of Stanford, Cal, USC, UCLA playing each other. Stanford's water polo stadium is beyond impressive and of course these pools are all outdoors (not in indoor heavily chlorinated pools).
The few high school Michigan water polo players who are "serious" about playing in D1 college have joined a California club team in the summer.
Tread lightly with this news.
The truth is floating around out there.
lets hope this doesn't sink the program
Hay, quit horsing around with the polo puns. Let's not stirrup any more distractions. This is serious. Warde has to get back in the saddle and fix this. Otherwise each current UM player may have to chukker future championship ambitions away.
Huh? Wait, what?
What do you mean...?
Oh, crap, never mind.
Nice variation on the old vaudeville joke:
"I used to play water polo, but my horse drowned."
Hopefully, a list of coaching names will be floated soon. I'm sure a good candidate will surface.
I'm sure Warde will make a big splash, with the new hire.
Has Warde ever not made a big splash?
lets not make waves, about the man's buoyancy.
I will add that I have met Coach Leonardi a couple times, and both times he has been incredibly friendly. Before coaching at UM, he was the head coach at Cal State Northridge, and for part of his tenure there he was also a high school teacher. He has a ponytail and has a very fitting Cali surfer vibe to him. Certainly seems like a good guy - and a great fit for recruiting in CA - on the surface.
The high school I teach at won the girls water pool state championship this year in Oregon. Go Bruins
I hear Bubba "I sure hope them horsies can swim" Smith is available.
But seriously, Coach Leonardi has done a fantastic job. Michigan is often the best team in the nation outside of California. As an alum of the water polo club (mid 80s), I hope Ward finds another good one.
OBTW, if Vcavman would like to keep us informed about the water polo team during the season, a la the other non-football or basketball sports, I would be thrilled.
The FINA water polo championships start tomorrow ( in conjunction with the FINA swimming already going on) in Budapest. The US Women's national team have been dominant ( sort of like the US women's national soccer team) but like that team, as the old guard goes out the new guard will have to prove itself.
The Serbs and Croatians are probably the favorites on the men's side.
The difficulty of this sport to play (and officiate as the underwater fighting is brutal) is up there with any team sport.
Everything you mention in terms of Leonardi's success at Michigan and the limitations of the program point to potentially a Bakich-type situation, where L either has ambitions beyond what can be accomplished realistically at M and/or overtures/offers for positions at other programs that M can't practically match.
I doubt we'll ever know the full story, but I would keep an eye out for Leonardi to be announced as the coach somewhere else before long and that might be all we need to know.