MWPA Establishes new awards

The Michigan Water Polo Association (MWPA) is establishing several new weekly, monthly, and year-end awards involving member coach and official participation as a part of an initiative to grow Water Polo in Michigan.

The Awards are geared at celebrating player, official and team accomplishments all season long, not just during postseason awards ceremonies.

District Player of the Week

In an effort to highlight as many players in the state as possible from week to week, Coaches will be able to nominate a player of the week through our nomination form here.

Coaches are strongly encouraged to keep detailed statistics. The more statistics (Games Played, Goals, Assists, Steals, Drawn Exclusions, Field Blocks, Saves, Save Percentage, Shots on goal, etc.) entered when nominating, the better the picture when selecting a player of the week. District Players of the Week will be selected by the MWPA Communications Committee.

District Players of the Week are evaluated on all games from the Sunday of each week to Saturday. Nominations are due by Midnight each Sunday.

Regional Player of the Month

The Regional Player of the Month is run through the same process. All statistics compiled through the first and final day of each month will be considered. Coaches will be able to nominate a player of the week through our nomination form here. Nominations are due by Midnight on the first day of the following Month.

Assistant Coach of the Year

In an effort to highlight up-and-coming coaches and encourage them to seek growth opportunities and continue to progress within the sport to head coaching positions, we will award an Assistant Coach of the Year on both the boys and girls sides of the State.

Nominations are due to Secretary Harrison Watt by May 14. These should come from a program's head coach on why their coach is worthy of this award. Some things to consider.

-What offseason growth opportunities do they pursue? (Do they play? Coach for a Club team? Go to JO's? Try their hand at officiating?)

-What their impact on your team has been (this season only)

-What their day-to-day responsibilities include

-Character Values

This award will be selected by the MWPA Communications Committee.

The Golden Whistle: The Official of the Year

Our officials are vital. In order to grow the sport and allow for events to be more easily run, the MWPA has prioritized, amongst many things, growing their pool of officials and their skill sets.

The Official of the Year should be nominated in long form email and can come from Head Coaches or other MWPA certified officials. Much like the Assistant Coach of the Year, some things to consider:

-What offseason growth opportunities do they pursue? (Do they play? Coach for a Club team? Go to JO's? Try their hand at officiating?) -Character Values -Are they at least a Regional Championship game level official?

The nominations are due to Secretary Harrison Watt and DoO Brent Augustine by May 14: Final candidates will be narrowed down and distributed for voting by coaches and officials, and presented at Half Time of the State Championship Game.

From the Secretary: Harrison Watt

While we continue to try and boost the experience players have in the MWPA, I am asking for some help here. A few things you can do to make this experience as positive as possible.

-If you have a photographer or parent photographer, please have them share photos with me so we can make graphics like the one here. Give them my contact info or the other way around, anything works!

-Many of these awards fall in your lap, I understand you already have a lot to do, but having worked with leagues with this process, I have been able to get kids a player of the week award where their numbers might not have been as good as others because other teams did not nominate.

Because we don't have a centralized statistics database, we really really would like if someone on your team could keep accurate stats so we can give deserving candidates awards.

-This is an opportunity to showcase our athletes on social media throughout the season instead of just at the very very end. Some kids will play for teams that are done the first day of districts. In years past, we might not know a lot about what they accomplished. This is a chance to highlight as many programs as possible.