Underwater rugby in the United States

Underwater Rugby started in the United States in 1979.

History

Nick Caloyianis started the first team at Catonsville Community College (now called Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville). He is a famous underwater filmmaker and director, with several televised specials. Catonsville Community College is just south of the Baltimore Beltway, and south of the city limits. Anne Arundel Community College had a competing team for several years. It was also played for a while at the YMCA pool in Severna Park, Arundel Olympic Swim Center pool in Annapolis, and briefly in a pool in Columbia and at Howard Community College. There weren't any players from Colombia, S. America for several years after the start of UW Rugby in the USA, although they did participate in the 1990s and had players on the men's team at 1999 and 2003 worlds and women's team at 2003 worlds. Voting representatives for the international CMAS rules changes were sent to the CMAS 1987 Underwater Rugby Worlds in Zurich, Switzerland, and to the worlds in 1991 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Boston started a team a couple years later than Baltimore and Boston still plays both Underwater Rugby and more recently underwater hockey.

USA clubs
Club name City State Active
San Diego San Diego CA No
San Francisco Giant Sea Bass[1] San Francisco CA Yes
East Haven Makos East Haven CT Yes
Fort Lauderdale and Florida Keys URC Fort Lauderdale FL Yes
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IL No
Baltimore Baltimore MD No
Quincy Narwhals UW Rugby[2] Quincy MA Yes
Newark Underwater Recreation Newark NJ Yes
New Jersey Hammerheads Underwater Rugby Newark NJ Yes
Dallas-Fort Worth Dallas-Fort Worth TX No
Killeen Underwater Club Killeen TX No
University of Texas[3] Austin TX No
Marquette Aquamen UW Rugby Marquette MI Yes

International competition

A combined team of players from Baltimore, Boston, and some Colombian immigrants went to the Worlds in 1999 in Germany and in 2003 to Fredericia, Denmark. A combined women's team also went to Worlds in 2003. Underwater rugby as a team game came to light in 1999 when US sent for the first time a men's team to a World Cup (Essen, Germany).[4] In 2003, both women's and men's teams were assembled for the World Cup tournament hosted in Fredericia, Denmark.[5] Underwater hockey players, scuba divers, and former players from Europe (mainly Germany) and Colombia have been key for the development of the game. The USA National Team has only been involved 4 times in CMAS world tournaments as described above. The team for the 2003 World Cup was assembled with players from different states with a base pool set in Massachusetts. There has been growth with more teams being formed and showing up to tournaments. Florida often has two teams. California had a team at U C Santa Barbara from 2014-2016 and needs someone to organize them again. Sea Bass have players all over the Bay Area and in Santa Rosa. In 2018 a team formed in San Diego. In recent years men and women's teams were sent to Cali, Colombia in 2015. Men and Women's teams are being sent to 2019 World's in Gratz, Austria.

References
  1. "SF Underwater Rugby". SFUWR. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  2. "Boston Underwater Rugby". underwaterrugby.com. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  3. "U. of Texas Underwater Activities Team". U. of Texas Underwater Activities Team. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  4. Results from the 1999 Underwater Rugby World Cup. "". International Underwater Rugby Commission
  5. Results from the 2003 Underwater Rugby World Cup. "". International Underwater Rugby Commission
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