LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) invites applications for the part-time positions of Commissioner and Coordinator of Officials.
The WWPA comprises two conferences; in 2023-24, the men’s conference will be made up of seven colleges and universities, while the women’s conference will be made up of eight colleges and universities governed by NCAA water polo.
The Commissioner will serve as the chief administrative officer for the WWPA and work directly for the Chairs of the WWPA Executive Committees for both the men and women. The Commissioner will supervise the WWPA Coordinator of Officials and Communications Director, and will work closely with the men’s and women’s coaches chairs.
Interested candidates may reach out to Women’s Executive Committee President Kirby Garry (kgarry@csumb.edu) and Men’s Executive Committee President Bryan Huettmann (bryan.huettmann@fresno.edu). Position descriptions can be found below.
Former WWPA Commissioner Mitch Carty was named Big West Coordinator of Officials on May 18. Carty had served the WWPA as a player, coach, President of the Men’s Executive Committee, Coordinator of Officials and Commissioner throughout his 30-year career in collegiate water polo.
WWPA Commissioner
The Commissioner, as chief administrative officer, shall, but not limited to:
- Implement Executive Committee policies and procedures.
- Advise the Executive Committee on the most advantageous courses of action for the WWPA, based on appropriate research or experience.
- Disburse budgeted funds approved by the Executive Committee and provide an annual report of revenues and expenses.
- Organize the agenda for Executive Committee meetings; plan the dates and sites, record the minutes of these meetings, and follow-up on all action items.
- Serve as an ex-officio member of association committees as determined by the Executive Committee.
- Exercise other powers, including accountability of member institutions and coaches, and perform other duties as may be reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes of the WWPA, to advance the best interests of the WWPA, to resolve problems, and protect the general welfare of the WWPA.
- Monitor, review and propose NCAA legislation as necessary.
- Maintain the Association’s ability to qualify for automatic bids to NCAA Championships (forms, etc.).
- Oversee and help conduct WWPA Championships.
- Manage WWPA officiating efforts.
- Promote the WWPA by maintaining liaison with all other NCAA Water Polo Conference Commissioners, attending the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships, and staying abreast of NCAA issues that impact the sport of water polo and the WWPA.
- Assist in hiring and then supervise, train, and manage the WWPA Communications Director.
- Assist in hiring and then supervise, train, and manage the WWPA Director of Officials.
- Serve as the Compliance Officer for the WWPA.
- Maintain the WWPA Handbook and update as directed by the Executive Committee.
- Making determinations to mandate the site, date, and time for postponed WWPA contests when institutional representatives cannot make a decision.
- Handle all matters of financial management for the WWPA.
WWPA Coordinator of Officials
The Coordinator of Officials shall, but not limited to:
- Show initiative and work in direct liaison with the NCAA Coordinator of Officials to improve officiating across the NCAA and in the WWPA.
- Schedule officials for all WWPA member institution home contests.
- Input assignments, manage invoices, and create paysheets in the selected assigning platform for the timely payment of officials.
- Develop and maintain the highest quality pool of WWPA officials.
- Manage a post-contest officials rating system for coaches to provide anonymous comments on officials.
- Evaluate every WWPA official at least once annually, either personally or via National Evaluator Group (NEG) program. The coordinator will keep notes on his/her evaluations, develop a rating based on his/her evaluations, and use any other information he or she can obtain through other sources (e.g. National Coordinator of Officials or his/her counterparts in other conferences) and use these tools to develop a list of officials from which to consider to work the annual championship. This list will be used in conjunction with the list of officials provided by the coaches in the WWPA for selection purposes.
- Involve coaches in selection of WWPA Championship officials.
- Serve as liaison between the host institution and the WWPA Championship officials.
- Work with other assigners to determine the referees so the best available referees can be assigned.
- Work with coaches to establish a core group of officials to be used in conference designated games with goal of using same officials for the conference championships, increasing the level of consistency.
- In an effort to get the highest rated officials for the conference tournament, each conference member that wishes to give input must submit, via e-mail to the Coordinator of Officials their top six (6) officials list by, October 1 for the Championships. The list will be compiled and then the top ten list will be sent to the Coaches for their vote. The votes will be due to the Coordinator of Officials by October 15. The top six (6) will be invited to the championships with the remainder being alternates.
- Provide the core group of referees and championship referees with the official WWPA shirt (2) during the season to be worn during all WWPA designated conference head-to-head games.
- Work to get a member of the National Evaluator Group (NEG) to each head-to-head conference designated game for evaluation purposes.
