PoloCAST

Among the leading officials in the collegiate game, Alex Stankevitch is a regular fixture on the deck for some of the most important games on the domestic and international stages. A Social Studies and Special Education High School teacher in south New Jersey when not officiating, Stankevitch emigrated to the United States from Belarus and graduated from the University of California-Santa Barbara. During his time at Merced College and UC-Santa Barbara, he began to officiate ultimately rising to his current position in the collegiate game.

Co-founder of KAP7 International, Brad Schumacher has experienced success in athletics and business. A former swimmer, water polo player and Olympic gold medalist. Schumacher is a two-time, two-sport Olympian. He was a member of the winning relay teams at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Four years later, he was a member of the U.S. men's water polo team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Schumacher's two gold medals came as a member of the U.S. men's swimming relay teams at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia: in the men's 4X100-meter freestyle relay and in the men's 4X200-meter freestyle relay. He qualified for both swimming and water polo for the 2000 Olympic Games, but chose to compete only in water polo. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he helped the U.S. men's water polo team to a sixth-place finish. He was the top sprinter at the 2000 Olympics, with 20 sprints won. The first American world champion in swimming and water polo since the 1904 Olympic Games, he earned a gold medal at the Pan-Pacific Games in 1997 and his first national championship at the U.S. Spring Nationals. In water polo, he represented the U.S. at the FINA World Championships, FINA World Cup, World University Games and the Goodwill Games. In 1998, Schumacher competed in World Championships in both sports and joined an elite group of aquatics stars that competed in both sports on the world-class level: Duke Khanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, Bob Hughes and Matt Biondi. A swimming and water polo All-America selection at the University of the Pacific, he is the co-founder of KAP7 International, Inc., a water polo equipment company, with former Olympic teammate Wolf Wigo and he spends his spare time as the head coach of SET water polo club, a Southern California-based team that continues to rank among the top water polo clubs in the country.

A 2004 inductee to the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame, Paul Barren became involved in water polo while attending college at West Chester University. While swimming competitively for the West Chester swim team, he began to learn to play water polo with the school’s club team. After graduation, Barren played with the Philadelphia Water Polo Club, a team composed mostly of German and Hungarian ex-patriots. The level of play he encountered with the team piqued his interest in the sport and he began to pursue it with vigor.  While teaching math and serving as an assistant football coach at Lower Moreland High School outside Philadelphia in the late 1960’s, Barren received permission from the school’s athletic department to start a water polo program. He coached the team for the next twenty years, taking his athletes on trips to Europe to compete in Germany and the Netherlands and compiling a record of 444-117-5.  The only official in the league Hall of Fame, Barren began officiating collegiate water polo games in the early 1970’s for the newly formed Mid Atlantic Conference. He also officiated AAU games during the summer and earned national certification in 1973. As Barren’s stature in the officiating community grew, he was able to earn a FINA rating as an international referee in 1978.  For his contributions to the sport of water polo, Barren was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1995 and inducted at a ceremony in Seattle, Wash. in 1997.

A former University of Michigan Assistant Director of Athletics Communications, Harvard University Water Polo Operations Assistant and The Full-On Sports Hub (FOSH) co-creator Ryan Sosin has been on the forefront of collegiate water polo over the past decade plus. A four-time CWPA Western Division Sports Information Director (SID) of the Year with honors in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Sosin completed a four-year tenure as an Assistant Director of Media Relations at Michigan. During his time in Ann Arbor,  the water polo team won the CWPA Eastern Championship three times (2008, 2009, 2011) and the men’s swimming and diving team won the Big Ten Championship in 2010-11. A 2007 Michigan alum and Bloomfield Hills, Mich., native, he helped his alma mater host the 2011 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship prior to departing for graduate school. The recipient of a Master of Business Administration from Boston University in 2013, Sosin returned to the sport of water polo as the inaugural Operations Manager for the Harvard men’s and women’s programs from January 2013-to-April 2014. He has remained in the Boston market and has prior experience in development, business and technology with StubHub, Hudl, Sideline Swap, the NBC Digital News division and most recently as a Senior Product Manager with Rightpoint. In addition, he co-founded The Full-On Sports Hub which ushered in a new era for water polo sports information for the 2014 NCAA men’s season with the launch of The FOSH for Water Polo. The leader in the field of web-based statistics for water polo, The FOSH for Water Polo provides a platform for inputting game events as they happen and publishing them in real-time via its FOSH Live feature. The platform also allows school’s to provide online box scores, individual and team statistical reports, and on-demand national, conference and tournament leaderboards.

A three-time All-America selection (2013, 2015: Second Team; 2016: First Team), Ao Gao was a member of the women's national team for China which claimed a Silver Medal at the 2007 World Junior Championship, Ao Gao competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and London, England, respectively. A native of Beijing and a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and a Master of Arts in Sports Journalism, she compiled 131 goals, 100 assists, and 131 steals during a four-year career that spanned 2012-14 and 2016. She is currently an Associate Editor with ESPN under the international production department with the ESPN China group. She has been working on various projects this past year, specializing in X Games features, tennis feature content, Special Olympics distribution as well as assisting on NBA on-court game coverage and features production. Named a 2013 Arthur Ashe Jr Sports Scholar, she attended the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after claiming a coveted spot in the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Olympics program in 2016 to cover the Olympics as a graduate student. One of her feature stories was selected by the Society of Professional Journalists and won the National Television Sports Photography award in 2016. Past experience in sports journalism includes jobs with the Pac-12 Networks, ESPN, the Doug Ducey campaign for Governor of Arizona and with Will Ferrell's Funny or Die.

Arguably one of the most influential water polo officials over the past 50-years, Andy Takata made his impact on the deck and behind the scenes to elevate the game.  In addition to wearing the whites at the most prestigious water polo events on earth, Takata volunteered his time to the sport in a variety of governance roles and developmental ventures. A 12-year member of the USA Water Polo Board of Directors a past member of the UANA Technical Water Polo Committee, and advocate for referee development and recruitment, he served as Commissioner of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) and most recently was part of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Technical Committee and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Evaluators Group.  Among the premier officials of the game, he started calling the game in 1978 and rose to calling the NCAA Championship by 1981.  He traveled the world representing the United States and whistled matches at the 2000 Olympic Games, 1998 FINA World Championships, three FINA World Cups, several US Olympic Festivals, and countless other international, collegiate and domestic championships.

A veteran collegiate and national team coach, John Abouu serves as the Chief High Performance Officer for USA Water Polo. In this position Abdou oversees the Olympic Development Program in addition to coach education, events and growth.  Formerly the Associate Head Coach for men's water polo at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Director/Boy's Head Coach of the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club,  Abdou spent five years at Bucknell University, the last two serving as Head Coach of both the men's and women's programs. Within USA Water Polo, Abdou has remained active in the National Team pipeline in his position as ODP East Region Technical Director since 2008. Since 2010 he has also been a part of the coaching staff of the Men's Senior National "B" Team.

A 2019 graduate of Harvard University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Economics, Kristen Hong was a two-time Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America selection with Honorable Mention recognition in 2018 and 2019.  A three-time All-Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) selection with Second (2017, 2018) and First Team (2019) recognition, she concluded her time in Cambridge as the Crimson program’s all-time leading scorer with 275 goals.  A three-time All-CWPA Championship All-Tournament selection (2018: Second Team; 2017, 2019 – First Team), she helped Harvard achieve a pair of the program’s five 20-win seasons (24-9 in 2017, 21-8 in 2019).

Appointed the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Director of Communications in July 2006, Ed Haas is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining an effective and creative communications program, including: designing, writing, and editing media guides, press releases and other promotional materials; coordinating the national varsity, club, Division III and Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) polls; creating and maintaining the organization’s web pages.

Outside the office, he serves as a member of the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee, West Sadsbury Township (Pa.) Planning Commission and participated on the Western Chester County (Pa.) Regional Fire Department Committee which consolidated three companies into the Keystone Valley Fire Department. In March 2015, Haas was appointed to the three-member West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors, the Keystone Valley Fire District Board and was elected Vice-Chairman of both the Board of Supervisors and Fire District Board in April of 2015. He was re-elected to another six-year term on the West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors in the Fall of 2017 and was elected Chairman of both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors in January 2020.

A 2010 inductee to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, Bret Bernard has been called on to whistle every major water polo championship in existence, including the Olympic Games in 1992 (Barcelona) and 1996 (Atlanta). Bernard has officiated multiple World Championships, World Cups, Junior World Championships and Goodwill Games among many other international competitions. Domestically, Bernard wore the whites for every conceivable USA Water Polo Championship, including Junior Olympic and National Championships. On the collegiate level, has officiated numerous collegiate men's and women's championships, including an incredible 14 straight men's NCAA championship games.  As a player, Bernard was a USA Water Polo, AAU, NCAA and high school All-America selection, played for the United States Men's National Team and was an Alternate to the 1972 (Munich) Olympic Games.  He served USA Water Polo on the Executive Committee for 15 years. He was elected USA Water Polo Treasurer (1988-90), Vice-President (1990-1996) and President (1996-2001).  Bernard also served upon the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Board of Directors for 15 years and upon its Finance Committee for six years. In addition, he was the first non-European President of AIA (international referees association), served as its Vice-President for six years and upon its Executive Board for 10 years.  He also served upon the FINA-Technical Committee for five years as was inaugural Director of Water Polo Officials for the NCAA. Currently a member of the CWPA’s Technical Committee, he was honored in 2010 as USA Water Polo created the Bret Bernard Distinguished Referee Award - presented to officials calling the game at its highest levels.