USA Water Polo (USAWP), the game’s nationwide governing physique in the USA, has chosen Jamie Davis as its new chief government officer. Davis involves USAWP after serving as the highest government at USA Volleyball for seven years.
Davis will change Chris Ramsey, who was USAWP’s CEO for 18 years, the longest tenure of any nationwide governing physique within the nation.
“We’re excited to welcome Jamie Davis to the USA Water Polo crew,” stated Invoice Smith, Chair of the USA Water Polo Board of Administrators, within the official announcement. “Jamie’s imaginative and prescient and management shall be instrumental in guiding the group into its subsequent chapter. We’re assured that his contribution will drive USA Water Polo to new heights.”
Davis expressed his enthusiasm to start working with the group.
“I’m honored to affix USA Water Polo and look ahead to working with the gifted athletes, coaches, employees, and the broader water polo group,” Davis stated. “Collectively, we are going to proceed to advertise the expansion and excellence of this sport.”
Davis has no prior expertise with water polo, making his choice for the function a slight shock. Earlier than working with USA Volleyball, he labored as a sports activities marketer and promoter, with profession highlights together with stints at NBC Sports activities, ESPN and Fanatics.
Given his lack of water polo experience, Davis seems to have been chosen for his expertise main a sporting nationwide governing physique.
Lee Feinswog, editor of Volleyball Journal, commented on how Davis’s lack of water polo expertise is probably not a unfavourable.
“The factor about operating an NGB is that the talent set you want isn’t essentially concerning the sport,” Feinswog stated. “Jamie, for instance, wasn’t a volleyball individual when he went to USA Volleyball. Within the case of USA Water Polo, it will be getting somebody who’s used to operating a a lot greater group who is aware of the [United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee], [International Olympic Committee], and methods to navigate the layers of politics that smother worldwide sports activities.”
Sure members of the water polo group have expressed considerations about Davis’s skill to successfully lead the group from the get-go, particularly as planning for the 2028 Olympics will get underway.
“In conversations I’ve had with former Olympians who’ve been concerned with water polo, it’s necessary for US Water Polo to grasp that their purchasers are the water polo people fascinated about having [as CEO] somebody they will relate to, [who] understands what’s happening,” stated Ryan Bailey, a four-time Olympian and USAWP board member, in a dialog with Swimming World Journal.
“You don’t want somebody beginning on day one who can’t take off operating as a result of they don’t know [key] gamers—who’re probably the most vocal and most concerned. Get somebody who already has that data and who can choose up the ball and run with it.”
Though unfamiliar with the game of water polo, Davis is not any stranger to strengthening a sport’s nationwide governing physique.
Whereas heading up USA Volleyball, Davis considerably expanded the group’s income and membership; in 2022 group had a complete income of $38.3 million, up from $29.7 million in 2017, and 435,000 members, up 30% from when he joined the group.
Conversely, USAWP’s whole income in 2022 was $16 million with a membership of round 50,000.
United States volleyball additionally noticed nice success within the Olympics throughout Davis’s tenure with USA Volleyball, bringing residence three gold medals in Tokyo.
Regardless of his success in rising the governing physique’s belongings, Davis is leaving USA Volleyball to combined evaluations, as sure volleyball coaches stay unimpressed with the route that he took the group, significantly in relation to an obvious emphasis on revenue over high quality of the game. Some members of the teaching group prompt an absence of help for boys’ volleyball from USA Volleyball throughout the time that Davis was on the helm.
Davis additionally began at USA Volleyball with no prior expertise with or information concerning the sport.
Exiting CEO Ramsey didn’t have prior water polo expertise when he got here to the group both; he got here to the group from the New York Metropolis Ballet. Below his management, USAWP elevated its membership to 50,000 and the annual income rose from $4 million to $16 million, whereas the ladies’s nationwide crew dominated the worldwide stage, profitable gold at three straight Olympic Video games.
USA Water Polo introduced Ramsey’s plan to retire following the Paris Olympics again in December; Davis will take over from him efficient October 1, 2024.
