Youth Polo: Growing the Game

Myopia youth program and coaching league

Legacies don’t happen overnight. They require decades to establish. The long-term success of any polo club depends on its commitment to developing the next generation of players. At Myopia, the youth program and coaching league ensure that the Club’s future is bright.

“The youth and coaching programs offer unique opportunities to younger players to enter polo as beginners and to advance to collegiate and outdoor polo for the more experienced players,” says Myopia Polo Captain David Strouss. “The program provides horses to the players, and players also learn about grooming and proper horse care.

“The youth program has grown over the years to include both junior and varsity women and men teams,” says Strouss. “The coaching league is so popular at Myopia that some players have chosen to stay in the program, while many move on to play regular polo at Myopia.”

Jacek “Yaz” Grotnik of Husaria Farm in Ipswich, and a member of Mypia Polo for more than two decades, oversees the Club’s youth, or interscholastic program, which helps develop players 18 years old and younger. Many players have familiar names, and that’s no coincidence.

“Family polo is the basis for youth polo,” says Grotnick. “From its beginning, bringing sons and daughters into the game has always been a tradition at Myopia.”

Interscholastic polo, run in conjunction with the Harvard Polo Club, provides entry-level polo for children, generally from 7th to 12th grade, although Myopia has had some younger participants, says Grotnick.

“Typically, kids with some riding experience join our program after trying polo at an introductory clinic or after seeing a game at Myopia,” he says. “Our program focuses on four primary tenants — horsemanship, sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork. Each of these combines to create a well-rounded player and teammate.

“A difference that sets polo apart from other equine disciplines is teamwork,” Grotnick says. “Each member of our program learns that for a team to be successful, their contribution needs to benefit each other and their horses.”

With the interscholastic program, coaching and playing takes place in the arena, a more contained environment for learning. The smaller size and slower speeds are more conducive to the introduction to the sport.

“After a season of arena play, which (goes) through the academic year, our participants move on to coaching league play outside on the grass in the spring and summer,” says Grotnick. “Fundamentals taught in the arena apply to outdoor polo and are further expanded on the big field. There they learn some of the strategies that apply to open-field play.”

As young players master the skills needed for more competitive polo, some will graduate to tournament play. The National Youth Tournament Series (NYTS) qualifiers take that competition to the next level.

“In the last season at Myopia, each tournament-level team had at least one participant that developed their skills via interscholastic, intercollegiate or both polo programs,” says Grotnick.

Grotnik noted that Myopia’s summer polo program allows intermediate and higher-level youth players to continue to compete and learn.

“Provided the participant knows the rules and can follow the flow of the game, they can be rated to play,” says Grotnik. “Most are rated minus-1 within the first or second year of participating, which qualifies them for low-goal tournaments. Our interscholastic participants range in age from 12 to 18 years old. The program has consistently had an average of 10 players in its seven-year history.”

Myopia typically fields two competitive teams, a junior varsity and a varsity squad. This year, Myopia had a middle school team that won the Northeast Regional Middle School Tournament at Yale. Last »

Top left, Rehan Kuble Top right, Julia Schaefer Above, Augie Grotnik (C)

The junior varsity team at Myopia Schooling Field/Poor Arena. From left, Assistant Coach Abby Kotwick, Emma Croke, Eva Croce, Dom Irvine, Estani J. Puch, Sofia Puch and Assistant Coach Ingrid Donnan

The junior varsity team at UPSA NE Preliminary Regional, Tinicum Polo Club, NJ. From left, Sofia Puch, Maverick Ellis, Dom Irvine (C), Emma Croke, Eva Croce

year, the club entered a girls’ team that won the Northeast Girls USPA Circuit Tournament. Myopia’s Interscholastic Varsity team has played at the USPA Interscholastic Open National Championship the past two years, finishing 3rd in 2021 and 5th in 2022.

Grotnik’s own experience with Myopia, and with polo, followed much of the same trajectory, though he came to the game later in life, in 1990.

“I had just moved to Boston and a neighbor invited me to Sunday Polo at Myopia,” says Grotnik. “I had never seen a polo match up close. After seeing Gibney Field, the athletic horses and the speed of the game, I convinced myself I had to give it a try.

“The announcer at the time was Peter Poor of Stage Hill Polo, the oldest continuously operating polo school in the country,” he says. “I enrolled in an introductory class, and the rest is history. Within the first year, I had my first horse and was playing three days a week.”

Similarly, Phillip Zocco, Myopia Polo’s 2015 Most Improved Player and sponsor of Team Georgetown Door & Window, credits Poor for his entry into the sport, and dozens of other players from Boston’s South Shore to Maine and southern New Hampshire.

“The majority of people in this area have started polo with Peter,” says Zocco. “The coaching league was the next level Peter had (players) step up to, where one could start playing competitively while getting a foot in the Myopia polo community door.”

Today, Myopia’s coaching league, which includes players of all ages, is run by Estanislao “Estani” Puch. It is Puch’s second year as a manager of the coaching league and new player development, though he has played at Myopia for 18 years. He’s a 2-goal USPA handicap, a Massachusetts certified riding instructor, and an Argentine Polo Association (AAP) certified polo coach.

“I started playing professionally at the Myopia polo club back in 2004,” say Puch. “Since then we — me, my wife Karen, and now my two kids, Estani Jr. and Sofia — are involved in polo.”

A native of Argentina, Puch was initially attracted by the tradition and history of Myopia. With the leadership provided by Strouss, Puch says “we took the program to the next level,” improving the fields and emphasizing the game’s importance to the Club.

“My take is the same I been doing for the last 20 years — getting new people into polo so that hopefully in the future they will end it up being regular players in Myopia,” he says.

Both program directors understand the challenges they face, especially attracting new players. But both are certain that if they can have people try polo, the sport will win converts. “With technology, where everything is so easy, the challenge is to get the people to like and ride horses and try polo,” says Puch. “The way we have organized the coaching league nowadays, if (newcomers) try with good horses and lots of experience, plus nice field and friendly players, they end up playing.”