 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2009) |
Underwater Rugby started in the United States in 1979.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2009) |
Underwater Rugby started in the United States in 1979.
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 of years later than Baltimore and Boston still plays both Underwater Rugby and more recently underwater hockey.
Around the year 2000, UW Rugby events in the US were basically UWR Clinics on which players from different parts of the country met to play during a weekend and play on a potluck format. After fail attempts to put together a National team to go to the World Championships of 2007 in Italy and 2011 in Finland, the only active clubs in the US (East Haven Makos, New Jersey Hammerheads, and Boston Narwhals) decided to join efforts with their Canadian counterparts (CAMO, Club Liberation) and started a Local Competition called the North American Underwater Rugby Tournaments (NAT) to raise the level of the game in both countries as well as provide continuous competition throughout the years for both countries.
With the North American Tournaments (NAT) the competition and level of play started to grow the sport and additional teams began to appear and expand the NAT tournaments. New Clubs started in the DC area, Florida, and later Wisconsin and California.
NAT tournaments also became attractive to clubs from other countries and participation especially from Colombian Clubs has been an additional motivation for local clubs.
| Club name | City | State | Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego Sea Devils | San Diego | CA | No |
| San Francisco Giant Sea Bass [1] | San Francisco | CA | Yes |
| Connecticut Makos | New Haven | CT | Yes |
| Florida Krakens | Pompano Beach - Key Largo | FL | No |
| 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 [3] | Newark | NJ | Yes |
| Florida Inter UWR | Coral Springs | FL | Yes |
| Colorado Underwater Rugby | Denver | CO | Yes |
| Tallahassee Tarpoon Underwater Rugby | Tallahassee | FL | Yes |
| Killeen Underwater Club | Killeen | TX | No |
| University of Texas [4] | Austin | TX | No |
| Marquette Aquamen UW Rugby | Marquette | MI | Yes |
The USA National Team has only been involved 5 times in CMAS world tournaments as described below.
1999 CMAS World Championship - Essen Germany
A combined team of players from Baltimore, Boston, and some Colombian immigrants went to the Worlds in 1999 in Germany
2003 CMAS World Championship - Fredericia Denmark
The team for the 2003 World Championship was assembled with players from different states with a base pool set in Massachusetts and in 2003 to Fredericia, Denmark. A combined women's team also went to Worlds in 2003.
2015 CMAS World Championship - Cali Colombia
The teams for the 2015 World Championships was assembled with players from different states including MA, NJ, CT, FL, DC
Men's Games
Women's games
2019 CMAS World Championship - Graz Austria The teams for the 2019 World Championships was assembled with players from different states including MA, NJ, CT, FL, DC, CA, TX [5]
Men's Games
Women's games
2023 CMAS World Championship - Montreal, Canada The teams for the 2023 World Championships was assembled with players from different states including MA, NJ, CT, FL, DC, CO
Men's Games
Women's games
The North American Underwater Rugby Tournaments (NAT) started in 2011 as a competition of US and Canadian Clubs with the purpose of providing local and continuous competition throughout the year in an effort to grow the sport and improve the level of play In both countries
| OPEN TOURNAMENT | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Date | City | Host | # Teams | Champion | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. |
| 1st NAT | Oct 2011 | Brantford, ON - Can | Liberation | 4 | CAMO | Liberation | NJ Hammerheads |
| 2nd NAT | Feb 2012 | Quincy, MA - USA | Boston Barwhals | 7 | Orphans | Boston Narwhals B | NJ Hammerheads |
| 3rd NAT | Jun 2012 | Montreal, QC - Can | CAMO | 3 | NJ Hammerheads | CAMO | Liberation |
| 4th NAT | Oct 2012 | Brantford, ON - Can | Liberation | 4 | CAMO | Liberation | NJ Hammerheads |
| 5th NAT | May 2013 | Montreal, Qc - Can | CAMO | 5 | CAMO A | NJ Hammerheads | Boston Narwhals |
| 6th NAT | Oct 2013 | Brantford, ON - Can | Liberation | 3 | Liberation | CAMO | NJ Hammerheads |
| 7th NAT | Jun 2014 | Montreal, ON - Can | CAMO | 4 | CAMO | NJ Hammerheads | Boston Narwhals |
| 8th NAT | Oct 2014 | Toronto, ON - Can | Toronto UWR | 4 | NJ Hammerheads | CAMO | Toronto UWR |
| 9th NAT | Apr 2015 | Newark, NJ - USA | NJ Hammerheads | 5 | NJ Hammerheads A | CAMO | East Haven Makos |
| 10th NAT | May 2015 | Montreal, Qc - Can | CAMO | 5 | NJ Hammerheads | CAMO | Toronto UWR |
| 11th NAT | Oct 2015 | Brantford, ON - Can | Liberation | 6 | NJ Hammerheads | CAMO/Boston Mix | Toronto UWR |
| 12th NAT | Feb 2016 | Islamorada, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | 10 | NJ Hammerheads | NUWR | Boston Narwhals |
| 13th NAT | May 2016 | Montreal, Qc - Can | Camo | 6 | NUWR | CAMO | Boston Narwhals |
| 14th NAT | Aug 2016 | Toronto, ON - Can | Toronto UWR | 5 | NUWR | NJ Hammerheads | CAMO |
| 15th NAT | Oct 2016 | Newark, NJ - USA | NUWR | 10 | NUWR A | Boston Narwhals | Florida Krakens |
| 16th NAT | Feb 2017 | East Haven, CT - USA | East Haven Makos | 9 | NUWR A | Boston Narwhals | CAMO |
| 17th NAT | May 2017 | Montreal, QC - Can | CAMO | 8 | Boston Narwhals | NUWR | CAMO A |
| 18th NAT | Sep 2017 | Islamorada, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | N/A | Cancelled | Due To | Hurricane |
| 19th NAT | Oct 2017 | Newark, NJ - USA | NJ Hammerheads | 10 | NUWR A | Boston Narwhals | NUWR B |
| 20th NAT | Feb 2018 | Montreal, QC - Can | CAMO | 7 | Boston Narwhals | NUWR B | CAMO |
| 21st NAT | May 2018 | Pompano Beach, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | 10 | Boston Narwhals | NJ Hammerheads | NUWR A |
| 22nd NAT | Aug 2018 | Toronto, ON - Can | Toronto UWR | 8 | CAMO A | NJ Hammerheads | Toronto UWR |
| 23rd NAT | Oct 2018 | Newark, NJ - USA | NUWR | 8 | Boston Narwhals | NJ Hammerheads | Florida Krakens |
| 24th NAT | Feb 2019 | Quincy, MA - USA | Boston Narwhals | 8 | Boston Narwhals A | NJ Hammerheads | Florida Krakens |
| 25th NAT | May 2019 | Pompano Beach, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | 11 | SCUBA (Col) | Cachalotes (Col) | Boston Narwhals |
| 26th NAT | Sep 2019 | Toronto, ON - Can | Toronto UWR | 7 | Boston Narwhals | Toronto UWR | CAMO |
| 27th NAT | Feb 2020 | Newark, NJ - USA | NJ Hammerheads | 12 | NJ Hammerheads A | NUWR A | CAMO |
| 2021 USA UWR Nationals | Nov 2021 | Denver, CO - USA | Colorado UWR | 8 | NJ Hammerheads A | NUWR | Boston Narwhals |
| 2022 USA UWR Nationals | Sep 2022 | New Haven, CT - USA | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| WOMEN TOURNAMENTS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Date | City | Host | # Teams | Champion | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. |
| 19th NAT | Oct 2017 | Newark, NJ - USA | NJ Hammerheads | 4 | East Haven Makos L | DC/Boston L | NJ Hammerheads L |
| 21st NAT | May 2018 | Pompano Beach, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | 4 | Boston Narwhals L | East Haven Makos L | N/A |
| 23rd NAT | Oct 2018 | Newark, NJ - USA | NUWR | 5 | Connecticut Makos A L | Boston Narwhals L | DC UWR L |
| 23rd NAT | Oct 2018 | Newark, NJ - USA | NUWR | 5 | Connecticut Makos A L | Boston Narwhals L | DC UWR L |
| 24th NAT | Feb 2019 | Quincy, MA - USA | Boston Narwhals | 5 | Connecticut Makos A L | Boston Narwhals L | DC UWR L |
| 25th NAT | May 2019 | Pompano Beach, FL - USA | Florida Krakens | 5 | Connecticut Makos A L | DC UWR L | NJ Hammerheads L |
| 2021 USA UWR Nationals | Nov 2021 | Denver, CO - USA | Colorado UWR | 4 | Colorado UWR L | CT Makos L | NJ Hammerheads L |
| 2022 USA UWR Nationals | Sep 2022 | New Haven, CT - USA | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
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