The Simon Recreation Center at St. Louis University will be home to Elite Polo in 2008.  The 40-meter pool is one of the finest facilities in St. Louis and the expansive water space will provide ample room for Elite campers.  St. Louis Universty provides a great surrounding for our weekend:  established in 1818, it is the oldest university west of the Mississippi and the second oldest Jesuit university in the United States.

Elite Camp Staff

GAVIN ARROYO
HEAD COACH, LONG BEACH STATE UNIVERSITY
2-TIME US OLYMPIAN, 3-TIME NCAA CHAMPION, 2-TIME NCAA ALL-AMERICAN

Gavin Arroyo, a two-time member of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Water Polo team (1996, 2000) recently completed his second year at the helm of Long Beach State. Hired in the spring of 2006 to take over the Long Beach State men's water polo program, he has already started to leave his mark as a premier coach at the Division I level.

Arroyo led Long Beach to a 17-15 mark in 2007 as the 49ers finished the season ranked No. 9 in country. In addition, four Long Beach State players were named to All-MPSF teams and three to All-American. For his efforts, Gavin was honored as 2007 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Men's Water Polo co-Coach of the Year.

Before coming to Long Beach, Arroyo served as an assistant coach (2005) for the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team, planning training schedules, aiding in game preparation, organizing fund-raising events and being responsible for fundamentals, tactic implementation and conditioning. He has also served as the head coach for the Olympic Club of San Francisco men’s team (2004-05) for two years.

A 1994 graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Science, Arroyo competed on the U.S. men’s team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. He was a first team All-American at Cal in 1993 and was a part of three NCAA Championship squads in Berkeley (1990, 1991, 1992). Arroyo competed on the U.S. National Team for eight years (1993-2000) helping lead the U.S. squad to numerous championships. The U.S. men’s team won the World Championships in 1994 and 1998, the 1997 FINA Cup and the 1995 and 1999 Pan American Games championships. He competed for seven years overseas playing professional water polo in Greece and Spain with five different clubs (Vouliagmeni, Glyfada, CN Barcelona, Olympiakos and CN Barceloneta). He was a member of the 1998 Greek League championship team and was runner-up in 1997 and 1998 at the European Cup Winners’ Cup.


JEFF EHRLICH
HEAD COACH, AIR FORCE ACADEMY

Head coach Jeff Ehrlich has completed his ninth season at the helm of the water polo program at the Academy. He came to Air Force in 1999 after a 25-year stay at Villa Park High School in Orange County, Calif. In his first eight years at Air Force, Ehrlich has led the team to a combined 115-114 record and a top 20-finish in the nation in seven seasons with the highest final ranking of 13th. Ehrlich holds a 91-58 conference record, placing in the top four in five of the last eight years. Under his tutelage, the Falcons have had 14 different players earn NCAA All-Academic honors a total of 29 times, while 15 players have combined for 25 WWPA All-Association selections. In addition, five players--Casey Wood, Charlie Toth, Chris Smith, Scott Butler and Murphey Morgan--have distinguished themselves as NCAA All-Americans. Two athletes, Toth and Kyle Schafer, were both recipients of the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, while Schafer was named a CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American in 2007.

Ehrlich has coached 58 All-Americans, including 1988 Olympic silver medalist Doug Kimbell and Olympic athlete Gavin Arroyo, who competed in 1996 and 2000. Now retired from the Olympic team, Arroyo, a former assistant coach for the USA Men's National Team, is married and serves as head water polo coach at Long Beach State. Ashley and Amber Stachowski, two women Ehrlich coached at Capo Valley High School, are former women's national team members. Amber Stachowski was named to the Olympic roster and attended the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, bringing home the bronze. The women brought back the silver medal from the 2000 Olympics.



ALBERT GARCIA
UCLA BRUINS, 2000-2004, 2-TIME NCAA CHAMPION, 2004 NCAA ALL-AMERICAN

Albert Garcia just recently finished his collegiate career at UCLA were he help lead his teams to three NCAA championship appearances (2000-2001,2004) winning twice (2000,2004). Albert was All-Conference twice (2001,2004), All-NCAA Tournament First Team twice (2001,2004), as well as All-American 2004.

After graduating from UCLA in 2004, Albert continued on to play with the U.S. National team. Albert participated in several international tournaments in Germany, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro, and Hungry. Albert also played professionally for La Latina in Madrid, Spain, where he was the leading scorer of the league.

Albert Garcia graduated from Long Beach Wilson High School where he trained under U.S. National Team Head Coach Ricardo Azevedo and Tony Martinho. While at Wilson High his teams won four consecutive CIF championships (96-99). Garcia was selected twice as 1st team All-American selection (98-99), as well as All-Moore League four years in a row, and league Most Valuable Player. While in High school Albert also competed on the US Jr. National team from 1996-200. He was also Captain of the Jr team that won Gold at Pan American games in Venezuela and a two-time Jr. World Championships Team member.

Albert’s coaching background includes assistant coaching at Long Beach Wilson High School and Shore Aquatics. While assisting at Wilson, the team won two CIF Division 1 championships. At Shore Aquatic he was an assistant for Robert Lynn and his team went on to place second at National Age Groups. Albert is also The Head Coach at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School for both the Men and Women Water Polo teams and has recently been named Coastal California Youth water polo team coach.