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Joe Linehan is likely the most informed person in Texas about all facets of the sport’s growth. He was hired by USA Water Polo as the Texas Development Manager in 2015. He served as USAWP Southwest Zone Chair for nearly a decade and has been a member of the Zone board since 2003. His extensive coaching experience includes stints as Club Director/Head Coach for Thunder Water Polo in North Texas from 2009-2017, and Head Coach/Executive Director for the Houston Water Polo Club from 2003-2009. Between 1998-2002, Joe was the Head Water Polo Coach at the NCAA Division III United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY where he also started the Big Apple Water Polo Club in 2000.

A Texas A&M University graduate, Joe earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Science in 1997. At Texas A&M, Joe was the player/coach for the collegiate club water polo team and a member of the NCAA swim team. You can contact him via email or at 713.705.0945.

James E. Smith has been involved in the sport since 1980 when he joined Beach Water Polo Club, after which he played at Long Beach Wilson High School and UC San Diego. He’s had head coaching stints at La Costa Canyon High School in Encinitas in the early 2000s, and the Priory School in Portola Valley beginning in 2011. In 2013 he moved full time to Austin where he is the Head Coach for AquaTex Waterpolo and USA Water Polo’s Southwest Zone Boys.

James graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in Political Science in 1990 and earned an MBA from the Georgetown University in Washington, DC in 1997. He has published work on foreign affairs in The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and the Journal of Commerce. In addition to his work on Total Waterpolo, which he founded in 2008, he has written for FloSwimming, and Skip Shot magazine.