PORTSMOUTH - "It looks like a little girl's birthday party," said Joshua Unseth '09, one of the newly founded club polo team's senior members, of the team's first practice. Despite lacking a budget or official recognition from the Student Activities Office, Unseth and 22 others packed into cars and drove 40 minutes to get to the indoor polo arena here, where they were outfitted with proper riding gear and horses. For some, it was their first time on a horse, let alone playing polo.
Polo is played worldwide, with teams consisting of three or four players on horseback, depending on whether the match is indoors or outdoors. The goal of the game is to use mallets to hit a plastic or felt ball into the opposing team's goal on the far end of the field. Outdoor fields are 300 by 160 yards, the equivalent area of about nine football fields, and indoor arenas are smaller.
Of the team's 23 members, only two had played polo prior to the practice. Nina Frost '09 is the team's "token polo player." While studying abroad last semester in France, she learned to play at a polo club and is offering her expertise to the team. The team is also being trained by polo professional Matthew Fonseca.
"This is our debut practice," Adam Crego '09 said. "We've been waiting quite awhile for this - it's quite exciting."
In fact, the team has been waiting since last spring to start playing. "This is no walk in the park," Crego said, referring to organizing the group. The team has been coordinating with Agnes and Dan Keating, co-administrators of the Newport Polo Club.
"Agnes Keating is definitely responsible for this happening so quickly because she worked hard with the students at Brown to get them down here," said Dori Burner, a member of the Newport Polo Club and manager of Fonseca's polo program.
"If they fill out the proper paperwork and register with the USPA, they will become the Brown Intercollegiate Polo team and play schools like Yale, Cornell, and UConn," said Agnes Keating. The USPA is the United States Polo Association.
The team is lucky to be near Fonseca, Burner said. According to Burner, Fonseca, who has a family history of polo, grew up in England and Argentina playing polo with the Gauchos, Argentine polo professionals.
"I believe he's the highest-ranked polo player in New England currently," she said.
But by the end of the practice, even Fonseca was impressed by the riders' new skills. "You've got the basics of a team here," he told The Herald from the sidelines of a scrimmage, as he turned to yell, "Sick shot, Josh!"
Though it has an enthusiastic, dedicated set of team members, the group is still in the process of applying to be a recognized team, said Crego, who is coordinating the team with Rachel Griffith '10. Crego said he hopes to submit a constitution after a team meeting on Tuesday.
Despite not yet having submitted an application, team members still feel as if the University is not going to fund them well.
"Is Brown funding us?" Julie Mohamed '11 asked her teammates on the drive to the polo arena. After some discussion, Unseth said, "Brown won't fund us."
Drew Madden '10, student activities chair for the Undergraduate Council of Students, told The Herald that the team has not applied for any official status or funding. "We have not spoken with them in any official sense," he said.
According to Crego, the general resentment appears to stem from the Student Activities Office's initial response to the polo team's unofficial inquiries about official sanction.
"We were told that we'd get a starting fund of $1,000," Crego said. "It's more than just us - I guess volleyball and badminton teams are also applying (for funding). Polo should be funded more than another sport that doesn't need much money. I mean, what are you going to buy, a freakin' birdie?"
Because they haven't applied for University funding yet, some team members, including Unseth, are working once a week at the farm where Fonseca teaches polo to offset the cost of the $50-per-person lessons.
"We're also planning fundraisers to help with the fees," Crego said.
