Underwater rugby in the United States
Introduction '''Underwater Rugby''' started in the '''United States''' in 1979.
History 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.
USA clubs  Club name City State Active San Diego Sea Devils San Diego CA No ''' San Francisco Giant Sea Bass''' 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''' Quincy MA '''Yes''' ''' Newark Underwater Recreation''' Newark NJ '''Yes''' ''' New Jersey Hammerheads Underwater Rugby''' 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  Austin TX No'''Marquette Aquamen UW Rugby''' Marquette MI'''Yes'''
International competition 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 Massachusettsand 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'''* USA 1-10  Austria* USA 0-11  Sweden* '''USA 20-0  South Africa'''* '''USA 2-1  Australia'''* '''USA 1-0  Spain''''''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, TXMen's Games* USA 0-12  Sweden* '''USA 16-1  Luxemburg'''* '''USA 2-0   Hungary'''* USA 1-4  Austria* '''USA 5-0  Great Britain'''* USA 1-3  Australia* '''USA  2-1  Italy'''Women's games* USA 1-1 Turkey* '''USA 2-0 Spain'''* USA 0-11 Germany'''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, COMen's Games* USA 0-18 Colombia* USA 0-10 Germany* '''USA 3-1  Spain'''* USA 0-3  Denmark* '''USA 2-0  Canada'''* '''USA 1-0  Australia'''* USA 0-5  SwedenWomen's games* USA 1-5  Australia* '''USA 3-0  Canada'''* USA 0-12 Colombia* USA 1-10 Germany* '''USA 4-1  Spain'''* USA 0-5  Denmark* USA 0-1  Austria
Local competition 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
References
External links *  Underwater Society of America Underwater Rugby homepage*  USA Underwater Rugby homepage