Although club sports at UA do not have to comply with the gender equity agreement Title IX, the title is having an effect on some of UA's club teams.

Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972, makes it illegal for any educational group or activity that receives federal financial assistance to discriminate on the basis of sex.

Because of this law, the UA women's water polo club team might move up to NCAA varsity status and seek new players within the next few years leaving the old team in shambles or extinct altogether.

The possibility is a realistic one: The UA athletic department could be adding a new sport to its list of 19 varsity sports so the school will be more Title IX-compliant.

"There is no set time on it, but at some point in the future, our plans are to possibly add women's water polo," said UA athletic director Jim Livengood.

Arizona State University ended up dissolving its women's club water polo team when it added a varsity team, a scenario that UA water polo co-captain Rochelle Perper says could happen at UA.

"I would imagine it would die," said Perper, a liberal arts sophomore and driver on the team. "The team left wouldn't be competitive and would have trouble getting players," she said.

The last women's club sport to go varsity was soccer in 1994. Some of the players on the '94 team had feared UA would dissolve the club team as some schools do not allow both a club team and NCAA team to compete side by side, she said.

"That is not the case here at the U of A. I do not buy into that philosophy," Mary O'Mahoney said. "I feel it would be denying women or men, depending on the sport, the opportunity to play."

O'Mahoney, program coordinator for the Student Recreation Center, said she did not believe adding women's water polo as a varsity sport would hurt the UA club team.

"A water polo coach will come here and recruit their own players from around the country, and the club would draw players with water polo experience and also new people interested in learning the sport," O'Mahoney said. "The important thing is that the opportunity will be available for those who want to play at either level."

Part of the reason for possibly selecting women's water polo is that there is a market for it after the success of the club team: It has won the Southwest Division the last two years and finished 11th nationally last year.

"We considered sports based on how they do at the grassroots level, local, level, regionally and nationally."

Another option for UA could be to follow the path of the University of California Los Angeles, which added a varsity water polo team in 1995. Its club team not only survived, but thrives today, winning the Pacific Division Championship and coming in third in the nation last year.

	KRISTIN ELVES/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA Water Polo goalie Pam Morlock attempts a save in practice Monday.

"Women's water polo is growing like a gangbuster," said Jeff Whitmore, head coach for UA club women's water polo. "It is a Title IX sport, and it makes sense financially because there is lots of money invested in aquatics. So it is a no-brainer in terms of expenses."

If water polo is promoted to varsity, the athletic department would hire a coach nine months to a year before the season begins in order to recruit new players, Livengood said.

There are three ways to become Title IX compliant: match the gender percentage of the undergraduate population, expand opportunities for women or determine there is no interest on campus in a particular sport, said Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose, senior associate athletic director and chair of the department's gender equity and Title IX committees.

The reason UCLA has been able to thrive while it competes in the NCAA and as a club team in women's water polo is because there is the opportunity to play and an interest in playing, O'Mahoney said.

"As long as the opportunities are provided and the interest by individuals to participate exists, there can be two strong programs coexisting," O'Mahoney said.

Women's water polo would become the UA's 20th intercollegiate sport and only the fourth sport to be given NCAA status since 1972. Women's track and field was added in 1975, women's cross-country in 1976 and women's soccer in 1994, said Cliff Papin, director of heritage operations for the Jim Click Hall of Champions.