Aiken (S.C.) Polo Club, New Bridge Polo and Country Club and Wagener (S.C.) Polo Club are working together to plan and coordinate tournaments and practices, to foster friendly relationships among the clubs and to stop competing against each other.
Last December, the Aiken (S.C.) Polo Club announced that Billy Raab had become its new General Manager. Not long after, a letter from Raab stated that the club was working with the Wagener (S.C.) Polo Club and New Bridge Polo and Country Club to plan and coordinate tournaments and practices, the Aiken (S.C.) Standard reported.
The goal, Raab wrote, was to create “a stronger community within the sport and still retain the heritage of each club.”
Earlier this week, Raab expressed optimism that the objective would be achieved. “I think it’s going to be great,” he said. “Everybody is on board with this. Basically, what we’re trying to do is get the three clubs to stop competing against each other.
“Hopefully, players and spectators are going to notice that polo here is a lot more friendly and a lot more organized,” said Raab, who manages the Skaneateles (N.Y.) Polo Club in New York during the summer.
A former professional polo player who had a five-goal handicap at the height of his career, Raab moved to Aiken County 12 years ago. He and his wife, Michelle, own Broken Arrow Farm. “When I first came here, there were 248 players and nine clubs,” Raab said. “Now there are only three clubs and about 147 players, and that hurts.”
Those declines created a situation locally that Raab described as a “nightmare” as the remaining clubs scrambled to host competitions during spring and fall seasons, the Standard reported.
“It was a free-for-all,” Raab said. “Everybody had to work around whoever got their schedule up first, and they were trying to pull away players from other clubs. Sometimes there would be tournament finals that were less than an hour apart, and the players couldn’t be in them all.”
As a result, there were postponements and confusion. But because of efforts by the United States Polo Association, there were meetings last year that fostered a more united approach to polo competition locally, Raab said.
“We’ve worked out dates and tried to avoid conflicts,” Raab said. “We’re also trying to get more outside players, and we are going to try to have more parties for them to show them that they are welcome. The communication between the clubs is going to be a lot better.”
Raab is making both his phone number and email address widely available, the Standard reported.
“People can contact me anytime, and I will get back to them,” he said. “It might not be right that second, but I will get back to them. I don’t like it when someone has question and nobody answers or responds.”
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