History of Calgary Renegades
The Calgary Renegades Water Polo Club was founded by John Csikos in 1985 and made the MNP Community & Sport Centre (formerly Repsol Sport Centre) it's home.
At this time the boys Torpedo Water Polo Club was flourishing, keeping a vague resemblance of the roots laid down in 1971 by Ivan Somlai, past aquatic director, of the now defunct Central YMCA. By 1992 the Torpedoes and Renegades WPC's merged.
The Calgary Renegades Water Polo Club had their first viable age-group women's water polo team by 1990.
In 2003, the Calgary Renegades Water Polo Club split into two groups - as we know it today: The Calgary Renegades Water Polo Club (female athletes) and the Calgary Torpedoes Water Polo Club (male athletes).
Atom aged kids (under 12) became increasing organized and better coached in the late 1990's and early 2000's. By 2003, the CMWPL (Calgary Minor Water Polo League) was also formed to provide water polo for the atom aged athletes (under the age of 12) . Two new atom clubs formed: Calgary Farmers and Calgary Lion Cubs under the umbrella of Calgary Water Polo and supported by both the Renegades and Torpedo clubs.
In the late 1990's, Calgary became the national training centre for the men's Canadian National Team and is now home to the Calgary National Legacy Centre. This program runs all year long, and its members, which includes current and aspiring National Team athletes train out of the MNP Community & Sport Centre. The Legacy Centre provides a presence and inspiration to water polo athletes & enthusiasts in Calgary.
In 2007, Calgary Water Polo Association (now the AWPA) was formed to develop league play in the Calgary area, and provide short term and medium term initiatives. At the same time, 3 new Regional Clubs were formed - Calgary Mako, Calgary Wild, and Calgary Seawolves. As well, the Prairie Dolphins from High River/ Okotoks were included in the region's league play.
The Calgary Torpedoes and Calgary Renegades moved to becoming more focussed on being High-Performance clubs, and have since drawn many of their athletes from these regional clubs.
As of 2015/16 Water Polo Canada (WPC) has created a national league known as the NCL (National Championship League). Its purpose is to develop western (SK, AB, BC, MB) and eastern (ON, QUE, ATL) age-group conference teams to compete within each other's conference and then the top teams from west and east to compete at a Canadian Nationals Finals weekend.
Today the Calgary Renegades are standing members of the Alberta Water Polo Association (AWPA) and recognized as a 'club team' by Water Polo Canada (WPC).