The POLOLIFE Story

POLOLIFE was founded by Andrea (Kastrup) Kropp to provide high-end water polo gear and accessories to everyone via a familiar e-commerce experience on platforms such as web stores, Amazon, Facebook and Instagram. She recognized that the sport of water polo was growing tremendously across the US especially at the high school level and among female athletes, but there was a lack of high quality 'fan gear' available online compared to sports such as baseball or soccer. She created this brand to help water polo achieve its growth goals as a sport. Every time you wear a water polo hoodie or use a water polo towel or give a water polo gift, you help raise the profile of the sport we love.

Andrea played in multiple water polo hotbed areas at a time when very few women were playing, before there were any varsity college women's programs and before women's water polo was an Olympic sport. It is so fantastic to look at how the sport has grown. I cherish my connection to these areas and programs even if they don't remember me. I did pass through many of them for just a year at a time as I was getting my education.

• 1988-89 Woodside High School Swimming, Woodside CA
• 1990-91 San Ramon Valley High School Boys JV Team, Danville CA
• 1991-95 UC Irvine Women's Club Team, Irvine CA (Go Eaters!)
• 1996 UC San Diego Club Team, La Jolla CA
• 1997 University of Wisconsin Women's Club Team, Madison WI
• 1998-99 University of Michigan Women's Club Team, Ann Arbor MI (Go Blue!)
• 2000-2001 George Washington University, Washington DC (Asst Coach)
• 1998-2001 USAWP Referee. I think I worked about 400-500 games starting with girls high school JV in the Ann Arbor area, traveling as far as Carlton College in Minnesota by train to get experience, and culminating with a Men's NCAA game at the Naval Academy.
• 2002 First baby boy born and life changed.
• 2019 Tualatin Hills Water Polo, Beaverton OR (I went to one workout, overdid it after being out of the pool for so long, got injured and needed a year of treatment for my shoulder, and have not been back. There is no reason they would remember me, but I'm on their email list and my shoulder is better now. Fingers crossed.)

I've started going through all my old photo albums to see if I have pictures from all these places. Stay tuned. Several of them are stuck to the album pages and I might damage them if I try to take them out.

Andrea Kropp