Head Youth Coach

Coach Ben is a former swimmer and Memphis native. He has been coaching water polo since 2015, winning multiple TN state titles and coaching numerous athletes to 1st and 2nd All State team recognitions. Ben also helped co-found the TIWPA to help grow the sport in high schools across Tennessee; serving previously as Western Region Director and currently as President. 

Coach Ben began coaching as the inaugural head coach for the MHEA Eagles in 2015. As head coach, he helped lead the program to back to back state championships in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, MHEA and St. George's partnered programs due to numbers. Ben moved to assistant coach and tallied a third state championship. Ben joined the BCWP staff in 2016 as an assistant under club founders Kevin Heinrich and Jonathon Dobkins and took over as the youth club director in 2021. Ever since his first game, Coach Ben has been voracious for water polo knowledge and has attended and observed water polo camps at USC, Navy, and the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. Coach Ben has also hosted camps in Memphis for Olympians Tony Azevedo and Genai Kerr. 

Coach Ben is an honors graduate from the University of Alabama and received his doctorate of dental surgery from the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry. Coach Ben and his wonderful wife, Anna, met coaching water polo for BCWP, and have been happily married since 2019.

Youth Coach

Coach Zach Alford is a Northern California native who played water polo at the varsity and collegiate level. Zach was on the varsity team at The King’s Academy all 4 years of his high school career, 2 of those years as team captain as well as MVP. Zach was the all-time leading scorer for 3 consecutive years and currently holds the record for most goals scored in a season. Zach also competed on several different club teams throughout his high school career such as West Valley Water Polo, Northern California Aquatics, and San Jose Premier. Zach even had the opportunity to travel to Hungary to compete against teams in Budapest and Csongrád. Zach finished his varsity water polo career at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California. Zach still competes with the Bluff City masters team and coaches the varsity team at Collierville High School.

Youth Coach

Joseph is a Memphis native who started playing water polo in the 8th grade. He competed on BCWP’s age group team since its start in 2015 and school team during high school. He was one of the first Tennessee water polo athletes to play varsity water polo in college. He played one season at Monmouth College before transferring to Augustana College for his junior year. He finished his career at Augustana as top 10 in program goals, steals, and assists; he has also racked up over 150 goals in his career. He is a well-decorated high school and collegiate athlete, earning high school state MVP and state champion from 2017-2019. He is a first-team Academic All-American and a three-time DIII All-American along with other collegiate awards and honors. Joseph has served as a BCWP youth coach since 2022 and serves as the Briarcrest assistant water polo coach.

Youth Coach

Mark is a Memphis native who has played water polo since 7th grade. He competed for BCWP’s age group team. During his time in high school, Mark won multiple state championships and earned all-state honors. Mark competed across the country with BCWP and club teams from Atlanta and Chicago.

Mark brings experience from his successful collegiate career at Division III school Augustana College, where he competed against the best teams in Division I, Division II, and Division III. Through the four years as a Viking, Mark amassed over 125 career goals and 115 career steals while leading the Vikings to four conference titles and three DIII national championship tournament appearances. During his senior season, Mark served as a captain while leading the Vikings to the best winning record in program history. Additionally, he earned four-time MPSF East All-Conference selections, ACWPC First-Team All-American, and MPSF East Player of the Year. Mark has served as an assistant coach on BCWP’s coaching staff since 2023.

Youth Coach

Coach JoJo is a Memphis native who began playing water polo in 2013. Along with her older sister, she was a driving force behind the establishment of the MHEA high school water polo team, the Eagles. She won 2 state championships with MHEA and 1 with a combined MHEA and SGIS team, the Gryeagles.

During her high school years she also played JO’s with the Atlanta Dynamo, attended ODP camps, and was selected to participate in the ODP All-Star competition in 2019. While there she won the Nick Johnson award for her individual performance and sportsmanship.

Also while in high school, Coach JoJo spent the falls of 2018 & 2019 in Barcelona, Spain playing with the Barcelona International Water Polo Academy (BIWPA), an international water polo academy with athletes from around the world.

From January to August of 2020 she was selected to be a member of the inaugural class of Tony Azevedo’s 6-8 Elite Academy. For the next 4 years she spent her summers training with five-time Olympian Tony Azevedo, gold medalists’ Maggie Steffens and Kami Craig, and Olympic coach Rico Azevedo in Southern CA.

For collegiate play, Coach JoJo played at a Division II college and was the first water polo athlete from BCWP to be awarded a scholarship for athletics. In her freshman and sophomore years her team won the Western Water Polo Association Championship and went on to participate in the NCAA Women’s Water Polo tournament.

In her collegiate career she led her team in earned exclusions with 127 in 83 games played and tallied a total of 84 points. She was also recognized for her academics, being awarded the Academic Female Athlete of the Year for 2024 as an undergrad, and earning awards in 2025 for having the highest GPA among female athletes and for her work in student life as a grad student.

After completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sports and Recreation Management, Coach JoJo returned to the Memphis area and began coaching for BCWP in the summer of 2025. She also assisted Coach Patrick with the Ponies in the 2025 fall high school season.

In the fall of 2026, she will be heading to Scotland to pursue a Master's degree in Marketing. While there, she will play water polo for Strathclyde University, and also hopes to play in the British professional league.

Youth Coach

Jacob currently attends LSU, majoring in chemical engineering. He has been playing water polo for 8 years and coaching for 3 years. Jacob started playing water polo for Bluff City in middle school and high school. He currently plays for the LSU Water Polo Club. Jacob has been a youth coach for Bluff City for the past two summers.

Youth Coach

Bailey is a born and raised Memphian. In high school she transferred from competitive swim to water polo and has never looked back. She has experience coaching both swim and water polo. She has been a member of the Bluff City family since 2022 and has returned to coach after her freshman year of college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She is currently playing for UTK’s club water polo team and is majoring in Secondary Social Studies Education with a minor in History.