Correspondent photo / John Patrick Gatta ... Polo players compete in Saturday’s inaugural United Way Polo Cup at Chipper’s Practice Range in Austintown. It was a fundraiser for United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. Team Raphael’s School of Beauty (blue shirts) won 9-6 over Dearing Compressor & Pump Co. (red shirts).

AUSTINTOWN — Polo returned to the Mahoning Valley when the local United Way hosted a charity event Saturday afternoon.

The inaugural Polo Cup featured two teams of three players each playing against each other in a match at Chippers Practice Range on state Route 46. According to Mike Groubert, a player on Team Raphael’s School of Beauty, the sport was played in the Mahoning Valley in the 1960s through the 1980s.

“There were a bunch of teams around here at one point,” he said. “Back when the Strouss company was in downtown Youngstown, Stanley Strouss played. He kind of started it, and by the time I came around as a kid, he was already done playing. So, it had been around for quite a while, but it fizzled out in the early ’90s.”

Andrea Groubert, also on Team Raphael’s, added, “Everybody retired out and it never continued to grow. So, Mike and I have always talked about having it back in the area. We think that the Mahoning Valley would support it and love to see it. So, we contacted the United away and said, ‘Let’s host a polo benefit.'”

The Grouberts own Willowbrook Polo Farms in Canfield and train horses who are then used in matches across the country.

The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley has been working on the idea of a charity polo match as a fundraiser since 2019.

“It’s something different,” said Roxann Sebest, vice president of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. “As a nonprofit, you’re always looking at ways to raise money and what’s different? What’s new? What’s going to attract people? There are a ton of great golf outings. There are a ton of great dinners, but what’s going to get people excited? It’s also family-friendly. All of us, as nonprofits, are looking for different ways to do things.”

Previously, the United Way had golf outings, the Champions Among Us event, which is a dinner that hosts a sports celebrity and the annual Holiday Basketball Classic tournament that features local high school teams.

Attendees at Saturday’s event sat on camp chairs in the general admission area or hung out under canopies that were sponsored by local businesses while food trucks and catering by Love Soup made sure everyone was fed and hydrated.

Played on horseback, polo features two teams of four players each (three on each side competed on Saturday), using long-handled mallets to hit a ball, compete to score by hitting a ball into the opposing team’s goal. It’s a fast-paced, physically demanding game played on a large grass field, the size of multiple football fields.

“Polo takes all the different sports in horses and combines them all into one,” Andrea Groubert said. “You have to be very efficient at your balance and your quick thinking. It’s like you’re playing chess out there because you have all these opponents. Nothing ever stays the same.

At other events, if you’re going through a jump course, those stay where they’re at. They’re stationary. In polo, the ball is always changing, horses are always changing and moving. Your riding skills definitely develop when you play polo.”

The game is divided into periods called “chukkers,” which usually last seven minutes each, and followed by a break for rest or a change of horses. During halftime, fans are encouraged to come on to the field of play and take part in “divot stomping,” restoring any grass patches that were torn up by the horses’ hooves.

Horses and players wear protective gear, while specific rules are in place for added safeguarding. The polo horses are retired race horses from Hollywood Gaming in Austintown, JACK Thistledown Racino in Cleveland, Mountaineer Casino Resort & Races in Chester, W.Va. and Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie, Pa.

Team Raphael’s School of Beauty won 9-6 over Dearing Compressor & Pump Co. at the first United Way Polo Cup.

A polo player for five decades as well as professional match announcer for charity events across America, Coy Gupta explained the sport to the attendees throughout the action. He even took the time to offer a lesson in the proper technique of handling a polo mallet.

“We’re here to create a ruckus and raise money for charity,” he said. “That’s the whole idea.”

Referring to events like this helping the sport grow from one generation to the next, Gupta said, “With the kids learning polo, we always encourage it, great scholarships for great colleges with polo, which most people can’t get. So, it’s an advantage for any child that plays polo to get one of those scholarships.

“Aside from that, it’s great for their development as an individual, their compassion for horses, camaraderie, working with a team, playing a contact sport and then understanding how to be respectful and abide by the rules of the game and courtesy within the whole community of polo.

Sebest saw the event as win-win for charity and for reintroducing the sport to the area.

“This is a way to attract new people to come see our events. You may not be a sports fan or you may not play golf, but you may be curious to do something on a Saturday in the summer and check us out and learn more about a really cool sport…and for a good cause.”