Getting the polo pros to play in Vero wasn’t the problem.
“The pros are easy,” George Kahle said. “They’ll show up. All you have to do is write them a check.”
In recent years, however, finding enough amateurs had become a challenge as the nation’s economic downturn combined with the departure of local youths to college, the departure of club members from Vero Beach and, for varying reasons, the departure of home-grown players from the game.
With amateurs occupying three of the four positions on each team, Kahle and his wife, Sandy – the founders of Vero Beach Polo – were left with no real choice but to cease operations.
So there is no more Vero Beach Polo, which shut down after 15 years.
There will be no polo season in Vero Beach this winter. There’s a real chance that, other than the biennial Windsor Charity Cup event and, perhaps, an occasional exhibition at the fledgling BG Polo and Equestrian complex, competitive polo won’t be played here in the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Kahle’s wife, Sandy, who is optimistic that the sport has enough local support to keep Vero Beach on Florida’s polo map.
“I don’t know anything specific, but I’ve got a sense there will be other people stepping up.
“The natural attrition of life changes caused there to be a low roster this year, unfortunately, making it impossible to have our usual 12 weekly matches,” she added. “Some of the youth players have grown up and gone to college. Other players have had changes in their lives or injuries that put polo on the back burner. Some have found other places to play.
“But I’ve been looking through our photo albums and, for the past 15 years, it’s been such a wonderful time. We’ve built a good base of fans and we’re hoping this is just a transition year.”
Last season, Vero Beach Polo had about 20 amateurs who were divided into four-player teams, usually with one pro per team, and they’d play two games on Sunday afternoons at The Polo Grounds, just south of Pointe West, the club’s home from 2000 to 2009.
The festive, three-month season ran from January to April, and the matches would attract crowds of up to 500 people, including family members and a tailgate group known as “Friends of Polo.” But the core group of amateur players – the backbone of the club – had been shrinking, particularly during the past five years.
This year, the club reached a breaking point.
“We tried to find ways to keep it going, but we finally came to a decision,” Kahle said. “We just didn’t have enough people to be sure we could field teams every week.”
The level of play produced by Vero Beach Polo wasn’t of the same, elite caliber as seen in Palm Beach County, generally considered the sport’s winter mecca, where teams often are composed of three pros and the team owner.
“They’re at the high end, and the level down there can vary from pretty good to great,” Kahle said. “We were at the lower-to-medium level. But there’s a real passion for polo here.”
In addition to Max Secunda, a local pro who now teaches the sport at BG Polo, the list of prominent Vero Beach Polo supporters and players included Charley Replogle, Peter Busch, Linda Proctor, Elaine Harrison, Debra Atwell and television host John Walsh, who captained one of the teams.
Most of the local amateurs, including the Kahles, learned how to play polo 21 years ago, when they took lessons at Windsor, which offered clinics with a Wellington-based instructor.
“It’s such a terrific sport, it didn’t take long to get hooked,” Kahle said. “So when Windsor got out of the game, I talked to the people at Pointe West about bringing polo over there. I think we had about a dozen members.”
That number grew to more than 20 as the club spawned a second generation of players. The children of several founding members enthusiastically embraced the sport: The Kahles’ sons, Dolf and Jesse, and daughter, Lisa; Replogle’s son, Coleman; Busch’s daughter, Tiffany; Atwell’s son, Sam, and daughter, Annie; and Walsh’s sons, Cal and Hayden. In fact, the Kahles’ grandson, Devon, had extended the club’s legacy to a third generation as the Sunday afternoon games became social events – not the stuffy, high-society affairs often associated with polo, which certainly has a regal quality to it, but more-casual, picnic-type gatherings for family members, friends and even dogs of all ages.
“It has been the pleasure of the Kahle family to shepherd polo in Vero Beach and be part of the camaraderie on and off the field for these 15 years,” Sandy Kahle said. “It was just as much fun for the people on the sidelines as it was for the players on the field.”
Now, though, the fun has ended.
Will it come back? The Kahles are rooting hard for someone to bring new players into the sport and, directly or indirectly, revive Vero Beach’s polo season in 2016.
“We put our hearts into it all these years, so, of course, we’re disappointed,” Sandy Kahle said. “And I think we’re going to have some heartbroken fans for a while. But we’re looking forward to someone else taking it forward.”
BG Polo, which opened in September and offers polo lessons and clinics at its 36-acre compound adjacent to The Polo Grounds, would appear to be the sport’s best chance here. And Patta Conboy, BG’s equestrian director, said she believes the sport has a promising future in Vero Beach.
“I’m sure Vero Beach Polo had its reasons, but we’re seeing a resurgence in interest in polo, with new members and new families coming into the sport,” Conboy said, adding that 10 children, ages 5 to 16, and six adults – all of them beginners – are taking lessons at BG’s polo school. “We didn’t have any interest in taking over the club. That wasn’t in our business plan. But this does open the door to some opportunities for us. We’d love to see the polo matches continue.”
To that end, Conboy said she has contacted the property owners association at Pointe West and requested a meeting to discuss the possibility of leasing the grounds for polo matches. She was expecting a response sometime this week.
If the parties can negotiate a lease agreement, Conboy said polo could be played there this winter, though it’s unlikely BG could produce a full season of weekly matches.
“It’s not too late to pull something together if we can get a lease,” Conboy said. “We’re getting tremendous support from the local polo community, so it would be a shame if we couldn’t. The ball is in the hands of the POA.”
At the very least, there’s hope for polo’s future here, even if the weekly Sunday afternoon matches don’t return until 2016.
And if they do?
“During the winter months, Florida is the worldwide home of polo,” George Kahle said, “so there’s always a large pool of professionals to choose from.”
Maybe, by then, there will again be enough local amateurs, too.
