“We’ve probably had a total of fifty or so players over the past five or six years,” Snow said. “Not one of them, other than my son, [had] ever held a polo mallet before.”

The growth and development of the players over the course of their time at Harvard is a highlight of Snow’s coaching experience.

“It’s been quite remarkable how excited the undergraduates have gotten with the game,” Snows said. “Some of them, over three or four years, get really good.”

The current team boasts a competitive schedule, having recently competed against the likes of Yale, UConn, Virginia, and Stanford, among others. Many of these schools recruit players with competitive polo backgrounds, but Snow maintains that Harvard can still compete with even the best of its veteran opponents.

“We do very well against most teams in the country,” Snow said.

But despite generous alumni and donor support, Harvard still lags behind its peers in terms of program resources. Currently, the Crimson has roughly 15 horses with which to practice and play. According to Snow, Virginia, a perennial polo powerhouse, boasts over 60. Cornell, the top Ivy League program, has well over 40.

The next step in the development of the program, in Snow’s eyes, is the establishment of a permanent home for Harvard polo.

Currently, the team hosts its home games at the Myopia Club in Hamilton, Mass., but Snow says the team would ideally have a permanent stable with which to house its horses near the Myopia facility. Fundraising and donor support efforts are well underway.

“We are quite close to [buying] a small farm where we could keep all of our horses and practice,” Snow said.

Another vision for the future of the club is the establishment of a therapeutic riding program. Harvard would be one of the first collegiate institutions in the country initiating such an endeavor, which would be open to graduates, faculty, employees, and families.

“It’s another way for the kids to get involved in a positive way, [while working] with the horses,” Snow said.

A DELICATE BALANCE

But while efforts to grow the program remain in the works, the team remains fully focused on its current endeavors.

This week, four members of the Harvard polo team will travel to Scottsdale, Ariz., to participate in the second annual Scottsdale Polo Championships. At the event, Harvard will compete in an exhibition match against Work to Ride, a competitive polo team comprised of students from inner-city Philadelphia.

Established in 1994, Work to Ride is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving underprivileged youth. In 2011, Work to Ride became the first all-black team to capture the U.S. Polo Association’s National Interscholastic Championship.

Noticeably absent from the Crimson contingent at the event will be Snow himself. Currently, Snow must balance his time between his coaching duties for the Crimson and his work as the director of the Edward R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy at Tuft University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. During the Scottsdale event, Snow will be overseas giving a series of talks in Armenia.

Though it can be difficult balancing polo amongst his other commitments, his students’ enthusiasm and drive keep Snow motivated and excited about the future of Harvard polo.

And despite coming in with no polo experience, most players consider their time on the polo team to be a highlight of their undergraduate years.

“Mostly everybody on the team would say that [polo] is by far the most enriching experience they’ve had on campus,” DeMartino said.

“That’s why I do it,” Snow said. “To me, it was always [about] the satisfaction of all the different kids that get involved.”