Concussions. Dislocated fingers. Ripped-off armpit hairs. These are just a few of the injuries men on the water polo team have suffered while playing the game.

“It’s a more brutal sport than you would think,” said first year medical student Daniel Morris.

Referees typically only call fouls for hits that happen above the water, meaning players can get away pretty much anything under the surface.

“Once it’s above the water it’s illegal,” said junior Steven Yu. “People kick and punch. getting kicked in the balls is the worst.”

The eighteen men on the WU team hope to be the ones doing the kicking this weekend when they compete in the national club championship at California Polytechnic State University.

This will be the club’s second trip to nationals after only three years as a competitive club sport. The team also went to nationals in 2000, but only after the true regional winner, Western Illinois, declined its invitation to attend.

“This year we actually won, so we feel more justified in going,” said senior captain Nigel Davies.

WU played in three tournaments during the season, and won its bid to nationals by beating University of Missouri in the Great Plains Division Championships. During the tournament, WU also beat the typical first place finisher Western.

With wins against Western and Mizzou, plus a 10-1 regular season record, the team is confident that it will perform better at nationals this year.

“We’re hoping to win at least one game,” said co-president Andy Rice. “It’s for the experience. We know what to expect.”

In addition to the juniors who played in nationals last time, the team has added men who have experience playing on other teams. These include Morris, who was named a third-team All-American while playing for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Killips, who played competitive water polo for seven years in high school. In addition, the team added 24-year-old coach Todd Black, who played at the University of Redlands and sometimes acts as a substitute goalie for the team during practices.

“Two years ago [during nationals] we were freshmen, and now we’re juniors,” said Yu. “Now we have more talent and better leadership.”

“If you get people [with no experience] as freshmen, they can get good by the time they are seniors,” said Morris. “This game has a pretty sharp learning curve. If you don’t learn you drown.”

The team also gets players from the other extreme: those ex-swimmers who want a change from the grueling schedule of a varsity team. At least four of the team members, including Davies, swam on the WU varsity team before making the jump to water polo.

“[Water polo] is so much more fun,” said Davies. “It’s not swimming. It’s a completely different entity.”

That’s not to say playing water polo is easy. Games last 28 minutes and use about half of the pool’s full length of 50 yards.

“I truly believe that it’s the hardest sport out there,” said Killip. “It involves swimming and fighting under water and it’s basically just swimming but all sprinting, and you have to do stuff with your arms and it takes a lot more coordination than you realize.”

Two of the main problems the team has had as a club sport are player dedication and funding. The team hasn’t had too much trouble with either this year. Player attendance at games and practices has been good, though sometimes it’s difficult to get full squad show up for Sunday afternoon practices since players have football games and homework to distract them.

“We’ve considered making practices mandatory, but we realize this is a club program, and there’s nothing we can do,” said co-president Steve Bourque.

Also, the team usually has to fight for money to cover the costs of tournaments and the trip to nationals. The team is a member of the Sports Club Federation, which Student Union funds, and it must appeal to SCF to receive more money. Last week, the team did just that and received $2,500 to help cover the $5,000 cost for nationals. This means players will only have to pay about $100 or $200 out of their own pockets.

“[SCF] has been a big help for us this season organizing our tournament and preparing for nationals,” says co-president Bourque.

Despite things like funding and past tournaments that have been going the team’s way this year, its members remain bluntly realistic about its chances at nationals.

“We won’t be outclassed,” said Rice. “We’re just going to be outplayed.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, November 8th, 2002 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.