SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Online Editor
Punching, kicking, scratching, shoving, pulling swimwear – you name it.
Many may agree that water polo is one of the toughest sports, and Pepperdine proudly has a men’s team that competes at the national level. However, men aren’t the only ones that enjoy this violent game. Some women love the violence, too.
“Girls can be a lot dirtier [in the pool] than guys,” says senior Megan Crum, president of the women’s water polo club at Pepperdine.
The evenings of every Sunday to Thursday of the second semester are when 13 club members gather up at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool to emit their energy in the pool. The players show up around 6 p.m. and stretch for a few minutes in the hot tub before tiring their bodies. They warm up with sets of all types of strokes that add up to 2,000 yards. And then drills with the balls follow. Almost the entire time, they move their legs vigorously to stay above the water.
During the season, from the first week of January to the middle of April, the players work out two hours a day, five times a week, with the hope to finish fourth in the Pacific Coast Division, says Crum. Considering it’s a club team, it’s a major physical and mental commitment.
Water polo is one of a few sports that require a player to be constantly moving, yet one still has to fight for the ball and whatever goes on underwater. That’s why it’s hard.
“You have to have the whole doing the egg-beater thing, and then you have to be able to catch, too,” says senior driver Christie Stewart, who swam in high school. “In football, you do work the plays but you are not egg-beating underwater. It’s a lot different sport you’ve got to work on.”
But this is only one side of the sport. To win a game, you can’t always play clean. Junior driver Ashley Assemi says that a majority of aggression happens underwater, but it’s all fair game as long as the referees don’t see it. Punching, kicking and grabbing on bathing suits are very common, she says. How do they handle such aggression?
“You just kick them back,” she says with a shrug.
Assemi joined the club in January without any experience in water sports. It took her almost two years to join the team since her friend and current teammate, junior Lauren Keeley, persuaded her. She started playing the sport just a couple of months ago, but she says she already likes the aggression of the game.
“I can grab [the opponent’s] arm underwater and push them down,” she explains. “As long as I do it tactically and the ref doesn’t see it, you know.”
Aggression in the water may be a main factor that attracted players like Assemi, but there is also a position that is usually safe from physical contact. Katie Craig hasn’t had any violent moments in the pool.
“I’m a goalie so I don’t know,” says the sophomore. “I can get a few balls to the head or something. That is a little bit violent but not really.”
Whatever the reason is, these players all love the aspects of the game. They all love the head coach as well.
I love Coach Chuck,” Stewart says with a broad smile. “Of all the coaches I had, he is the best. I even told my professor I love Chuck.”
Coach Chuck is Charles Wright, a sophomore player on the men’s water polo team. As a student-coach, he says it’s sometimes difficult to maintain the coach figure inside the pool and act as friends out of the pool.
“The girls have done a really good job of being my friend outside the pool and listening to what I have to say inside the pool,” he says. “But then on the flip side, I also try to be friends with them and listen to what they have to say in the pool. So there is kind of mutual respect there.”
The players feel the same way about their coach.
“He brings a lot of fresh respective,” junior Morgan Shastid says. “He can relate to a lot of us. He doesn’t elevate himself above us, which is nice. He is great.”
Craig also compliments Wright with his experience in this sport that he relates all the techniques and drills very well and knows how to get it through the rest.
After his freshman season with the men’s team in 2006, Wright happily took this job when Crum approached and asked him to coach the team. Although this is a paid position, Wright says he would do it for free because he gets many benefits from this coaching experience.
“It helps me understand water polo a little bit more, kind of seeing it from the different perspective,” Wright says. “I love it. The girls are great.”
The water polo club is a group of women who love their teammates, coach and the excitement of the game. And they surely know how to be tough, too.
“Girls are just as aggressive as guys,” Assemi says. “Ask coach. I can beat him up.”
03-20-2008