Kalbus filled many water polo roles

Dr. Barbara Kalbus, an innovator and tireless worker in water polo, died on Friday, leaving a strong impression in the sport’s community.

Kalbus, who lived in Newport Beach, was 84 years old. She had been hospitalized for much of the past year and her close friend, former Newport Harbor High water polo coach Bill Barnett, said she was bedridden for the past several weeks.

Kalbus was the team manager for the U.S. men’s senior national water polo team for many years, including at the 1992 through 2004 Olympic Games. She also served as president of USA Water Polo from 1980-84, and was perhaps best known for her contributions to the rules of water polo in the United States.

A water polo historian, she served as NCAA secretary and rules editor until 2012, and served on the NFHS (high school) water polo rules committee until 2014. She was also well known to locals in her later years as a fixture at Newport Harbor water polo games, where she would supervise the kids working the desk.

Kalbus was a 1993 inductee into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. In 2010, the organization established the Barbara Kalbus Distinguished Volunteer Award to honor those who have gone above and beyond in their service to the sport.

“I think the only position she didn’t hold in U.S. water polo was coach,” said Barnett, who worked with her when he was the Olympic men’s water polo team coach in 1988 and 1992 as well as at Newport Harbor.

Originally from Wisconsin, Kalbus had a doctorate in botany and biochemistry. She never played the sport of water polo, but she started following water polo when her oldest son, Randy, started playing it in Southern California. Soon she was running the desk at events and drumming up interest.

“She’s hands down the most dedicated person to the sport of water polo,” said Sandy Vessey-Schneider, who was a member of the U.S. senior national women’s team for more than a decade and a 2014 inductee into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. “Anybody and everybody knows who she is. She was a longtime family friend of ours. When I was 9 or 10 years old, she called our house and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get Sandy in water polo, they’re starting a girls’ team down in Long Beach.’ She’d pick me up and take me to my water polo games every Saturday morning, and I know she did the same for a lot of other people.”

Known as extremely intelligent and a very hard worker, Kalbus also was a science teacher at Long Beach City College, where she quickly rose up the ranks. She eventually became the vice president of academic affairs, then the vice president of administrative services, as part of a nearly 40-year career at the school.

“She really could have been the college president if she had wanted to, but she just didn’t like all that limelight,” said Dr. Stan Francus, who worked with Kalbus in the school’s administration for more than two decades. “But she was so smart. When she moved over to administrative services, she had no business background, but she was so bright and such a quick study that she learned that whole business side of the college very quickly. Everybody thought the world of her. She was super hard-working. Almost every night, she was staying there until late, late. After she finished all the college work, she would work on all the water polo stuff.”

Kalbus was beloved by the players as the team manager for the U.S. national team. The reason why was simple to Barnett.

“She spoiled them,” he said with a laugh.

Genai Kerr, who played for Team USA in the 2004 Athens Olympics, said Kalbus would use her small stipend provided to purchase snacks and Gatorade for the athletes. Partially because of her work in establishing and interpreting the rules of water polo, he said all of the top international coaches also respected her.

“She’s, in my mind, probably the most respected woman in water polo,” Kerr said. “She made a huge impact on my life, personally, as a guardian and a mentor. She always led by example. It’s funny to think that somebody can have such a big impact in the sport of water polo who’s the farthest from a water polo player, but she’s done more for the sport than anybody else that I know.”

Kalbus worked on the Newport Harbor pool deck up until 2015, when Barnett retired. The kids working the desk were often intimidated by her at first, but many learned to respect Kalbus and her knowledge of the game.

Even in her early 80s, Kalbus worked with Patti O’Beck, who took stats for the Sailors while her daughter Christina played on varsity in 2013 and ’14. Sometimes O’Beck would drive Kalbus to the away games, or just meet her there.

No matter what level she was working at, from high school to the international game, Kalbus certainly took her job seriously.

“She was kind of a workhorse,” Vessey-Schneider said. “Couple that with her intelligence, and she was going to do anything to make sure it was done correctly. If she was at a desk, she didn’t mind stopping a game, telling a referee or the people running the desk, ‘That’s wrong.’ Not with a ton of personality, but just as a matter of fact, that’s the way it is. Anybody that ever worked a desk where she was working knew, you’d better be on your game, because she will find any error you make. She was brilliant like that.”

Dan Klatt, the UC Irvine women’s water polo coach and an assistant for the women’s national team, also played for Team USA in Athens alongside Kerr. He also knew Kalbus as she was the desk manager at UC Irvine, both when he was a player and a coach for the Anteaters.

“I just think she wanted to make our sport appear more professional,” Klatt said. “She wanted to do things correctly so our sport was taken seriously, and was fair for the athletes and coaches. She wanted to make sure the competition was under fair circumstances. Honestly, I think a lot of people misinterpreted that, that it was out of a love for the rules. She certainly was a perfectionist, but I don’t think it was out of a love for the rules, I think it was out of a love for the coaches and players. I think she loved the people who were around, the men that she got to mother on the national team. She was trying to make the game the best for them that she possibly could.”

Kalbus is survived by her two sons, Randy and Jim, as well as her daughter Terrie. Jim Kalbus said on Wednesday that services are pending.

Dr. Barbara Kalbus was set to receive the Paragon Water Polo Award, given by the International Swimming Hall of Fame, in October.

“Mom was just an extraordinarily hard working person,” Jim Kalbus said. “A very dedicated perfectionist. Mom liked things done right.”