Mo’ing ‘Em Down : Maureen O’Toole Is Called the World’s Best Women’s Water Polo Player

On dry land and in a different era, she would have been called a tomboy. So by that reasoning, Maureen O’Toole must be the best waterboy in the world.

“I don’t think there is any doubt. Mo is the best women’s water polo player in the world,” said Aaron Chaney of Honolulu, who is coaching the South women here in Sports Festival VI. “There used to be a girl from Australia who was regarded as the best. But she got big-headed and a little lazy.

“In the last two years, Mo has taken over as the best. She is strong, fast and has a tremendous passing sense.”

Water polo is nearly the aquatic equivalent of basketball, so spectators see fast breaks, perimeter shooting and, when O’Toole has the ball, lots of rough play.

“I was talking to one of the coaches, and she told me about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s book,” said O’Toole, 24, of Huntington Beach. “Kareem was saying that when he was younger, he had to get used to being constantly pushed and shoved.

“I never thought about it much, but it happens to me all the time. I get pushed, punched and kicked. You can say something to the referees, but they don’t listen. You just have to get used to it.

“Most of the time, they have two girls guarding me. Once, just to see what would happen, I swam to the side of the pool, and they both followed me. It was funny really. The middle was wide open.

“I don’t care what they do to me, just as long as we win. I hate to lose.”

O’Toole suffered a sprained finger on her left hand Wednesday, but it didn’t prevent her from leading the South to an 12-8 victory over the East in Thursday’s gold-medal match. Emerging from the water, she looks like any other 5-foot 10-inch, 140-pound swimmer, except for a connect-the-dot series of bruises on her arms and legs.

“Some of the players try to get you mad by hitting you constantly,” O’Toole said. “See, if you get too rough, you can get thrown out for brutality. Not only are you out for that game, but the next one as well.

“I think they expect me to turn around and punch them or retaliate. But I’d rather get even than get mad. If I score or make a pass for a goal that’s good enough for me.

“When I’m mad, I don’t play well. I lose concentration.”

O’Toole wasn’t always a good player, but she always liked the sport. Enjoyed it enough, in fact, to go out for the boys’ team at Long Beach Wilson High. Her friend, Becky Black, also played.

“The other coaches around the league didn’t know what to make of us,” O’Toole said. “And it wasn’t easy. But my first coach (Bob Gruniesson) taught me so much and made me stick with it. I owe him so much. He really showed me the basics, and that’s so important.

“The guys are much stronger. They see everything so much better. By playing with them, I learned to anticipate because they were stronger and faster. I had to be smarter or I’d get burned.”

In her senior season, Wilson won the Moore League title, and O’Toole was named to the All-Southern Section third team.

“Bob left, but our new coach (Rick Jones) was also great,” she said. “He would keep playing me just to show the other coaches that girls could play, too. And not just play but win.

“The boys on the other teams weren’t sure how to guard me. They were kind of scared to get close. So, they’d slough off the first couple times. After I’d score a goal though, they forgot I was a girl and would be right on me.”

O’Toole, who is also an outstanding defender, then moved on to Long Beach City College, where she played on the men’s team for two years. She earned her teaching degree at the University of Hawaii, swimming competitively and playing water polo for the U.S. women’s national team.

This fall, she will be teaching and coaching at Costa Mesa High.

Water polo was an Olympic sport for women in the 30s and 40s, but then it was dropped from the Games. The U.S. team still competes internationally and will be in Spain for the World Championships in 1986. The athletes are hoping that the sport will get back on the Olympic agenda eventually.

“It would be easy really,” said Robin Dressel, who attended Anaheim High and lives in Mesa, Ariz. “It’s not like they’re adding a whole sport, just a few sessions.

“But even though women are playing in some South American and European countries, and playing very well, some of the men who run the federations have the notion that women shouldn’t be playing such a rough sport.

“Hopefully, that type of attitude can be changed.”

Dressel, an All-American from 1976 to 1982, took a year off to have a baby, but according to O’Toole, she has come back stronger than ever. That is not the only new look for the South, which will eventually make up a portion of the U.S. team.

“Robin is playing fantastic,” O’Toole said. “It’s kind of amazing after being off. And with the influx of swimmers like Amy Caulkins and Jill Sterkel, the sport is getting faster all the time.

“Watch us on our counterattack. We break like the Lakers. We’re out fast and then we score. When they pick the world team, it will be tough to stop us because of our speed.

“In international play, sometimes the judges call back goals for no reason. With our counterattack and ability to score quick, they won’t have any legitimate excuse to call goals back.”

O’Toole, by her count, has played millions of water polo games, but she has no idea how many goals she has scored.

“I don’t care about that,” she said. “In fact, I’d much rather pass. You feel like a hog if you’re scoring all the time.

“But when the game is on the line, I want the ball because I feel I can do something to help us win because I really do hate to lose. I just hate it.”