Leading Athletes Named to The Times’ All-County Teams : Water Polo : Sunny Hills’ Blum Drowns in Obscurity

Consider what Erik Blum is:

- An outstanding student with a 4.22 grade-point average on a scale of 4.0, with extra credit for advanced classes.

- Sunny Hills High School’s student body president.

- The Times’ water polo Player of the Year.

Consider what he is not:

- Famous.

Not that he expects a spot on the Tonight Show, but a high school football player with talent proportionate to Blum’s would be a local hero.

Blum, many believe, is the finest field player in Southern California. Given the state’s place of eminence in the sport, that puts him among the country’s top players.

He scored 45 goals from his two-meter position this season. That’s not a lot. Marina’s Scott Larsen had 107. But Blum’s role on the talented Lancers did not require him to score a great deal. Rather, he was to set up teammates for shots and draw fouls to set up ejections and man-advantage situations. He had 97 assists.

“I’m more proud of the assists than the goals,” he said.

He also played two-meter defense.

“Erik goes the whole game playing two-meters on offense and defense, that’s extremely exhausting,” Sunny Hills Coach Jim Sprague said. “He’s an outstanding athlete, and what’s more important, he understands what is required to succeed. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s the finest two-meter player in the CIF.”

However, outside of water polo, he’s just another student body president who’s considering the Naval Academy to study engineering.

Water polo players have no illusions that recognition will come their way. Oh, sure, every Olympic year, the sport gets plenty of air time. But then, so do lots of obscure sports.

“You expect what happens after the Olympics,” Blum said. “People get all excited and say the sport is really going to take off and become popular. But like when you promise someone you’ll write all the time, it never happens.”

So it threw Blum and his teammates for a loop when they played Corona del Mar in the 4-A Southern Section final in front of 2,200 people at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach.

“During the regular season, our crowds are strictly family and friends,” he said. “It was pretty strange playing in front of all those people.”

The Lancers entered the game undefeated. Sunny Hills had Blum and Mike Day, Southern California’s finest goalie. Day was so fine that he was named the 4-A Player of the Year. However, Day was not the Freeway League’s most valuable player. That honor went to Blum. Go figure.

“With a team as talented as we had you might expect problems with egos,” Sprague said. “But none of that existed. This really was a special team.”

Some called it a dream team. Along with Blum and Day was field player Brad Kremer, another Times all-county selection. So what do you suppose happened? Sunny Hills lost on a last-second goal in overtime by the Sea Kings’ Jason Likens.

“That was really disappointing,” Blum said. “Especially since there were so many people that finally came out to see us, and we lose.”

The Lancers had won the California State Invitational, the nation’s most prestigious high school tournament, but as Blum said, “CIF is still CIF. It’s the one everyone looks at.”

This season, Blum was an attention-getter. Well, as much as water polo can provide. FIRST TEAM

Name School Class Pos. Mike Day Sunny Hills Sr. G Erik Blum Sunny Hills Sr. F Jason Likens Corona del Mar Sr. F Craig Tillman El Dorado Sr. F Gerry Wines S.A. Valley Sr. F Bob Mihalko Newport Harbor Sr. F Scott Larsen Marina Sr. F

SECOND TEAM

G: Greg Cohen, San Clemente, Sr. F: Alex Crenshaw, Costa Mesa, Sr., Mark Gansel, Foothill, Sr., Brad Kremer, Sunny Hills, Sr., Kevin McCollough, University, Sr., Keith Shore, El Toro, Sr. Mike Tillman, El Dorado, Jr.