Still Making a Splash : Ex-Newport Harbor Water Polo Star Is 25 Now and Holding Out for Gold

The first splash Jamie Bergeson ever made in a swimming pool wasn’t exactly a tidal wave. But, hey, when you’re only 6 years old and weigh 42 pounds, it’s hard to break out of the tadpole division.

Now, 19 years and 148 pounds later, Bergeson (“call me James”) is one of the premier water polo players in the nation--not something on which he had planned.

“When I was 13, I never thought I’d still be sitting in a pool at 25 . . . especially on Friday nights,” said Bergeson, a member of the U.S. water polo team, which plays Yugoslavia at 7 tonight at Newport Harbor High School. “I thought I’d be doing something normal . I think I’ve swum more than I’ve walked in life.”

He may be right.

After spending seven years in a swim club, Bergeson entered his freshman year at Newport Harbor, where he met Coach Bill Barnett. Barnett encouraged him to try his hand at water polo. “Actually,” Bergeson said, “he told me ‘play polo or do nothing.’ He wasn’t into partial commitments.”

He chose water polo, though commitment wasn’t always Bergeson’s No. 1 priority. At times, he and teammate Mike Grier would sneak away to the high school’s track and flop around on the high jump pits.

“We’d hang out there for a while, then wet our hair before we went back so it’d look like we worked out,” Bergeson said. “It’s hard to be real serious when you’re 14 years old.”

Bergeson says his older brother, Garth (a two-time water polo All-American at UCLA), taught him the meaning of mental toughness.

“He’d make me walk up on these really high beams in the garage,” Bergeson said. “Or he’d put me against the garage door and make me stand there while he’d throw water polo balls at my head.”

Toughness intact, James went on to become a high school All-American. Success followed him throughout his collegiate years. At Stanford, he helped the Cardinals win NCAA championships in 1980 and 1981.

After graduating in 1983, Bergeson competed with the U.S. water polo team, playing in tournaments throughout the world. International travel, he said, is one of the best things about being on the team. International referees, he says, are just about the worst.

“European refs are terrible ,” Bergeson said. “They have such an impact on the game; they know they can single-handedly determine an outcome of a game, and I wouldn’t say they do it too fairly.”

Once, in Spain, Bergeson said he felt so “ripped off” by the referees that he hurled a ball at the gymnasium ceiling. The ball shattered the tiles. It caused a bigger commotion than a mess, but Bergeson admits that he has tried to tone down his reactions since then.

“It’s something I need to work on,” he said.

That and maintaining his intensity to achieve the one thing that has kept him and the rest of the U.S. team motivated since August 1984.

A gold medal. The U.S. team won a silver medal in the ’84 Olympics.

“It’s what we’re all working for,” he said. “In water polo there’s really nowhere to go after that.”

But there are places to go before that. Like back to his alma mater tonight for the second of a four-game series against Yugoslavia, winner of the gold medal at the ’84 Olympics. The first game ended in an 8-8 tie Wednesday night at UC San Diego.

Will Bergeson sneak away to the high jump pits tonight?

“No,” he said. “Those tricks don’t work for us now.”