Southern Section Water Polo Final : No. 1 Costa Mesa to Test Harvard Comfort Zone

Rich Corso has yet to dump a lifeguard chair into the water while coaching his Harvard High water polo team, but he does admire the way Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight, a volatile sort himself, runs his Hoosier defense.

Chair-throwing episodes aside, Knight raised more than a few eyebrows in college basketball circles when his team fell back into a, gasp, zone defense last season. It worked--Indiana won the NCAA championship.

Harvard (25-5), which plays Costa Mesa at 4 p.m. today in the Southern Section 2-A championship at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza Pool, throttled opposing offenses with a variety of defenses, particularly the zone, in its romp through the regular season and four playoff wins. It has been Harvard’s version of “A Season in the Drink.”

“I’ve learned a lot from college basketball,” said Corso, who also spent 10 years on the UCLA campus as an assistant water polo coach and basketball fan. “Just watching and reading some of the stuff that was done at UCLA in all the sports. At a university like that, you can draw on a lot of sports. And then I’ve learned a lot from Indiana, from Knight, because he’s such a teacher of the game.

“I think you can learn a lot from college basketball in terms of the defenses.”

And what of the zone?

“Hell, yes, we run a zone,” Corso said. “That’s what’s screwing up all the teams we play.”

However, it will be tough to rattle Costa Mesa, the defending 2-A champion. The Mustangs have been ranked No. 1 in the 2-A for two consecutive years. They defeated San Luis Obispo, 11-9, for the title last season. Costa Mesa (23-6) has outscored four playoff opponents, 70-23.

“We’re going to throw everything we can at them,” Corso said. “Everybody expects us to be in a zone, but we’re going to show them some new wrinkles.”

Harvard has only two seniors, Peter Richards and Greg Magnuson. The offense is led by juniors Damon Willick, Justin Cheen and Tim Pennington. Sophomore Larry Bercutt is the goalie. Corso thinks they’re ready.

“In water polo, there are three things a kid dreams about--the CIF championship, the NCAA championship and an Olympic gold medal,” he said. “For our kids, some of them are never going to go farther than this, but these kids have a passion for the game.”

As well they should. They’re learning the Bobby Knight way, Rich Corso-style.

Notes

In the 3-A championship game, El Dorado plays Los Alamitos at 5:30 p.m. today at Belmont Plaza. El Dorado, the No. 2 team from the Empire League, upset No. 1 ranked San Clemente, 12-7, in the semifinals. Los Alamitos defeated Riverside Poly, 8-7, to advance to the final.