Her Life’s Only Half a Gamble

If this were another day and age, a time long ago when riverboat gamblers could ante up while cruising down the Mississippi River, Sandy Nitta could coach her water polo team from the promenade deck without folding one hand.

Or if this were another day and age, somewhere in the future, a person might be able to make a living as coach of the U.S. women’s water polo team.

As it is, Nitta spends a few months at the tables in Las Vegas picking up tournament trophies and, on a good night, hundred dollar pots. And she spends Christmas break and Easter break and summers pacing the pool deck in the role of volunteer coach, keeping the U.S. women’s water polo team, currently ranked third in the world, among the best.

With the Christmas training period coming up, she’s at her parents’ home in Monterey Park preparing for workouts at area pools. But she has her chips with her.

(Helpful hint: Never play poker with someone who has chips with her initials embossed in gold.)

So how does she explain this unusual double life? Does it take a true split personality to play poker into the wee hours of the morning, squinting through the smoky haze and hoping the guy across the table has had one too many free cocktails, then a week later get up at the crack of dawn to push elite athletes to their peak performance?

Nitta laughs off the apparent contrasts.

“My No. 1 love is water polo, and without playing poker, I couldn’t afford to stay with my No. 1 love for all these years,” she says. “It’s just that simple. Poker gives me the freedom to work at making money for a couple of weeks and still be able to be where I need to be and do what I need to do to take care of the team.

“I’ve become friends with a lot of the people I play poker against. And they’re very nice people. You just have to know that once you sit down at the table, you don’t trust anybody. They’re as competitive as the people I’ve become friends with through swimming and water polo.”

But why poker? Aren’t there other seasonal jobs?

“Basically, I’m a lazy person,” she said.

Not likely. Not too many lazy people put in the early-morning lap time to make the Olympic swim team, and Nitta made the team in 1964 in the 200-meter breaststroke. She learned to love water polo because she used it, as many swimmers do, for off-season conditioning. Her coach (with the Rosemead club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and, finally, the City of Commerce Club) was Don Gambril, now men’s coach at the University of Alabama and a former U.S. Olympic coach.

“Coach Gambril gave us the choice of swimming laps or playing water polo, and I learned to like water polo,” Nitta said. “Of course, in those days, there were no school water polo teams. For that matter, the high schools didn’t even have girls’ swim teams. But we would compete, as clubs in the Southern Pacific Water Polo Assn., which still has age group leagues and tournaments.”

But women’s water polo is still trying to establish itself. Women’s water polo is not yet an Olympic sport, although the lobbying effort has begun. It’s not yet an NCAA championship sport, although there are 46 schools fielding teams. And a lot of the girls who are feeding into the national team have played on boys’ teams in high school.

The U.S. has had a national team since 1976. Nitta has been the coach since 1980. All those years as a volunteer.

“There has to be a real dedication (from) the women who compete for the national team,” Nitta said. “Like me, they have to be willing to give up their holidays and their summers. And they have to come up with their own money for trips. We’ve had a major trip funded for us each of the last two years. But if we want to compete more, we have to get ourselves there.

“This summer, we’re competing in a tournament in Paris on our own money. And we’re being funded for the FINA (international swimming organization) Cup in New Zealand, stopping off in Hawaii for a tournament on the way.”

Maybe Nitta should take some members of the International Olympic Committee to the poker table and play for some real high stakes--like the Olympic status that would put her team in line for better funding.

Nitta says no one who knows her will play with her.

After all, she’s a pro at the poker table. She can spot the pros from what she calls the “tourists” at a glance. And she’s not at all concerned that she might get caught up in gambling to the point that it’s a liability.

“To do this, you have to be competitive, but you also have to be disciplined,” she said. “You have to set limits and know when to stop. You think; you don’t get caught up in the excitement. And you don’t take all the free cocktails they try to serve you in ‘Vegas.

“You don’t play for the thrill. You play to make money.”

And has she come out ahead over the seven years she has been playing this game seriously?

“Oh, yeah,” Nitta said without a moment’s hesitation. “That’s how I make my living.”