UC Irvine’s Endsley Rules the Pool at Olympic Fest

It was shortly after Shannon Endsley’s third goal of the game that two members of the North’s women’s water polo team, sitting quietly in the poolside bleachers, began to squirm a bit. They would have to face Endsley, a senior at UC Irvine, and the rest of her East team in the next round.

The East team could be handled, they decided; Endsley, however, was an entirely different story.

“She’s so intimidating,” said one of the North players, as she watched Endsley swim away from the goal.

“All we heard was, ‘Stay on Shannon. . . . Always watch Shannon,’ ” said the other player.

“At Irvine she did everything.”

“Yeah, I saw her once when she shot a backhand from, like, seven or eight meters out. Nobody does that.”

“So scary.”

At that precise moment, the East team intercepted an errant pass and moved the ball to Endsley, who had muscled her way into scoring position. With a defender draped over her like a cardigan sweater and another defender on the way, Endsley turned and somehow sent a skip shot past the stunned goalie.

“That’s four,” said the first North player.

Not for long, it wasn’t. A few minutes later, again with seemingly half of the West team perched on her shoulders, Endsley managed to push another shot into the net.

“She’s being a monster,” said the other North player, clearly in awe.

The East won Tuesday morning’s game, 9-7, and Endsley departed the pool to the sound of sparse but heartfelt applause. Already, she leads all Olympic Festival players--men and women--in goals scored. She has made a remarkable 50% of her shots, despite frequent double teaming. No matter what happens to her East team, Endsley, 21, is clearly the tournament’s most impressive player.

“It’s her intelligence,” said East Coach Richard Hunkler. “It’s her selection of plays as well as her physical attributes.”

Only one other player in the women’s water polo competition weighs more than Endsley’s 165 pounds. This isn’t to suggest that Endsley is chubby--she isn’t--but rather, well, substantial. She moves easily in the water, no doubt the result of her pool time as a 50- and 100-meter freestyler for the Irvine swim team. But once stationed in front of the opposing net as the ‘hole’ player, the water polo equivalent of a basketball center, the 6-foot-1 Endsley is the immovable object.

It hasn’t always been this way. Not long ago, Endsley rarely asserted herself in the water. She was strong, but rarely a force, a deadly shooter who was afraid to take shots.

“I was the one always intimidated,” she said.

That’s the nature of the game; it doesn’t take kindly to the timid. Water polo is the most physical sport you’ll never see. It is beneath the water line where games are won and lost, where players do what they can, legally or illegally, to hinder a shot or swim stroke.

During Tuesday’s contest, Endsley found herself pushed, tugged, kicked and jostled. One defender tried grabbing on to Endsley’s suit. Another one attempted to hold Endsley in place. “They get you where you can’t move,” she said.

But that’s part of the fun, playing the game within the game, she said. On occasion, Endsley has answered a hold with a quick elbow to a defender’s chin, but most times she simply waits for a mistake. “I’m pretty patient,” she said.

At Irvine, patience isn’t a virtue but a necessity. The team goes through coaches as if they were appetizers. As usual, the team is searching for a new coach to replace the coach who replaced someone else.

Endsley isn’t crazy about the situation, but what can she do? Her senior season approaches; she enjoys the university; it’s a little too late to transfer; she wants to be there when the coaching situation finally is solved and she likes the option of joining the swim team. So there.

More annoying is the continuing problem of a U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team: there isn’t one. Don’t ask why, it’s confusing. But as best as Endsley can determine, a maze of frustrating rules and regulations have prevented the women from gaining medal status. As is, the Olympic Festival serves as the closest facsimile to the real thing.

At first, there weren’t enough competing countries. Then, as was the case in South Korea in 1988 (and again in Barcelona in 1992), the host Olympic country chose not to include the women on its water polo schedule. With that done, Endsley looks to 1996 for a chance to compete.

As we said, she’s patient.

“I’ll still be there,” she said. “I’ll be about the same age as our (national team) average is now. They’re old, but they’re good.”

Endsley rearranged an ice bag on her thumb. She broke the finger last season and uses the ice to keep the pain and postgame swelling down. “It’s a little stiff and sore,” she said.

But not enough to keep her from playing. Twenty goals . . . and counting, prove that much.

Amen that: 21 and counting; Endsley scored what turned out to be the winning goal against the North team Tuesday evening. Scary.