UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Gill Has Talent of Veteran, but Experience of Rookie Water Polo Player

Steve Gill--such a name for a water polo player!--is at once a youngster and an old hand around college swimming pools.

He’s starting his third year of college, yet he’s in his first season of college water polo.

Gill went to Fresno State from Fallbrook High School in San Diego County, but redshirted his freshman season. After meeting UC Irvine Coach Ted Newland, Gill decided to transfer. Under NCAA transfer regulations, Gill had to sit out a season at Irvine. He practiced with the Anteaters and watched them win an NCAA title.

Now Gill is playing, finally.

“Two years of practice,” he said, smiling and shaking his head. “Finally.”

And he is playing quite well. After nine games, he is second on the team in scoring with 28 goals, two fewer than Pablo Yrizar, who also is a sophomore athletically.

In a game against Brown last week in a tournament at Providence, R.I., Gill scored seven goals.

Seven?

“Usually, it’s more like two or three,” he said.

Irvine’s team, however, is struggling a bit, although it remains ranked eighth in the country. It finished sixth in its own tournament, losing to UC Santa Barbara, USC and Pepperdine, each by one-goal margins.

“We’re such a young team, the maturity level is low,” Gill said. “Just little things we did messed us up, and we lost games by one goal.”

Speaking about his own maturity as a water polo player, Gill cringes at the thought of his tendency to be ejected from games, which has happened several times this season.

“I get overly aggressive when I should be more relaxed. I think that’s partly from playing for the first time.”

Newland sees the same things. “He has a lot of talent,” Newland said. “He’s immature because he hasn’t played. Basically he’s a freshman on the NCAA level. He’s young and gets very emotional and gets himself in trouble. He’s a very good shooter, a big strong kid.

“He has to learn to play better defense. He can learn to be a real good player. He has the potential to make the national team. Maybe not this time, but maybe by the next Olympics.”

The water polo team will get a chance to assess its ability this weekend, when it plays No. 1 California on Friday and fourth-ranked Stanford on Saturday in northern California.

Coach Bill Mulligan’s basketball team, a year removed from a 5-23 season that was the worst in school history, is going to run again.

And to prepare for that, it’s running now.

The Anteaters are following a conditioning program similar to that of two years ago--just before the season Mulligan set out to lead the nation in scoring with a run-oriented offense. He reversed that philosophy after the team struggled early, and later reversed it again.

“The guys always say they want to play the running game, but how are you going to play the running game if you don’t get in shape to do it?” Mulligan said.

The Anteaters are running three mornings a week at 6:15--lots of 220s and 440s, Loyola Marymount-style conditioning. They also have conditioning and weightlifting three other days a week, with pickup basketball in the Bren Center.

“We’re really pushing it and no one can get out of anything, stuff like that,” Mulligan said. “The guys that played last year obviously don’t want to have a bad year again. This is the first time I’ve ever wanted to start the next season a month after the season ended. You’d like to be able to redeem yourself. You hope to redeem yourself.”

Mulligan says Irvine will be more suited to a fast-break game with Gerald McDonald, a junior from Compton College, at the point.

“We haven’t had a Gerald McDonald-type in a long time, a guy with that kind of quickness,” Mulligan said.

Jeff Herdman had a poor season last year, shooting only 38% from the field and finding himself playing a reserve role by February.

For now, though, he’s the No. 1 Anteater; Herdman, who will be a senior, is leading the basketball team’s “decathlon” competition.

Herdman finished second to Don May by running a mile in 5 minutes 19 seconds, two seconds slower than May. Herdman’s bench press--five repetitions at 235 pounds--was second only to Ricky Butler, who benched 245 five times.

And Herdman won the pullup competition by doing 18.

Elgin Rogers is in second and Khari Johnson is third.

The women’s basketball team had a poorer season than the men, going 1-27 to give the school a combined basketball record of 6-50 last season.

Twelve players are back from that team to try again.

“Unfortunately, they’re eager,” Coach Dean Andrea said, jokingly. “They had a good summer. They’re strong and worked real hard. The four freshmen coming in--that sounds like a singing group--none will start, but I know they’re all going to play.”

One bonus for Irvine: Shurrell Johnson, a forward who missed last season because of a stress fracture in her shin, is back for her senior season. Johnson averaged six points and three rebounds a game two seasons ago and is expected to add leadership to the team.

“The kids have re-committed themselves,” Andrea said. “They understood the disaster that occurred. From ashes, positive things grow.”

Anteater Notes

The women’s soccer team, which caused a commotion when it scored its first goal of the season in its sixth game, scored two more last week. Furthermore, the team won two games, defeating Westmont and San Diego State, each by a score of 1-0. Tiffany Cruz and Michele Braceros joined Dawn Evans in the three-way tie for leading scorer. . . . Aaron Mascorro, who finished second in the Big West Conference cross-country championships as a junior last year, has decided to redshirt. He will return for the track season this spring and plans to complete his final year of cross-country eligibility next fall, when Irvine’s team hopes to qualify for the NCAA championships.