1994 Prep Preview: Water Polo : Mission Viejo Has Shot at Playoffs With Womack Back

Charlie Womack is doing his best to show there is more to Mission Viejo aquatics than swimming and diving.

“I want prove to everyone that we can play water polo, too,” said Womack, a senior goalkeeper.

It’s a tough sell--the Diablo boys’ swim team has won 16 Southern Section titles in the last 19 years; the water polo team hasn’t reached the playoffs since 1989--but Womack and his teammates made great progress last season.

On Oct. 7, the Diablos started the South Coast League season by upsetting Capistrano Valley, 4-3, in overtime. At the time, Capistrano Valley was ranked No. 4 in the Southern Section Division I, and with the victory, the Diablos started thinking about making the playoffs.

But early the next morning, disaster struck. During a conditioning drill, Womack dived into the pool, hit a lane line with his head and broke a bone in his neck. The injury, which didn’t appear to be serious at first, kept Womack out of school a month and a half and in a neck brace for three.

The team suffered without Womack in goal, losing three of its final four league games, finishing fourth and again missing the playoffs.

“As a team, I don’t think we really ever recovered from that,” Mission Viejo Coach Ron Osumi said.

Womack recovered well enough to be back in the pool in February. By May, he was finishing first in the 500 freestyle, the 200 individual medley and two relays at the junior varsity league finals.

He was back in goal before school let out for the summer and now is leading Mission Viejo into another season. Again, the team has the potential to make the playoffs.

Womack says he has adjusted to playing again.

“It was pretty scary the first time I got into the goal,” he said. “I was flinching at every shot. I still have doubts occasionally, but I know I can do it. There’s really not too much danger of getting hurt again.”

That he was hurt in the first place was a fluke. The Diablos were swimming a relay drill that involved players pulling themselves out of the water, touching a wall on the pool deck and jumping back in the pool to swim in the other direction.

“No one else was diving,” Osumi said. “But Charlie is pretty competitive. I guess he was trying to go a little farther and misjudged where the lane line was.”

When Womack came up, his head was bleeding, but there was no indication that it was an especially serious injury. Several teammates, including his close friend Russell Rowlands, volunteered to take Womack to the hospital.

“We thought we were going to take him down to the hospital and get a few quick stitches and go back to school,” Rowlands said.

Emergency room personnel stitched up the cut, and Womack was about to leave the hospital when he mentioned a tingling sensation.

Instantly, the head wound became secondary. X-rays showed that one of the vertebra in his neck had burst. Part of the broken bone was pressing against his spinal cord.

Surgery was scheduled for Monday and during the weekend Womack was put in traction, his head bolted to a contraption that made sure his spinal cord remained uninjured. Teammates and friends visited, trying to cheer him up, bringing compact discs, videos, flowers and even the film of the victory over Capistrano Valley.

“We tried to do anything we could to keep his spirits up,” Rowlands said.

During the five-hour surgery, doctors removed pieces of broken bones and reconstructed the vertebra with bone they removed from his hip.

The surgery was successful but doctors weren’t certain of his prognosis for recovery.

“It was scary throughout,” said Charles Womack Sr. “We were not sure what was going to happen.”

But the brace came off in early January, and about a month later Womack took his first tentative laps in the pool. By June he was playing water polo again.

Osumi says that’s not good news for the rest of the South Coast League. At 5 feet 8, Womack is a foot shorter than San Clemente goalkeeper Gabe Gardner, but Osumi says Womack is quick and knows the angles.

“You put him back in there with our team and a lot of things are going to go our way,” Osumi said. “It’s not easy to get the ball past him.”

Water Polo at a Glance

Other top players: Cody Bitterlich, Sunny Hills, goalkeeper, Jr.; Jimmy Bray, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Peter Cornue, Villa Park, Jr.; Nathan Fay, El Dorado, goalkeeper, Jr.; Jason Geiger, Laguna Beach, Sr.; Robert Grayeli, Costa Mesa, Jr.; Jeff Hamilton, Canyon, Sr.; Dan Hayes, University, Jr.; Christian Jensen, Laguna Beach, Sr.; Peter Lange, Esperanza, goalkeeper, Sr.; Jim Lowe, Tustin, Sr.; Bernard Ma, Valencia, Sr.; Blaine Morgan, Marina, Sr.; Stever O’Rourke, Marina, Jr.; Gregg Petrisevac, Buena Park, Sr.; Brian Pharris, Villa Park, Jr.; Eric Ploessel, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Dan Ploog, La Habra, Sr.; Steve Popov, Costa Mesa, Sr.; Mike Stanley, Esperanza, Sr.; Bret Trezise, Saddleback, Sr.; David Watkins, Cypress, Sr.; Charles Wierdsma, Capistrano Valley, Sr.; Jeremy Wittman, Magnolia, Sr.; Charlie Womack, Mission Viejo, goalkeeper, Sr.; Gabe Wyatt, Newport Harbor, Sr.

League favorites: Century: Foothill; Empire: El Dorado; Freeway: Sunny Hills; Garden Grove: Los Amigos; Golden West: Servite; Orange: Brea-Olinda; Pacific Coast: Costa Mesa; Sea View: Corona del Mar; South Coast: San Clemente; Sunset: Esperanza.

1993 final poll: 1. El Toro, 2. Corona del Mar, 3. San Clemente, 4. Foothill, 5. Capistrano Valley, 6. Newport Harbor, 7. Sunny Hills, 8. Esperanza, 9. Servite, 10. Costa Mesa.

1994 preseason poll: 1. Corona del Mar, 2. San Clemente, 3. Servite, 4. Foothill, 5. Brea-Olinda, 6. El Toro, 7. Newport Harbor, 8. Villa Park, 9. Costa Mesa, 10. Esperanza.

Key dates: South Coast tournament, Sept. 22-24; Villa Park tournament, Sept. 29-Oct. 1; North Orange County tournament, Oct. 10, 14-15; California State Invitational at Stanford, Oct. 28-29; Southern Section playoffs begin, Nov. 9; Southern Section championships at Belmont Plaza Long Beach, Nov. 23.

Notes: Two years after realigning to add a fourth water polo division, the Southern Section has added two more for this season. Division I is unchanged with the Century, Mission, Moore, Sea View and South Coast leagues, but Division II is now entirely made up of Orange County leagues. The Garden Grove League moves up from Division IV, making it highly unlikely that Los Amigos will advance to a third consecutive championship game. The Orange League, which moves from Division III to VI, is the only county league competing at other than Division I or II. El Toro Coach Don Stoll said most local coaches aren’t happy with the change. “I think it waters down the importance of the section championships,” Stoll said. “If everybody in the class gets an A, why study?” . . . San Clemente Coach Steve Yancey on Servite’s Jeremy Smith: “He is just phenomenal. If you don’t run a defense strictly to shut him down, you are making a big mistake.”