He Heard the Voice : Jimmy Duff Turns Coach’s Message Into Playoff Motivation

The Southern Section Division I water polo quarterfinals will be played Tuesday, and for Jimmy Duff that can mean only one thing: time to silence that voice in his head.

The voice belongs to Harvard-Westlake High Coach Rich Corso, evaluating Duff’s play shortly after last year’s quarterfinal loss to San Clemente.

“He said I played All-World in league games,” Duff remembered, “and All-Nothing in (playoff) games.”

With that message echoing between his ears for the past 11 months, Duff has dedicated himself to a stronger performance in his senior year.

The fifth-ranked Wolverines (21-5) face fourth-ranked Foothill on Tuesday at Harvard.

And this time, Duff is ready.

“It took me a while to realize that I really did choke (last year),” Duff said.

“This year I have a new mentality when I come into the pool. Not to be conceited, but I just say to myself, ‘I am better than the next guy, and I will do everything I can to help our team.’ ”

A preseason All-American driver, Duff is the Wolverines’ captain. He is probably their leading scorer, too, but there’s no way to be sure because Corso doesn’t believe in tracking individual statistics.

Numbers aren’t needed to quantify Duff’s value to the team, though.

“He’s someone who we can always look to during the game to step up,” said Harvard driver Doug Kezirian, a close friend of Duff’s.

“When we need a goal, we can go to him. When we need a big play we can go to him.”

Duff, who is 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, is not driven by the glory of scoring goals. Instead, he seems to be pushed by a distaste for losing.

Two years ago, for example, Duff competed in his first triathlon. And he noticed that his top-10 placement after the swimming portion seemed to evaporate while he was on the bike, when rider after rider passed him.

Now, when he trains for triathlons, he rides 200 miles a week on a stationary bike, “just so that feeling never comes to me again of everyone passing me by,” he said.

Duff, 18, has since competed in about six triathlons a year, each including a one-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run. He won a triathlon in Santa Monica in August and he has finished second in his age group at events in Davis and Monterey County this year.

Besides the 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 sit-ups he does six nights a week--it takes him only about 40 minutes--Duff does not do any triathlon conditioning during water polo season.

He has been dedicated to water polo since eighth grade at Harvard-Westlake. He was in a physical education class taught by Corso, who “saw that I could kind of throw the ball sort of far, so he said I should try out for the team,” Duff said.

Suddenly Duff, who lives near Hancock Park in Los Angeles, was no longer headed to Loyola High, as his family had planned.

Instead, he stayed at Harvard and his identical twin brother, Brian, went to Loyola, where he has been a starting cornerback for the football team the last two seasons.

“It’s a fun feeling when we beat Loyola,” Duff said. “I feel sort of good, because it’s like I beat (Brian), too.”

The Duff brothers now have another challenge working.

Each will be pursuing Southern Section titles this month.

Last year, both teams lost in the quarterfinals.

Brian’s defeat was somewhat more acceptable, though, because the Cubs lost to eventual section champion Eisenhower.

Harvard’s loss was difficult for Jimmy to take not only because he expected more of the team, but more of himself.

Although it took a few months for Corso’s words of criticism to sink in, Duff finally realized his coach was right.

“The first few times, I said to myself, ‘I played all right. I didn’t make any mistakes.’ I didn’t make any mistakes, but I also didn’t make anything good happen,” Duff said.

” For us to be successful and for me to be successful, I have to not make any mistakes and also create opportunities.

“I’ve learned my lesson, especially in the big games.”

Besides the six goals Duff scored in the Wolverines’ first-round victory over Anaheim Canyon on Thursday, there is other evidence that Duff might be improved under pressure.

Corso scheduled a regular-season matchup last month against Corona del Mar, now the top-ranked team in Division I.

The match was to be a playoff simulation of sorts: a trip to Orange County on a Monday afternoon.

Although Harvard lost, 14-11, Duff scored nine goals. “For me,” Duff said. “That was a sign to show everyone that Harvard is for real and I am for real.”