Kocur Claims Pepperdine No Longer in Over Its Head : Water polo: Waves’ junior driver says the Malibu school will rise to the top this season after sinking last year, when it failed to play up to its potential.

For all the physical demands of water polo, Jack Kocur maintains it’s the game’s cerebral side that distinguishes contenders from pretenders.

“Water polo is 95% mental,” the Pepperdine player said.

A sound theory or a waterlogged notion?

Water polo players practice several hours a day in preparation for punishing games that require constant swimming, precise ball-handling and aggressive defensive tactics (i.e., underwater pushing and kicking).

Exhausting, yes, but no one ever mistook it for brain surgery.

Kocur, however, has seen what happens to a team when it doesn’t play with its head and heart. He says although Pepperdine finished fifth in the nation last season, it failed to reach its potential because of a lack of mental and emotional toughness.

Kocur contends those qualities are in abundant supply this year, and he expects them to compensate for any loss of talent as Pepperdine prepares for the 1995 season. The Waves play their opener at 4 p.m. today at home against California, before beginning play Saturday in the 12-team Southern California tournament at USC.

“We might not be better than last year’s team on paper, but I think we can put together a better effort and have better results,” Kocur said. “Last year’s team didn’t click. This year’s team has much better chemistry.”

Kocur, a junior driver, brings offensive firepower to the mix. The former Royal High standout was Pepperdine’s second-leading scorer last season with 31 goals, including 12 two-point goals, for 43 points. He credits his high number of goals from beyond the seven-meter mark to his anonymity in 1994.

“I was a young kid and nobody knew how I could shoot,” he said. “We had other great shooters and everybody figured, ‘Let the little kid shoot.’ I had the opportunity and the ball fell my way.”

Kocur’s scoring ability comes as no surprise to those who remember his four-year varsity career at Royal. He holds school records for goals in a career (372), season (142 as a senior in 1992) and game (19 against Simi Valley in 1992).

In his last two seasons at Royal, Kocur (pronounced CO-ker) led the Highlanders to a 52-6 record and back-to-back appearances in the Southern Section semifinals. He was the school’s athlete of the year as a senior.

“He was absolutely driven to be an outstanding water polo player,” said Royal Coach Steve Snyder, whose teams have won 14 consecutive Marmonte League titles. “His work ethic was always outstanding.”

Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder says Kocur still brings that same attitude to the pool.

“He’s very, very competitive,” said Schroeder, entering his 10th season as Wave coach. “Without knowing it, he’s a real leader in the water. I think a lot of guys react to what he does. When he’s having an off day, I can tell with the entire team.”

Schroeder also points out that Kocur’s talents aren’t limited to offense.

“Jack is an all-around player,” said the four-time Olympian. “He can play defense. We usually match him up against the other team’s top scorer.”

Kocur leads by example. He says part of Pepperdine’s problem last season was the team had “too many coaches in the pool.”

“We got down on ourselves last year,” he said. “If we played a bad first quarter, we couldn’t pick it up at the end of the game. Now I feel like we can pick it up at any time.”

Kocur says it’s important Pepperdine has a good showing in the Southern California tournament, which features most of the nation’s best teams, including defending national champion Stanford.

Because the NCAA championships have been reduced from eight entries to four, Kocur feels the Waves need to establish themselves early against top competition.

“If we can finish in the top four [in the tournament], that will help a lot,” Kocur said. “It sets a drastic tone for the whole season, emotionally and physically.”

A demoralizing defeat in last year’s tournament had a damaging effect on the Waves, Kocur said. After leading UCLA, 7-1, at halftime, Pepperdine fell apart and lost, 10-9.

The Bruins staged another comeback against the Waves in the first round of the NCAA championships, tying the game with nine seconds left in regulation before winning in overtime, 8-7.

Pepperdine and UCLA meet again on Saturday in the Southern California tournament, but Kocur doesn’t foresee any problems if the Waves blow another lead.

“If that happens this year, we have the ability to pull together and not bang our heads against each other,” he said.

After water polo season, Kocur is contemplating making a comeback on the baseball field. He was an all-star second baseman his senior year at Royal, batting .449, after not playing baseball previously in high school.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kocur said. “I’ll see if [Pepperdine] Coach [Pat Harrison] will listen to what I have to say. Hey, you only live once. It can’t hurt.”

Schroeder says he has no problem sharing an athlete with another sport.

“It wouldn’t bother me at all as long as I knew he was going to come back and play water polo next year,” Schroeder said. “If he can make the baseball team, more power to him.”

Snyder said Kocur was such a good athlete in high school, it was almost a shame he limited himself to three sports--water polo, swimming and baseball.

“He could have played any number of sports and excelled,” Snyder said. “The football coach thought he could have been the starting quarterback if he wanted. And he was a very good volleyball player.”

Snyder also coached Kocur’s sister, Kelly, a swimmer who competed at Washington State. He said the siblings’ athletic prowess was probably due to something “in the genes.”

But that’s debatable.

The way Kocur tells it, he started taking swimming classes when he was 4 because his mother didn’t want him to be burdened with her own shortcoming.

“She couldn’t swim,” he said.