Looks Can Be Deceiving at Saddleback : Water polo: Roy and his teammates are small in stature, but they can play with the best of them.

John Roy has grown accustomed to the slights that come with playing water polo for Saddleback High. Just by walking onto the pool deck, the Roadrunners can cause some opponents to snicker.

You could hardly blame them for that reaction. Saddleback’s average player is 5 feet 8 and 140 pounds, tiny for such a physical sport. “We don’t get a lot of respect,” Roy said.

It’s a frustrating situation, Roy said, but there is a remedy in the water. “They find out it’s not going to be an easy game,” he said. “They learn that we know how to play polo.”

Saddleback gave enough lessons to finish third in the Golden West League and qualify for the Southern Section Division II playoffs for the second consecutive season. It’s another breakthrough for the Roadrunner program, which before last season went 14 seasons without making the playoffs and lost 47 games in a row during the mid-1980s.

Water polo is a difficult sell to Saddleback students, said fifth-year Coach Monte McCord, a former Saddleback player who graduated in 1986. There is no base of swimmers from aquatic clubs, only a few curious souls who decide to pick up the sport each fall.

Saddleback has only 16 players in its program, barely enough for two full teams. Even so, the Roadrunners have been resilient this season despite losing three first-team, all-league players to graduation including Bret Trezise, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

The remaining Roadrunners have picked up the slack. The starting lineup is Roy (5-8, 140), Sergio Gonzalez (5-8, 140), Efrain Gonzalez (5-7, 125), Javier Vasquez (5-10, 185), Alfonso Colchado (5-7, 130), Brent Hawkins (5-8, 150) and goalkeeper Jeff Campos (6-0, 135).

“Obviously, there’s no size involved here,” McCord said. “It’s all hard work. About every team we play is going to be bigger than us.”

Most teams also swim faster, McCord said, meaning Saddleback has to play deliberately on offense. Roy is the key to that offense, playing at one of the Roadrunners’ two two-meter positions, which in water polo is also called a holeman. Roy, who has 125 goals this season, works well without the ball, often scoring off quick passes from fellow holeman Sergio Gonzalez.

Roy gets pushed around quite a bit, but only the best teams have been able to shut him down. “I’m usually quicker than most hole-guards,” Roy said. “Or I out-think them, move around a lot and put the ball in the goal.”

Like many Saddleback players, Roy didn’t plan on becoming a water polo player. “I got into it by accident,” Roy said. “When I was a freshman, I didn’t know what I wanted to sign up for and the next thing I knew I was standing by the pool.”

He took to the game quickly and by his sophomore year he was the most valuable player on the freshman-sophomore team and quit baseball, previously his favorite sport, to join the swim team.

McCord says the team is lucky to have him. “He’s as enjoyable a kid as I’ve had in my five years here,” McCord said. “He’s willing to work all the time.”

Last year, Roy had 47 goals and 45 steals and helped the Roadrunners qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 1980. Saddleback didn’t last long, losing to fourth-seeded La Habra, 13-8, in the first round.

This season, Saddleback hopes to do better than that and there are signs it might have a chance. For the first time in program history, the Roadrunners were ranked in the section coaches poll--they moved to 10th after beating Dana Hills for the consolation championship of the North Orange County tournament last month.

Today, the section will release pairings for the playoffs, which start this week. Saddleback is believed to have never won a water polo playoff game.

“So, hopefully,” Roy said, “we’ll have a lot of firsts this season.”