Pool Sharks : Girls’ Water Polo Is a Hit--Literally and Figuratively--In Its First Season As An Official Southern Section Sport

J.J. Little played on the Crescenta Valley High junior varsity boys’ water polo team for two years and attended the Harvard Water Polo Foundation summer camp for three. But none of that prepared her for what she would face in the pool this winter.

“I was setting the hole when out of nowhere I was punched,” Little said. “I was completely stunned and dazed. I thought the ball hit me.”

So goes initiation in girls’ water polo, which has made quite a splash in its first season as a sanctioned high school sport.

Kicking, punching and pulling are common defensive strategies in this sport. Prime physical conditioning, total commitment and a tolerance for cuts, scratches and bruises are prerequisites for those who wish to play.

And there are many girls who want to play.

“There are three weeks of [the season] left and I’m already sad about that,” said Angie Sveda, an Agoura High senior. “I’m going off to college and I’m definitely going to take this experience with me.”

Girls’ water polo is the first sport to be added by the Southern Section since soccer in the early 1980s. League representatives voted overwhelmingly last spring to sanction the sport.

In the past, the only options for girls were to compete on boys’ teams or attend expensive summer camps. Last year, a handful of schools--among them, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Ventura and Louisville--organized unofficial girls’ teams. But the Southern Section’s sanctioning really created a craze.

“We’ve had just crowds of people show up wanting to play or at least find out about it,” Thousand Oaks Coach Jeff Warshaw said. “The first six weeks of school we had 19 to 20 girls, and that doubled in the first month.”

The enthusiasm at Thousand Oaks was indicative of the reaction at many Southern Section schools. When section officials polled schools last summer, only 57 of the nearly 500 member schools said they would field teams.

But by the time the season started in November, the number had about doubled.

Little, who became interested in water polo through swimming, said excitement and nonstop action are water polo’s main attractions.

“The biggest complaint about swimming is that it’s boring,” Little said. “It’s the same thing over and over. With water polo everything is changing. It’s different every time.”

The growing popularity of women’s sports--particularly in the afterglow of the Atlanta Olympics--might also be responsible for the sport’s initial success. U.S. Water Polo chairman Bruce Wigo said water polo has in recent years been attracting an ever-increasing number of female players--from about 1,800 in 1991 to nearly 8,000 this year.

At the college level, women’s water polo might help save men’s programs, 16 of which were dropped nationwide between 1989 and ’93.

“This is going to help keep men’s programs alive because [athletic departments] now have a female counterpart to offset the number of athletes involved.” Wigo said, referring to regulations that mandate gender-equity in athletic funding.

Since 1993, 25 colleges have added women’s water polo, a trend that experts say is energizing participation in high school.

“The main reason it is taking off so fast is because you have a lot of the major Division I schools that are offering financial scholarships for girls,” Crescenta Valley Coach Pete Loporchio said.

For now, the level of play is lagging far behind that of what can be found at a typical high school boys’ game.

“The sport is definitely in its infantile stages,” said Harvard-Westlake Coach Rich Corso, who was coach of the U.S. men’s team from 1993-1996, including in the Atlanta Olympics. “What you have now is a bunch of swimmers out there. They just don’t have the ball skills.”

And so it goes with most beginners--male or female.

“Most of these girls have played just 20-25 games in their lives,” said Loporchio, the Crescenta Valley coach. “It will probably take 50 or 100 games of experience to get a true perception of what’s going on.”

And yet it takes only a few games for players to discover the physical nature of the game.

“Our coach told us about it, but I didn’t realize it until a girl grabbed my shoulder and pinched it,” Sveda said. “So I did the same back. It was brutal at first, but now I’m used to it.”

Carrie Lohnberg, student manager for the Agoura boys’ team, said opposing girls play tougher than the boys she used to face in practice. “The guys’ game is really, really rough,” she said. “But against girls, [boys] are kind of sexist where they won’t touch you. With girls, everyone is equal so you can go for it as much as you can.”

The atmosphere on the pool deck at a girls’ water polo game is also quite different than at boys’ games. Organized cheers by a team in the middle of a game are not uncommon--especially at Crescenta Valley were varsity cheerleader Jeannie Chung is a member of the team.

“They’re the same cheers from football and basketball, they’re just modified,” Loporchio said.

As the addition of girls to water polo changes the face of this longtime male-dominated sport, the girls participating find themselves changing too.

“My family was shocked by how aggressive I was in the water,” Lohnberg said. “I’ve never been an aggressive person before. I didn’t think I had it in me.”

Thousand Oaks, which is led by Division I prospect Jenny Durley, appears to be the top team in the region. Several others, including Louisville, Crescenta Valley, Harvard-Westlake, Burroughs, Glendale, La Canada, Oxnard and Ventura are a level or two down.

The Southern Section won’t have a playoff structure set until next year, but coaches have organized a 32-team year-end invitational tournament in Irvine to climax this first season.

“At first the players were concerned about making sure that it was really treated as a legitimate sport,” said Warshaw, the Thousand Oaks coach. “But I think they are very happy with the way they found it. The games are real, the officials are real and we’ve got a full schedule and there are tournaments.”

So far, all involved with the sport seem enthusiastic--even the fans.

At the recent Thousand Oaks tournament at Newbury Park High, a group of Crescenta Valley supporters lounged poolside under portable canopies, munching on sandwiches and fruit from the cooler they brought.

Some wore hand-made earrings in the shape of water polo balls. Others wore “I love water polo” buttons.

“It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm from starting fresh,” Loporchio said. “It kind of rejuvenates you.”

Just like a cold, wet punch in the face.