Well-Traveled Kerr Finally Reaches Goal

There is so much involved with Genai Kerr’s story that sifting through the pieces is tantamount to working a jigsaw puzzle. Everything fits, it just takes some time.

He has always loved basketball, and was recruited to play in college, but plays goalie for the UC Irvine water polo team.

He went to a performance art school to study acting, like his mother and grandparents, then turned to painting.

His father, who never went to school, was a spear fisherman in Jamaica, who brought his family to the United States 16 years ago. Kerr went back to Jamaica the summer after his senior year in high school to play for the national water polo team before coming to Irvine.

Despite that eclectic background, the one thing Kerr is bursting to talk about is one measly goal--his--in a 7-6 loss to USC.

When Kerr flung a shot the length of the pool Sunday, it fulfilled the dream that first got him into the water as a sophomore at Chula Vista High School.

“Their goalie kept sliding to one side and wouldn’t honor the counter attacks,” Kerr said. “The third time, I knew I had him. He almost blocked it, but it went off his arm into the goal. Coach gets mad at me when I mess around in practice with that shot.”

After four years with the steady Tom Davis in the net--he started every game--Kerr is the goalie Coach Ted Newland uses most games.

“Goalies are a whole different breed,” Newland said. “Genai still pushes the cage down and gets a [penalty] shot called. What can you say? He covers a ton of area and it’s hard to shoot around him.

“It’s a kind of tradition here that they do things by themselves. Tom Davis learned from Mike Rall and Genai learned from Tom.”

Kerr, who spent two seasons and a redshirt year as Davis’ understudy, never figured to be a part of any goalie lineage. He was just a bored high school kid and thought throwing the ball into a net while treading water looked like fun.

“Myself, our 7-foot-1 center and our point guard had nothing to do, so we went out for the water polo team,” Kerr said. “They quit the first day. I guess I stuck it out because I’m the son of a spear fisherman. I used to go with him into the water.”

It swelled from there.

When Justin Mott, his 7-1 basketball teammate, quit, the 6-8 Kerr got stuck in goal. When Chula Vista folded its water polo team, Kerr transferred to Coronado, which had the top program in the San Diego Section. When basketball coaches from smaller colleges called, Kerr listened, but took a water polo visit to Irvine.

“It was weird, but it seemed like the entire team was living in two houses right on the beach,” Kerr said.

Spending the year at some land-locked Division II school and sweating it out in a gym was a whole lot less appealing after that. He signed with Irvine, then went to Jamaica to play for the national team.

It was a homecoming of sorts, as Kerr was able to return to Port Royale, where he lived until he was 6. His family moved to the San Diego area to be near his mother’s parents.

That side of the family is active in the arts. His grandfather still acts in plays.

“When I was in junior high school, a family friend talked my parents into having me apply to this vision performance art school,” Kerr said. “I made a written application and had to do an audition. So I did a monologue. I studied dance and singing and drama, all that stuff. But I really loved the art classes.”

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Marine Cano, women’s soccer coach, didn’t know how right he was Wednesday.

“You’re feeding the sharks, you’re feeding the sharks,” Cano yelled at forward Laura Lamb as she dribbled through traffic against 17th-ranked UCLA.

It turned into a frenzy for Pac-10 teams.

First the Bruins beat the Anteaters, 1-0, ending their 14-game unbeaten streak. Irvine, which was ranked 21st, then was run over by USC, 3-0, on Sunday.

A year ago, two such losses would have severely damaged Irvine’s NCAA tournament hopes. Now the Big West Conference has an automatic bid, but Cano, as always, saw it from a different perspective.

“All we need to do is win our conference to go to the tournament,” Cano said after the UCLA game. “But you always like to have options.”

Translation: It didn’t exactly help the conference in terms of getting two teams into the NCAA tournament.

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No one on the Anteater men’s basketball team will be happier than Gabe Cagwin to see practice begin.

Cagwin, a freshman guard from Belfair (Wash.) North Mason High School, has hardly been stress-free since committing to Irvine last spring.

The most disturbing moment was when doctors discovered a tumor on his right calf. It turned out the benign and Cagwin will not have it removed at this time.

On top of that, he had to plow through NCAA red tape regarding his eligibility. Cagwin, who had a 3.97 grade-point average in high school, said the NCAA clearinghouse didn’t allow one English credit, but missed the fact he had taken five English classes in four years. It gave him the necessary credits.

The matter was cleared up. . . . eventually.

More important was his health.

“I had this hard bump, but I just thought I had a real strong calf,” Cagwin said. “My mom was worried about it and took me to the doctor. He sent me to the University of Washington Medical Center. The doctor came in, wiggled my leg around, and said, ‘It’s a tumor all right. Come back in a week and we’ll do a biopsy.’ That wasn’t too tough of a week.”

The news, though, was good.

“I had real stressful August,” Cagwin said. “Now I just want to play some basketball.”