Corso’s Squad Endures Water Torture

Hell Week in the middle of the season?

Leave it to a former Olympic coach to pull that one on his high school players.

Coach Rich Corso of Harvard-Westlake High put the Wolverines through nine workouts in six days through Saturday.

As if that wasn’t enough, he had the players go through part of their drills dressed in T-shirts and baggy nylon basketball shorts to provide more resistance.

“It’s really like carrying about 20 to 25 pounds extra with you [in the water],” Corso said.

“It enables us to train with the same intensity as if we were playing matches.”

The Wolverines (8-1), the area’s top-ranked team, are 10 days into a two-week layoff, which Corso scheduled with forethought.

“I wanted to play eight or nine games and take stock of what we needed to work on, then come back and work on those areas and heighten our training sessions,” Corso said.

“We’re making an impact on our players and in turn making an impact on our opponents.”

Corso said when the Wolverines ditch the wet clothes, they experience immediate results.

“They feel so much lighter, they’re flying in the water,” he said.

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Water polo is one of the few sports in which spectators aren’t privy to the whole picture. And what spectators can’t see usually hurts, as most water polo players will tell you.

Still, much of what occurs above water isn’t pretty either.

Such was the case in two pools last week.

During a tournament game against Malibu last weekend, Jeff Little of Crescenta Valley had his nose broken when an opponent hit his face inadvertently while following through on a shot.

“It was bleeding fairly profusely,” Coach Pete Loporchio said. “His mother is a nurse so she took him to urgent care.”

Little, the Falcons’ second-leading scorer, has played in four games since breaking his nose, wearing a face mask.

He plans to have the nose reset Monday.

“We’re trying to get as much out of him as we can,” Loporchio said.

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Bryan Hiscox of La Canada also saw red during a game Tuesday when a La Serna player’s elbow connected with his eye. The cut required 10 stitches to close and the injury has kept him out of four games.

To add insult to injury, while Hiscox was holding his eye and Coach Larry Naeve was trying to get the referee’s attention, the player Hiscox was defending scored.

Hiscox, team captain and the only left-hander on the squad, is expected to return this week for important nonleague games against ranked opponents Villa Park and Bell Gardens.

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Since Jason Falitz of Burroughs scored a region-high 187 goals last year, he is hardly a well-kept secret.

Still, this season isn’t proving any easier for opponents who are trying to keep Falitz in check. He is averaging nearly six goals a game.

“We’re facing mostly zone defenses because most teams don’t have a guy who can guard him man-to-man,” Coach Rey Rivera said. “He’s really on top of his game.”

Breaking records, however, is not high on Falitz’s list of goals, Rivera said.

“He’s more interested in the team goal and the playoffs,” Rivera said.

Burroughs (15-3) moved up in the Division III rankings last week after recent victories over La Serna, Santa Monica, Bell Gardens, Whittier and Peninsula--all ranked in Division III.

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While most teams favor home-pool advantage, Crescenta Valley does not.

The Falcons’ pool is on campus, but is small and shallow on one side, which doesn’t facilitate Crescenta Valley’s up-tempo transition game.

“For our style of play, it is really advantageous for us to play in a bigger pool,” Loporchio said. “We just get our counter-attack going and we’re stuck.”

The 25-yard pool is 13 feet deep on one side, but only 4 1/2 on the other.

“It’s almost like playing a basketball game were you have an eight-foot basket on one side and a 10-foot basket on the other,” Loporchio said.

“We would prefer to play all deep.”

So much so that the Falcons rarely practice in the shallow end.

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The way Coach Larry Naeve of La Canada is talking, you’d think the Spartans had lost more than they’ve won.

But La Canada, top-ranked in Division III, has lost only two of 11 games, both by a single goal to highly respected Poway of the San Diego Section and El Toro.

“I’d rather have a winless record, losing to good competition, than play a bunch of weak teams and win all the games,” Naeve said.

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Ventura, one of two teams in the region to advance to the Southern Section finals last year, has picked up right where it left off.

The only loss for the Cougars (6-1) came against Righetti in double overtime in a Buena tournament game last week.

Ventura lost to Righetti in the Division IV final last season, 7-6.

Ventura, ranked No. 2 in the division, continues to thrive defensively, allowing an average of only four goals a game. Junior goalie David Miller has been the key.

“David’s definitely the leader of our defense and he’s been incredible,” Coach Joe Abing said.

TOP 5

1. Harvard-Westlake (8-1)

2. Crescenta Valley (11-1)

3. La Canada (9-2)

4. Burroughs (15-3)

5. Ventura (6-1)