Staying in Spotlight Is the Next Big Goal

The fence was supposed to be around the pool, not in it, and the water temperature was chilly, climbing slowly, about a degree a day, instead of the preferred movement of a degree an hour.

Other than that, Guy Baker’s preparations for his first Holiday Cup as the U.S. women’s water polo coach were going just fine.

Fortunately, the small tornado whipping through the Long Beach/Los Alamitos area had come a few days before the Cup, not during the 1998 tournament. Baker and water polo officials scrambled and got some pool covers from Golden West College and borrowed some bleachers from the Long Beach Grand Prix, though the unusually chilly weather kept many of the parents at home.

You might say Baker has gone from pulling fences out of the water to putting world champions in the water.

It has been a remarkably rapid ascent.

In 1998, the U.S. finished eighth in the World Championships at Perth, Australia. Baker was hired later in the year, and the team has gone on to win silver medals at the Olympics in 2000 and the FINA World Cup in 2002.

Its great leap to the top of the podium came with bookend gold medals last summer, first at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, followed by the Pan American Games, which also meant qualification for the 2004 Olympics in Athens was out of the way.

That sort of success grabs the attention of TV executives in charge of programming for Athens, giving the women of water polo something of a head start. When they won the silver in Sydney in 2000, losing to the host Australians in the gold-medal game, their profile increased during the Games.

“We went from CNBC to MSNBC and finally we made it to the network,” Baker said, smiling. “I imagine we’ll start at least on the second tier, if not starting on the network.”

He sees a parallel to another sport.

“I kind of compare it to when the [U.S.] women’s soccer program won their first World Cup in 1991,” Baker said. “Then they won the gold medal in ‘96, and then in ’99 they had their World Cup.

“If we can sustain some success over a long period of time, then we’ll see something from this World Championships. ... The World Championships wasn’t a fluke. It was just a matter of time.”

This year’s Holiday Cup, which opens today in Los Alamitos, will be something like a mini-World Championships, featuring six of the world’s top ranked teams. It will also be the last significant home appearance for the U.S. women until June in Long Beach.

The other teams on hand in Los Alamitos will be No. 2 Italy, No. 3 Russia, No. 4 Canada, No. 6 Netherlands and No. 7 Australia. Italy, the gold medalists at the World Championships in 1998 and 2001, lost to the U.S., 8-6, in the gold-medal game in Barcelona. The rematch will be Friday night at 7:30 at the USA Water Polo National Aquatics Center.

“We might be OK, but wouldn’t be surprised if we were in the fifth-place game,” Baker said Monday at a media luncheon in Long Beach. “ ... The difference between first and seventh is a goal.”

The Americans are suffering from an unusual series of injuries, missing three players. Captain Heather Moody has a broken right index finger and attacker Margie Dingeldein suffered a broken left thumb in a 9-6 victory against the Netherlands on Sunday in Santa Barbara. And attacker Amber Stachowski is continuing to recover from a concussion.

Baker will continue to alternate goalkeepers Jackie Frank and Nicolle Payne. He said Frank will play on Thursday against Canada and on Friday versus Italy, and in the final game Sunday.