Whatever It Takes

When a ball is thrown at your face, the normal reaction is to flinch.

Not Chay Lapin. Balls hit him in the nose, the cheek, the forehead, and it’s no big deal.

“It doesn’t hurt,” he said. “You have so much adrenaline, you don’t realize something happened.”

Such is life for the No. 1 water polo goalie in Southern California.

A 6-foot-5, 190-pound senior at Long Beach Wilson, Lapin is the Bruins’ version of an octopus. He has only two hands, but he’ll use whatever parts of his body are available to prevent a ball from reaching the net for a goal.

“He has no fear,” Coach Tony Martinho said. “He throws his whole body to block it.”

With a wingspan of more than 7 feet and the ability to leap out of the water, Lapin is a goalie extraordinaire and a major recruiting target of such collegiate powers as UCLA, California, USC and Pepperdine.

Martinho doesn’t hide his admiration for Lapin’s skills.

“He’s as good a goalie as I’ve seen in high school,” he said.

Wilson (19-2) has won seven of the last eight Southern Section Division I water polo championships and is ranked No. 1 in Division I going into games today and Saturday in San Jose, where the Bruins are competing in the TruWest Memorial Cup.

Lapin appreciates the role of the goalie.

“There’s a lot of pressure on us because we’re the last line of defense,” he said. “When [others] screw up, we have to fix their mistakes.”

Fate and luck helped put Lapin on the path to water polo success.

As a seventh-grader, Lapin tried to sign up to become a junior lifeguard. The program was full, so he joined a water polo team.

Then the goalie on his team got sick, and the coach needed a replacement. Lapin filled in and has been a goalie ever since.

“He cannot only get high but stay high because of his tremendous leg strength,” Martinho said. “Much of our game is based on counterattacks. He hits [teammates] on outlet passes and throws the ball the length of the pool. He gets to balls other kids can’t reach. He’s a weapon for us.”

Some wonder whether Lapin would be an effective goalie in soccer, but the sport never interested him.

“The reason I wouldn’t want to be a soccer goalie is the goalie might get four plays in a half,” he said. “The goalie in water polo is always doing something. You’re always moving and always having to work hard. It’s fun because it’s a lot of sports put together in the water.”

Lapin has so many shots bounce off his face and forehead, he could use a hockey mask, let alone a helmet.

“I guess I’m probably losing a lot of brain cells,” he said.

Lapin wakes up at 5 a.m. on days that the team doesn’t have a game to show up for 5:30 a.m. practices, then returns to the pool in the afternoon.

Wilson has a sign at its pool listing the 10 former Bruins who became Olympians in water polo, led by Tony Azevedo, perhaps the greatest U.S. player in history for his age.

One day, Lapin hopes to have his name added to the list, and win a fourth consecutive Division I title.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.