Craig Is a Veritable Water Tower

The analogy rolls off other people’s tongues as easily as water rolls off Kami Craig’s back, and somehow, the description seems to fit, despite any differences between the Santa Barbara girls’ water polo team’s standout senior center and a certain former Laker superstar and Los Angeles sports icon.

“You’ve got a Shaq and then you’ve got a bunch of high school players, you know?,” said Coronado Coach David Throop. “You just hold out and do what you can, and then hope for the best. You try to play six-on-one, basically.”

The 5-foot-11 Craig -- the only high school player on the U.S. junior women’s national team that defeated Russia, 11-9, to win the 2005 FINA Junior Women’s World Championships last week at Perth, Australia -- often beats even those odds.

Despite having Coronado two-meter defenders Kelly Phelps and Katie Estrada lodged on her back and around her neck for most of the game, Craig scored twice in Santa Barbara’s 6-4 victory over Coronado in the quarterfinals of the Southern California Championships on Friday night at Corona del Mar.

She has 74 goals and has drawn 52 ejections this season.

“Being a center is pretty much a wrestling match on offense, all the time,” Craig said. “I mean, you come out with scratches across your chest, you have bruises everywhere. You get ripped suits, elbows, black eyes. Just little things.

“Sometimes I just think, ‘Go away. I want to just play.’ But it’s all part of the game, and it makes it that much more rewarding when you can score off of it, or you get an ejection and your team gets a score off of it.”

Despite any difficulties, opposing defenders are far easier for Craig to deal with than, say, reading or school work.

“She hasn’t enjoyed school a lot,” said Dale Craig, Kami’s mother.

Diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia as a second-grader, Craig takes advantage of special resources to aid the education of students with learning disabilities. She uses textbooks on tape and attends a study class in which students may receive individual help with classwork.

And if reading material isn’t available on tape, Craig said, “My mom’ll sit down and read a whole book to me. I can read, and I know how to read. But it’s so energy-taking, and it’s very difficult, and it can take me a long time.”

Dale Craig is happy to help.

“I’ve done it for years. Let’s just say I’ve learned a lot,” she says with a laugh. “It’s really brought us closer together. Does it take a lot of time? Yes. But it’s for my kid, and what parent would want to miss that time together?”

Craig also benefits from an individualized education plan that allows access to calculators and allots extra time for test-taking. The extra steps have helped her post a 3.60 grade-point average and earn a scholarship to play water polo at USC.

“It was a struggle, but if you find the help, you can do anything,” Craig said. “I’m proud of what I’ve done academically.”

She gets A’s in water polo, too.

Craig is an athletic, imposing presence at the two-meter spot. She scored seven goals -- including four in a victory over China -- in six games at the Junior Women’s World Championships, making a strong case for consideration for the 2008 Olympic Games.

“She does things I’ve never seen other female centers do,” Santa Barbara Coach Mark Walsh said. “I might be biased, but if I was picking that team, I’d save a spot for her.”

Guy Baker, the U.S. men’s national team coach who guided the U.S. women to a silver medal in the 2000 Olympics and bronze in 2004, planned on it before he moved on to his current job.

“She’ll be in the mix over the next four years,” Baker said. “She has a very bright future internationally.”

For now, Craig is happy to play for Santa Barbara (20-6, 7-0 in the Channel League), which placed fourth in the Southern California Championships this weekend and is ranked No. 1 in Southern Section Division IV.

The Dons are accustomed to the attention Craig draws from opponents forced to choose between containing her and allowing her teammates to roam freely.

“It definitely opens things up for our team when she’s in there,” said Sarah Frost, the Dons’ second-leading scorer. “It’s like when Shaq is in there.”

Craig can relate to the former Laker center in other ways too.

“I definitely feel like a target, to teams, to coaches, to refs,” she said. “I don’t get many opportunities to be open, and when I do, I know I’ve really got to put the ball away.”