Britta Nordstrom received the ultimate compliment from Hollister
High girls water polo coach Derek Kisling.
”
Britta is the best all-around water polo player I’ve ever had
here,
”
said Kisling, who also coaches the girls swim team.
Britta Nordstrom received the ultimate compliment from Hollister High girls water polo coach Derek Kisling.
“Britta is the best all-around water polo player I’ve ever had here,” said Kisling, who also coaches the girls swim team.
Nordstrom will also go down as one of the top swimmers in the history of the program after placing 10th in the 100-freestyle at the Central Coast Section meet on May 17 at the Santa Clara International Swim Center, clocking a PR 54.42. That was just .17 off the school record 54.25 set by Carlie Guerra at the CCS finals in 2000.
For Nordstrom’s exploits in the water and in the classroom, she has been awarded the coveted honor of Free Lance Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year for Hollister High’s 2002-03 school year.
Nordstrom excelled in the classroom, racking up a total GPA of 4.09, ranking her 19th in her class of 500. She has a grade of ‘A’ in two current Advanced Placement classes – Calculus and Government – so expect that GPA to go up even higher. She soared in Math on the SAT’s with a 690 and fared very well in the Verbal at 540. In her Golden State Exams, Nordstrom received honors for Biology, Chemistry, School Recognition in History and High Honors in Economics. She ranked in the 98th percentile in Star Testing for Math.
This fall, Nordstrom plans to attend UC San Diego and play water polo for the Tritons. Other schools, such as San Diego State and Florida Atlantic showed interest in her.
“I chose UC San Diego for the academics,” said Nordstrom. “UC San Diego just moved up to Division II. I should receive some money to play polo next year.”
She hopes to someday teach Math in high school.
The Glue
If one does the math, it isn’t hard to figure out that Nordstrom’s 6-foot-1 frame and 6-1 wingspan was like an unfair weapon in the water for the Balers, who went 20-10 and were co-champions of the Tri-County Athletic League. Her main position was 2-meter defense and there weren’t many better at it in the CCS. She could be nicknamed “The Glue” because of the way she stuck to opponents.
For the year, Nordstrom had a school record 213 steals – an average of 7.1 steals per game. She could put the ball in the net, too, with 50 goals. She could pass, as well, with 22 assists. And she was just short of automatic in the sprints to the ball at the start of each period, winning 107 out of 111. For her efforts, Nordstrom was named team MVP, the same award she won as a junior.
She may have shot more, but there was a method to her unselfishness.
“When I played as a freshman, one of my teammates called me a ‘ball hog’,” said Nordstrom. “I felt insulted. When I was on varsity as a sophomore I just wanted to play defense because I didn’t want anyone yelling at me anymore. I love to play defense. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
If Nordstrom is to expand her game, though, she knows she’ll have to shoot her best shot from time to time. Her club coach for the past two years, Gary Figueroa, is working with Nordstrom in that direction.
“Britta is the most influential player to come out of this area,” said Figueroa, who coaches Britta on Ag Area Aquatics out of Salinas. “Her defense has room to get better and she’s still learning. She needs to be more selfish and shoot the ball more. We’re working on her offense. What I like about her is that she doesn’t back down from a challenge. She doesn’t initiate it, but she won’t back down from it if it should come up during a game.”
The water polo season didn’t end the way Nordstrom had hoped. First, the Balers, who won all the games during the regular season, but were skunked in the T-CAL title game by Live Oak 6-3 in Morgan Hill.
“That was a big bummer,” said Nordstrom. “We beat them in our pool, which is a lot smaller than theirs. They were used to playing in their pool and spread us out. And we were stagnant on offense.”
Secondly, she found out she didn’t even rate a co-league MVP at the team banquet.
“I heard coach Kisling announce I was First Team All-League,” said Nordstrom. “I went up to him afterwards and asked him who won MVP and if I made any CCS honors.”
The league MVP went to Katy Bozzo of Santa Catalina and Nordstrom, who was an honorable mention All-CCS selection as a junior, didn’t get a mention as a senior. Nordstrom took the news hard. When she got home that night, the tears flowed.
“I was upset,” she said. “Santa Catalina was third our fourth in our league. Then, when we beat them in the semifinals of the league tournament, she scored only one goal and that was on a steal at the end of the quarter. Not when I was guarding her.”
The main problem with the voting for MVP was that three of the eight coaches failed to show for the meeting. Present were coaches from Gilroy, Santa Catalina, Notre Dame, Live Oak and Hollister. The vote went 3-2 with Brian Traverso of Live Oak joining Kisling in voting for Nordstrom.
“I lobbied real hard for Britta,” said Kisling. “She was the biggest impact player in the league. Brian Traverso said it best when he told me he had to redesign his whole offense just to keep the ball away from Britta.”
As far as Nordstrom’s lack of selection to the CCS team, Kisling had a previous work commitment at school and couldn’t attend the meeting.
“If I was there, I would have pushed real hard for her for CCS,” said Kisling of her captain. “She was a First or Second Team player. She was the rock that anchored our boat. I always relied on her. Everyone on the team looked to her as the leader and she never had to browbeat anybody.”
Another statement for Nordstrom was made by Kisling when he talked about how she became the first Baler to receive any CCS accolades, which came in her junior year as honorabl mention.
“I had to leave the meeting early and she still made honorable mention,” said Kisling. “That’s because the coach from Mitty, who we lost to in CCS, really liked her and pushed for her. If I could have stayed, I could have lobbied more for her and maybe she might have made Second Team.”
Word got out through the grapevine about Nordstrom’s talents and she was selected to play in the North-South All-Star game at Sacred Heart Prep last December. She played nearly the whole game and scored a goal.
The fact Nordstrom is an outstanding water polo player isn’t surprising. Her three older brothers – Leif, Bjorn and Lars – were stellar polo players at Hollister High. Bjorn, who stands 6-6, is the most heralded, having played at Southern Cal.
“Bjorn has given me pointers on how to play 2-meter defense because that’s what he played,” said Britta. “He’s really helped me to be a better player.”
“UC San Diego has a steal in Britta,” said Figueroa, who coaches Salinas High aquatics. “They do have a steal.”
Swimming family
The Nordstrom’s are a swimming family, mainly because father, Darick Nordstrom, swam as a youth.
“We’re Nordstrom’s and Nordstrom’s swim,” said mother, Ruth, about the family’s credo.
Britta was taught in the family’s backyard pool as a youth by Leif and Bjorn. When she was five, she started competing with the Hollister Swim Club, now known as San Benito Aquatics.
“In her first meet, she got on the blocks and refused to swim,” said Ruth. “After telling she was going to swim and she refused, I took her to the locker room and told her that she was wearing a racing suit. If she wasn’t going to race, she shouldn’t wear the suit.”
“My parents always pushed me to do my best, but they never pressured me,” said Britta. “There’s a difference.”
Britta swam and was the youngest of the Nordstrom’s to earn her qualifying time in an event when she qualified in the breaststroke at the age of nine.
“She grew seven inches within a year so the doctor said she couldn’t do the breaststroke any more,” said Ruth. “It was freestyle or nothing.”
Britta found that freestyle was her best event. She swam distance freestyle her first couple of years in high school before moving to the shorter freestyles. Still, she was good enough this past spring to qualify for the CCS meet in five events – the 50-free, the 100-free, the 200-free, the 500-free and the 200IM. That, in itself is a school record.
Speaking of school records, Britta set the school record in the 200-free at the T-CAL meet when she swam a 1:58.92, good for first place. She added another first when she won the 50-free at 25.23, not far off Guerra’s school record of 25.07.
Her biggest heartbreak at T-CAL’s was falling just short as anchor in the 200-free relay. The Balers were timed at 1:47.18 to Live Oak’s 1:47.17 – as close as it could get.
“I was so mad I couldn’t catch up to her,” said Britta, who nearly caught the Acorns Ronni Gatschi after beginning her leg a couple of lengths behind. “It was so close.”
At the CCS meet, Britta discarded the 200 and swam the 100 and the 50, plus two relays. In the 50-free, she went from 14th at prelims all the way up to 10th.
“That’s hard to do in a short event like the 100-free,” she said. “I improved a little, but a few of the other girls went backwards. That’s part of swimming.”
She was 17th in the competitive 50-free, which was one place from qualifying for Consolation, or the Second Eight. Her time was 25.37, just .02 behind Shannon Simonds of Archbishop Mitty, who took the 16th and final spot for Saturday’s final day of competition.
“That was hard because she was in the lane next to me and I could see her the whole time,” said Nordstrom. “That was very frustrating.”
Kisling switched Nordstrom to anchor of the 200IM and the Balers, with Stacey Lass, Juliana Sih and Erin Reed, responded with a 15th place at 1:56.14. Nordstrom anchored the Balers’ 400-free relay team at CCS and that team had the 20th fastest time at prelims at 3:51.44.
All in all, it was the best ever performance by a Baler girls swim team at CCS with a team total of 15 points.
Community Service
Britta Nordstrom has worked community service for various entities. She has worked for Small Steps, which assists children in purchasing Christmas gifts; assisted on an Eagle Scout Service Project; helped dig trenches at the high school to put in new lights and worked as a youth counselor at a summer camp.
Like her 6-1 wingspan, she has been able to spread herself out in positive ways, even out of the water. She’s a Triton now and yes, they have a steal of a polo player, as well as a person.
