When I first met Lacey Sutton, the coach of the girls water polo
team at San Benito High School, I asked her this question:
When I first met Lacey Sutton, the coach of the girls water polo team at San Benito High School, I asked her this question:
“So, hold on. They can’t touch the bottom of the pool?”
Needless to say, I’ve never witnessed, in person, a water polo match. And saying Sutton’s look after I asked that question was one of puzzlement would be the understatement of the year.
I’m from the East Coast. We don’t have water polo, at least not when I was in school. We had lacrosse and field hockey, a pair of sports that are starting to gain popularity on the West Coast, so in all likelihood, water polo may perhaps be getting a foothold in the East Coast as well. But who knows?
On Tuesday, I witnessed my first water polo match. It pitted the San Benito Lady ‘Balers against the Salinas Cowboys (apparently, they don’t call themselves the Cowgirls, which would make more sense, but whatever).
The final score was 12-9 San Benito, but the match came down to the final seconds to decide the winner, which will only help my critique of water polo. It was an exciting, edge-of-your-seat contest that involved so much strength and agility and endurance that part of me was still convinced that the players could touch the bottom of the pool.
How else do you explain the rocket-like propulsions that throw the players out of the water to pass, shoot, or block a shot? Like I said, this was my first water polo match, and I’m convinced that I’ll never in my lifetime be in shape enough to play this game, let alone explode out of the water in any way, shape or form.
But I have to say I enjoyed my first water polo match, and I don’t think the nail-biter outcome had anything to do with it. It’s faster than I expected, with seven-minute quarters and a 35-second shot clock, and it’s more physical than I expected as well.
While players from both the boys and girls teams have commented on the kicking, punching, grabbing and twisting that takes place under the water (lovely!), I was pleased to see the above-the-surface action carry a fair amount of contact.
I figured with the swimming and the treading and the shooting and the passing and all the classy stuff that goes on under the water, the players won’t have the time, or energy, to play physical with their opponent.
Although the refs call plenty of fouls, the stoppage in play is barely noticeable, and they let plenty go. Even better, I didn’t seem to hear the “let them play” argument from concerned parents.
In terms of fouls, though, the part I don’t get, and find incredibly dumb, is how the foul can be used to the defense’s favor in almost every situation. Figure an attacker is in front of the goal, the defender can intentionally foul the player, and the attacker must then pass off to a teammate before taking a shot.
Umm, for lack of a better sound, huh?
The fact that fouling a player gives the person fouling the advantage doesn’t seem to float, but then again, this is my first water polo match.
What I do enjoy is the swim-off at the beginning of each quarter. Basically, the two teams start at opposite ends, and swim toward the middle of the pool to retrieve the ball first. It stirred images of 13th century warfare, to say the least, which I tend to enjoy in all my sports.
Of course, you will never see me in the pool playing water polo. But if you do, I’ll be the guy using the inner tube.
Contact Andrew Matheson at [email protected].
