Coming into the school year, four UCLA teams will be asked the
same question: Can they repeat?
UCLA’s men’s soccer, women’s gymnastics, water
polo and softball teams all won their respective NCAA Championships
last year, and all of them think they can do it again.
However, the way they won their championships and their views on
this year are all different.
The memories of the men’s soccer team’s dramatic
title game victory over Stanford are still fresh in coach Tom
Fitzgerald’s mind.
But the coach has already had to put last season’s heroics
behind him.
“I enjoyed the championship right up until the
preseason,” said Fitzgerald, whose team is off to a 4-1 start
in 2003. “It’s something you enjoy for as long as
possible, but then you have to move on and take care of the
details.”
Despite the quick start and a No. 1 preseason ranking,
Fitzgerald understands that a repeat champion finish could be
tough.
“It’s always harder to win two times in a
row,” Fitzgerald said. “We lost four key players, but
we did replace them with some good players. I’m optimistic,
we have a great group of guys, and we’re off to a great
start.”
Unlike Fitzgerald, UCLA water polo coach Adam Krikorian has a
different view on winning two championships in a row.
“I think it’s more difficult to win the first
time,” he said. “You just don’t have the same
confidence that you do when you’ve already won one. You know
the system works.”
However, Krikorian, didn’t get to enjoy his team’s
4-3 comeback win over Stanford in the championship game as long as
Fitzgerald.
“I enjoyed it for one week and then I had to start getting
the guys ready,” he said. “In some ways, it was bad, I
didn’t get to fully enjoy the championship. It’s also
good, it keeps me level-headed.”
Krikorian had several players leave as did Fitzgerald, softball
coach Sue Enquist and gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field. They
all feel they have great replacements.
“Last year I had seven seniors and the rest freshmen and
sophomores,” Krikorian said. “That core group coming
back has a chance to make its own mark and its own
history.”
Enquist is split on how to enjoy her championship.
“On the plane ride home, I was enjoying the
championship,” she said. “But there was a part of me
that was starting to think about the 2004 season.”
Kondos Field said throughout the 2003 season that she had
assembled “the best collection of talent in collegiate
gymnastics history,” and they won the NCAA Championship
convincingly. Unfortunately, the team’s heralded “Fab
Five” is gone, but she still has plenty of talent left and
will contend for another NCAA title.
There is, however, one thing all four coaches can agree on.
“The feeling never gets old,” Krikorian said.
“It was nice to have that feeling again.”