When some of water polo’s youngest stars and craftiest
veterans congregate at Los Alamitos, Calif., this weekend to vie
for a spot on the U.S. Women’s Senior National team, many of
them will be familiar faces.
Thirty-one players will partake in the grueling three-day
tryout, 10 of whom are from UCLA.
The Bruins will be the most represented program this weekend,
featuring more than twice as many players as any other program.
Players and UCLA coach Adam Krikorian can’t say enough
about the success their water polo team has earned.
“We have a ton of great players ““ alumni and present
players,” senior Natalie Golda said. “We’re a
bunch of great people on a great team.”
“It’s a good sign of how positive our program is and
what we’re doing here to develop players,” Krikorian
added.
The team will likely include six former Olympians, three of whom
are Bruins.
Yet while UCLA’s Golda, Thalia Munro and Kelly Rulon will
probably help anchor this year’s group, a new coach will be
at the helm of the national team.
Since former coach Guy Baker accepted the head coaching position
for the men’s national team, Newport Harbor High School coach
Bill Barnett will take over.
None of the Bruins are familiar with the 62-year old Barnett or
his coaching style.
“I absolutely don’t know anything about him,”
Munro said.
Barnett, however, boasts impressive credentials.
He coached the men’s national team from 1985-1992 and was
also the last coach to lead the men’s Olympic team to a
silver medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Barnett also
established and served as head coach for the men’s National B
Team in 1983 and the men’s National Junior Team (19-unders)
in 1976.
Though Barnett has built programs from scratch on his own
before, he said he will not deviate from Baker’s style that
was set in place and has been successful for the past eight
years.
“All the players are used to it and I’m not going to
change it,” Barnett said. “We’re going to use his
system because it’s gotten them a medal in the past two
Olympics.”
One of the more hotly contested positions this weekend will
undoubtedly be the goalie position. With both positions vacant, a
pair of Bruins, sophomore Emily Feher and alumna Jamie Hipp, will
compete with two others, Meredith McColl (Stanford) and Fana Fuqua
(Cal), for the position.
Though she is the shortest goalie out of the bunch, the
5-foot-8-inch Feher isn’t nervous.
“If they don’t like the way I play, I can’t do
anything about it,” said Feher, who is one of six Bruins who
has been invited to the tryouts for the first time. “I have
no control over what they’re looking for.
“I’m just going to go into the tryout and play the
way I do.”
After this weekend, the remaining players from this
weekend’s tryouts will train during the summer for the FINA
World Championships held in Montreal.