Boys water polo: Irvine-Corona del Mar story goes national
October 12th, 2010, 12:27 am · · posted by DAN ALBANO, ocvarsity.com
I was a guest Monday night on the “Talking Water Polo at the Planet” radio show on waterpoloplanet.com and the Irvine-Corona del Mar incident caught the interest of hosts Trevor Freeman and Coach Dave.
If you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear the topic come up at the end of my segment, which starts about 10 minutes in. One of recommendations from the show was a retroactive, one-game suspension for the Corona del Mar player.
Corona del Mar has conducted an investigation and decided not to discipline its player involved in the incident.
Related:
Father of injured player says new video shows son being struck
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A one game suspension? The video seemed to have a soccer element to it. The kid flops, his dad/coach jumps in the water and later on the player is back in the game. So was he injured? Or a very fast healer?
This incident is being blown completely out of proportion
CDM is one of the dirtiest teams in the area. Everybody who plays them on a regular basis knows it. They have a reputation of sticking their hands in Speedos grabbing there or grabbing the trachea. While the player who was injured and then re-entered the game did nothing to bolster his case of abuse, abuse does occur, and you can see once the video cams start showing up on deck how their momentum changes to losing games. Thugs pure and simple who can’t win on talent.
The Irvine player was “submarining” to get position. That’s why the refs didn’t call anything. You can’t do that. Put your head in the water and you better be prepared for the worst, ask anyone that has played at a high level. They will tell you the same. Sorry Irvine, this isn’t swimming.
Bean you are completely out of line EVERY team does dirty stuff under the water, CdM is no different.
You are the joke Whatta Joke. Some day YOU will get caught doing something you have no business doing, and whining that “everybody does it” is not a good defense.
The two dirtiest teams in Orange County: CDM and Mater Dei. That is your reputation, might as well know what everyone else is saying about you.
whattajoke
Dirty play happens under water sure it happens a lot.
CDM/specifically the kid who held Kamai down with both hands, and throat checked him is most definitely NOT typical in any level.
getting elbowed can and will pass as “accidental” but
“Unintentional” throat check ?? Hmmmmmm….
The Observer – if you are “observing” well enough, this media whoring dad remark, is so far from truth.
Its hard to tell from the video exactly what happened…as an observer of high school water polo who has had three boys go on to college, I fear that the escalation of incidences like this can ultimately threaten the existence of the sport as a CIF sanctioned sport…..Some coaches and old timers teach the old school hard hitting game, but that wont fly in our society today. Either the sport and the coaches start to police this stuff before someone really gets hurt, or CIF or some high school administrators who never played the game are going to call for huge changes, or end the sport completely which is a shame. I dont comment on whether this incident was intentional or not, but in any other sport fouls are called when someone is seriously hurt, even football, and if the players in the water knew that if someone they were guarding got hurt, they would miss a game, then it could still be played physically but with some understanding of the other player……example, linemen cant hit a quarterback in the head, nba players cant throw elbows haphazardly, etc etc…..Its time for the game to catch up, at least at the high school level, before real changes come from above….If a player does, God forbid, suffer a serious injury due to a punch or something like that, well, wont it be too late to stop over regulation then? just my two cents, without comment on this incident because I wasnt there to see it…
I didn’t realize that there is that much contact in water polo.
Oldpolodad said: “Some coaches and old timers teach the old school hard hitting game, but that wont fly in our society today.”
What is a shame is the win at any cost mentality that has coaches condoning this sort of bad behavior, i.e. O’Dea who pulls his team aside with a ‘we gotta stop em any way we can’ pep talk, wink, nod, and then someone gets hurt.
And the fact that CDM players get on this board and say “everybody does it” is a testament to what O’Dea allows as the head coach at CDM.
Good poll question Dan….should high school water polo take a look at rules that keep kids from getting hurt or is the game fine as is? My kids were as aggressive as they come, and loved the physical play, but is there a limit if it seems to be escalating?
whattajoke
You’re one to comment on being completely out of line..
Dirty play underwater happens all the time, true.
CDM/specifically this kid via video clearly held Kamai with both hands. How on earth can anyone accidentally hold someone down, and do a throat check??
The observer: if you were “observing” well , I would delete the media whoring dad comment..
He so happen to be relatively calm. considering. Kamai is one of the most underrated player in OC..ever wondered why that is?
CDM will now forever be known as DIRTY players! SAD for the upstanding players on the team!
I am an alumnus of CdM, where I played water polo for four years. I also played a bit of masters water polo after college. In addition, I was assistant water polo coach at Irvine High for a year.
CdM has long been regarded as a top water polo team. I cannot speak to the current team, but we were NOT “thugs”. We worked very hard, and we won CIF my junior year.
Irvine High has an excellent swim team. They should perhaps leave it at that, as they are far too wimpy to play water polo. The dad jumps in the pool? Pahleeze!!! If my dad had jumped in the pool during a water polo game I would not have spoken to him for quite a while – but then, my dad knew better than to pull a stunt like that. Water polo is a very rough game, and if you can’t handle that, join a swim team. Don’t ruin our game!
Consider another situation that I personally witnessed. A Mater Dei sophomore was literally punched in the face during a CIF game, splitting his lip open and requiring stitches, which kept him out of the rest of the CIF tournament. That player went on to become CIF player of the year both his junior and senior years, leading Mater Dei to back-to-back championships. His dad did not jump in the water. His dad did not call for an investigation. His dad, another CdM alumnus, understands that water polo is a rough game and injuries do occur.
This Irvine player had a little scrape on his neck and was able to continue in the same game, and the dad is making a federal case out of it.
Stick to swimming, Irvine!