I am in my second season coaching the San Diego State University Club Water Polo team. I like to think so far in my young coaching career I have had great success. Shoot I have had great success with athletics in general at San Diego State. I am proud to say that I was apart of making program history with the water polo team, the swim team & now with the club water polo team. Last year in my first season we placed 4th in the conference. It was a great accomplishment for the girls & the young program. This year the team had the same goals try to qualify for nationals. Well I am proud to announce that we will be playing in the CWPA National Championship tournament in Tallahasse Florida on the campus of Florida State in two weeks. (May 3-7) I have never been to Florida State so I am looking forward to sharing the experience with my players.
In our first tournament of the season we beat the 5 time National Champion Cal Poly by a goal. This early season game ended up being extremely important in our ranking for the entire season. In our conference the CWPA Socal Region we held the number 1 seed. Going through the rest of the season with only our early season lost to UCSD. Cal Poly would only have 1 loss against us in the first weekend. As the season went on we held a number #1 seed in our conference and a top 5 national ranking. This was very exciting for our program that previously had never gotten better than 4th in conference and never held a national ranking.
From the start of this semester I had asked Brooke since she was a college grad to help me out, when she had free time. Brooke has a ton of coaching experience & I knew that our coaching styles would complement each other. Turns out we make a damn good pair! If the stars aligned I think we would make great college coaches. Me as the Head Coach of course J . In our first tournament this became evident that I needed Brooke to help me so that I could manage all these girls and the pace of the game. After the game Brooke was speaking to the ref. This ref had seen us play our whole career. Turns out the next weekend he was refeeing Mikayla’s game day and was speaking to my parents. He was like saw your other daughters last weekend I see they just can’t get away from the sport. My mom just laughed. He told her that we were doing a great job with those girls. "Their team played very well. They have so much potential”. I laughed when my mom told us but it also made me feel good.
As the season went on Brooke came to every game with us. She has become a part of the team and I am so thankful for all her help. I understand the game at what I think is a high level but Brooke see’s the game like very few people. I am sure this is because she watched film over & over through high school & college. Plus she sits on the deck for hours during tournaments watching & learning. I am so appreciative for this. Plus I take a bit more of a layed back approach when coaching these girls & Brooke is there to really get after them. Basically during a game I do all the subbing, yelling & then some coaching of course. Brooke’s job as my assistant holds a good amount of power. She watches the flow of the game & what the other team is doing, this way I can be coaching the specific play at that moment. Because Brooke is watching the entire game & taking the notes so that we can make the correct adjustments. During all time outs & breaks between quarters Brooke then jumps into action telling the girls what adjustments need to be made. She draws up the plays. Brooke also coaches the girls when I sub them & answers any questions. As I write this I am starting to think Brooke has a much harder job than mine. I promise I am also coaching. Oh I can’t forget since Brooke is watching the flow of the game she also tells me when to take my timeouts. I think great coaching duo’s work because there is no ego involved. We also trust each other. Brooke and I are competitive. I am sure you had no idea. Since we just want to win our system works expectionally well. Don’t get me wrong at times we may disagree but it is rare. Also I trust Brooke with my life so her telling me to call a timeout is like the word from the water polo gods!
(Brooke coaching)
With a coaching duo that hates to lose & seems to have a good grasp on everything it made the season very successful. Don’t get me wrong I think we had a few coaches (cough, cough male) that were not thrilled by having girls outcoach them. I think we may actually be the only female coaches in our league. I actually at one point got an email from one coach (who we will not name) that gave me a scouting report. The email may have come from a good place but needless to say it fired up Brooke & myself. Within the email he gave me a scouting report that was not very good- Brooke does a much better job. I laughed especially hard when he was not using actual water polo terms. Plus my team had totally crushed his. Needless to say I took the lesson my mom taught me when I was younger if you have nothing good to say don’t say anything at all. I did not send him an email in response. Then at the conference tournament Brooke & I walked by a set of parents on the way to the bench and they missed the lesson from their parents in not saying anything nice. One mom clearly said “ you have to be kidding me, those are the San Diego State coaches! They are real coaches. I had heard SDSU was a good team. Must just have great players or a lot of luck.” Well needless to say my team went on to bet her daughter's team. Sorry everyone we are the real coaches.
The team before the championship tournament started
At the championship tournament we had received the number #1 seed which gave us a great advantage to make it into the championship game. Win or lose in the championship game Sunday you get to go to Nationals. To get to that point we had to win our two games on Saturday. First we beat UCSD who had beaten us previously in the semester by a goal. We had a great opening game won 10-4. Our second game would be against UCI. We had beaten them two times previously in the season but they had a good team. Plus they have this lefty named Sharon Dyer. Brooke and I have played with Sharon & her sister for years on a club team and in high school. While playing UCI our focus for the game was to make sure we limited her look with the deadly lob that she shots. At the end of the game she made a great move but the goal was taken away. We won 6-2. While shaking hands we hugged & I reminded her to be a shooter. Then I told her how great her last move was great to score that goal. By beating UCI Saturday evening, we had clenched the program’s first trip every to the National Championship tournament!!
Going into Sunday’s game against Cal Poly, Brooke and I worried if we would come out flat. The team had been extremely flat against UCI the evening before. Our worries did not last much past the first sprint when we went & scored. We jumped to an early lead of 2 goals. The girls did a great job defensively. They stuck to the plan that Brooke and I had drafted. Plus we played to our strengths. Cal Poly practices 6 days a week usually doing double. While our team has 4 hours of pool time a week. And we do very little conditioning. I am going to be honest we hardly practice at all and I am usually lucky if I have 5 players all together. Our game plan was to stay on offense as much as possible stopping them from the ability to counter us. The girls did great with this. As the game went back and forth late in the 3rd we looked to tie the game up. We had a great goal with no time left on the shot clock. All of a sudden the shot clocks were no longer working. The ref’s originally called the goal. Then after a complaint from someone they decided to hold up the game. After about 10 minutes of deliberating and Jamie getting very pissed off in a ref’s face they took the goal away. This was the change in momentum that we could not handle. We would end up losing by 2 goals. No matter this game showed us just how great we played, and with a little more practice & dedication to getting into shape that is a team we can beat.
After the game we were presented with a 2nd place plaque. The girls were excited to at least receive something for such a great effort. Plus they were shocked at my ability to “get pissed” they called it. What that Ref did not know was how lucky he was that I kept Brooke from really getting mad. Surprisingly I did not get a yellow card which was well deserved for my outburst. I feel I did not get it due to the fact that they knew they were wrong. No matter I showed the girls how much I cared. While Brooke did the same by showing her disgust by almost breaking my clip board but also coaching the girls while I was arguing. No matter the loss the girls were ecstatic to have made program history.
There is my team- happy after getting 2nd!!
This being a student run club a few girls spend hours a week taking care of all the paperwork to allow the other girls to compete. Once the excitement of getting second and playing a great game to Cal Poly who is 5 time National Champion, we realized now we have to plan our first really big travel trip to Florida. This has been a bit stressful due largely in part to our lack of funds. The school has no ability to help so the girls are working overtime in trying to raise enough funds so that everyone can make the trip and they do not have to pay out of pocket. The worst part is due to our lack of funds Brooke will most likely be unable to attend with us. I am hoping we raise a ton of money which will allow Brooke to come. If not the girls have appreciated all she has done to help them and I will miss my handy dandy Assistant during the most important tournament of the year. Hopefully she has taught me enough to help guide the team to a great appearance at the national stage. Plus we will get another crack at Cal Poly if we win our first few games.
It is an exciting time for the club in that we will get to play for a National Championship. The girls are working hard & doing a ton of conditioning. If we can get our conditioning up and then practice all togheter a little more I have a feeling we are going to have a great time in Florida. We just have to play our game and enjoy the experience.
I apologize for the long winded blog here just so much to talk about.
If you would like to donate to the San Diego State University Club Women’s Water polo club you can contact me directly or mail your check to:
C/o Women's Club Water Polo
Aztec Recreation Center
55th Street SDSU San Diego Ca 92182
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