In water polo, wimps don't win national championships

o SportsMonday Column

Jim Rose

If you look at the home page of the Michigan men's water polo team, you'll find links to rosters, game results and statistics, among other things. On the statistics page, there's a player-by-player breakdown of the season that concluded recently, complete with goals, assists, shooting percentages ... and KOs.

Now, water polo is an inherently physical sport - but KOs? Michigan's leader drew dozens of KOs in 22 games this season.

So, was he getting a 10-count on two or three people every game?

Not exactly. It turns out that in water polo, KO stands for Kickout - not Knockout. A Kickout results when a player is, well, kicked out of the pool for some sort of infraction. The result is a 20-second power play during which, much as in hockey, one team earns a 6-on-5 advantage.

Such power plays are responsible for a large percentage of the scoring in water polo, according to Michigan coach Scott Russell. And he should know - his team outscored opponents by an overall tally of 395 to 153 this season.

His team also won a national championship, as well as a third straight Big Ten title. And while some clubs wallow in misery over their non-varsity status, Russell's has taken something of a different tone.

"At this point, it would be unrealistic for the boys on our team to ever dream of varsity status here," Russell says. "But we can still choose to run the program as if it were a varsity sport."

Practicing for two and a half hours each day is the first step. Recruiting some of the nation's best players is the next one.

Russell, who coaches both the men's and women's teams, sells Michigan's water polo program this way: It might not entitle you to a scholarship, but it comes at "one of the best colleges in the country."

"If a kid's gonna get a scholarship to UCLA, I'm not even gonna talk to him," he says. "But if he's thinking of going to a school to play water polo just because they have a varsity program, then I might go after him."

Current Wolverines include students from places such as Hawaii and California, and others who nearly went to West Coast schools where water polo is big. But at Michigan, players who might be "practice fodder," as Russell says, at some place like UCLA, get a chance to step in and at least compete for a starting spot. It's actually a bonus that the team owes to its club status, and it's something Russell has capitalized upon in his 10 years as coach.

But make no mistake - this is not a hobby. National championships don't come without great athletes and lots of work. That's why Russell chooses to "recruit nationwide" and run the program "exactly like a varsity sport."

This year's team was especially dominant. Of 22 games, Michigan lost just one, to Dartmouth back in the early weeks of the season. A couple weeks ago, in the national tournament, Dartmouth was again the opponent - but it was the Wolverines who eventually advanced to the finals and won the title.

Leading the way - not just through the national tournament, where he earned MVP honors, but through the entire season - was junior Eric Lancaster. Russell calls him "clearly the most skilled offensive player we've ever had."

Lancaster has scored 253 goals in his three seasons with the team - already the club's all-time record. And he's got another year to add to the total.

Russell says the team's strategy revolved around its star: "We relied on him to score goals, and he relied on the rest of the team to play defense," he says.

Playing offense involves sending a shot on the opposing team's net before a 35-second shot clock expires.

And for the past few years, the sport has been experimenting with a 2-point shot, which must be attempted from at least seven meters away. It adds a wrinkle to a game that is otherwise largely characterized by what Russell terms "hand-to-hand combat."

It seems that the closest approximation equates water polo with rugby - only in seven feet of water. Two referees police the action - from the pool deck, out of the water, naturally - but you can imagine what goes on beneath the surface. Grabbing, kicking, kneeing, pulling - all are what loyalists call "a part of the game."

All of which makes the endurance and strength of the average water polo player just this side of amazing. Four seven-minute quarters comprise the usual game, but with clock stoppages and the like, the action generally takes around an hour and a half to play itself out.

"Oh yeah, you can play it in gym class, or with some buddies or whatever," Russell says. "But that's not really what this is. These guys are in pretty exceptional shape."

The guys are, yes - but so are the girls. The guys have won three Big Ten titles in a row, but mention that to Michigan's women's team, and the players will tell you that's nothing. They've won 10 in a row.

Must have something to do with the coach.

- Jim Rose can be reached via e-mail at jwrose@umich.edu

11-16-98