THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607280212
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 101 lines
It's getting loud at the Little Creek Combat pool as Cmdr. Jim Brinkman's orders echo off the walls and into the ears of the nearly two dozen SEALS trying to stay afloat.
Brinkman is preaching aggression. ``I want to see people right in somebody's face,'' he barks in a resounding baritone.
The SEALS return to their positions and follow Brinkman's command so well that he remarks: ``Hey, call 911. There's a mugging in here.''
Brinkman is joking, as his orders are coming after hours. Because although he is indeed in the Navy and the folks in the water really are SEALS, they're not those SEALS. They're Southside SEALS, the area's only water polo team, and Brinkman is one of a handful of coaches who speaks the language of the oldest team sport in the Olympics.
``Water polo is just good fun,'' says Scott Cary, another coach who swam competitively for most of his childhood. ``Swimming 10,000 meters a day, doing laps, gets tiring. Water polo brought back a love of the water for me and a love of swimming.''
When Cary, a former player at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, saw the newspaper ad last March seeking water polo players, he showed up at the Amphibious Base pool eager to compete for the first time in five years. Instead, like the other water polo veterans there, he assumed the role of assistant coach to a makeshift group of kids ages 12 and up.
The idea for a team sprouted from a group of parents watching their sons swim in last July's Junior Olympics in Richmond. Blair Fackler, whose son Cole swims for ODAC, has always loved water polo. A triathlete, he's enthralled by the endurance required to keep the legs churning in deep water while running a basketball-type offense played at the pace of soccer.
With no local team - ``TideWater Polo,'' a team founded by Brinkman in the '80s has been defunct for several years - Fackler started his own, posting signs at every swimming hole he could find and placing ads in the Sunday paper. The Navy agreed to free pool time at Little Creek in one of the few pools ideal for a regulation course because it is 12-feet deep all the way around. Equipment was a little harder to come by. The SEALS have only one goal cage, and recently their balls and donated caps were stolen from a coach's car. That doesn't discourage Fackler, who thinks water polo has a place in an area full of water freaks.
``At a young age, few kids swim hundreds and hundreds of yards and say, `This is really fun,' '' Fackler says. ``Now, you throw a ball in there, and that changes the perception.''
Watching the two dozen SEALS scrimmage at the far end of the pool, it's easy to become absorbed in the deft passing and scrappy defense of a water polo contest. You can almost forget it's being played in water so deep that if an average player stood on a teammate's head, he'd still be under water.
``You definitely have to have a strong swimming constitution,'' Fackler admits.
Water polo requires players to tread water the entire game - four seven-minute quarters - while only handling the ball with one hand. Physical contact is the rule, not the exception, as players maneuver for position in front of the goal.
The first part of the SEALS' practice is dedicated to drills - passing and catching with each hand, perfecting the ``eggbeater kick,'' a motion that keeps the shoulders steadily above water. The second hour is simulated game action that is both exhilarating and exhausting.
``You've got to stop for a second to catch your breath,'' says Travis Becker, a rising senior at Bayside High School. ``You focus so much on the game, you didn't realize how tired you are. Then you get out, take a shower and say, `I'm going to sleep now.' ''
Becker has run cross country and biked most of his life, but he says nothing quite compares to water polo.
``Sometimes in other sports, you like to play, but you don't like to practice,'' he says. ``Well, I love to come to practice.''
It's a good thing. So far the SEALS have no competition scheduled, considering the closest club teams are in Northern Virginia and Maryland. Eventually, Fackler would like the team to join the Eastern Water Polo League, consisting of five divisions varying in age and skill level. He hopes more swimming coaches will support the sport and encourage their athletes, especially girls, to try it. Only two girls, and no adult women, are on the SEALS' roster.
``We've got to get more girls involved,'' says Brinkman, who adds the potential is there for college scholarships, with 42 men's varsity and 19 women's programs. ``I don't think they realize how many colleges are starting water polo teams.''
Water polo doesn't have to be an alternative to swimming, Fackler says. Several Olympians, including Matt Biondi and Mark Spitz, have excelled at both sports.
The sport promotes a team atmosphere and an interdependency among swimmers not usually found in an individual sport, while improving agility. When lap after lap gets repetitive, add a ball, Fackler urges.
``It's like a fountain of youth,'' he says. ``It's amazing the releasing effect water polo has. Sometimes I'm so tired, my back is sore and I think, `I don't want to go to practice tonight.' Then I get in the water, my back loosens up and it's like magic.'' ILLUSTRATION: CANDICE C. CUSIC/Virginian-Pilot photos
Members of the Southside SEALS water polo team, consisting of both
adult men and women as well as children, meet at the Little Creek
Combat Pool on Thursday nights.
Mike Craddock chases a loose ball during a SEALS practice. The team
practices despite having no matches scheduled. by CNB