If his game were basketball, football, baseball, hockey or even golf, oh, how different life would be for 18-year-old Tony Azevedo.

The media would be staked out in his front yard around the clock. His face would be plastered on every TV, billboard and magazine from here to Sydney, Australia. Everyone , agents, coaches, fans, old friends and new friends , would want a piece of him.

	"Tony has the chance to probably be the best player in the world," says Stanford head coach Dante Dettamanti.

But the 2000 Long Beach Wilson High graduate's sport of choice is water polo. Few people understand the game and its rules. However, with Azevedo's help, the United States just may become water polo nation following the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.

"Tony has the chance to probably be the best player in the world," says Stanford head coach Dante Dettamanti of Azevedo, who has signed a letter of intent to play for the Cardinals but will probably redshirt this fall because of his Olympic commitment. "He is without a doubt the best player ever to come out of high school in the United States in the sport of water polo. And he just has such an amazing presence for a young person."

Throughout his recently concluded scholastic career, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound scoring machine did just about everything there was to be done by a high school water polo player. He led his Long Beach Wilson teams to four straight CIF Southern Section Division I titles. Azevedo, who also graduated in the top 15 percent of his class with a GPA close to 3.8, was also a three-time Southern Section Player of the Year and four-time All-American selection three times on the first team.

The teenage phenomenon, who became the youngest player ever to play on the U.S. Olympic Team when he jumped into the pool with the big boys at the tender age of 16, has already drawn comparisons to just about everyone in the world of professional sports. Some say he's the Michael Jordan of water polo. Others disagree, dubbing him his sport's equivalent to Kobe Bryant, both were so much more talented than their competition in high school.

Like Bryant, Azevedo has shown amazing maturity in making the jump from high school to the highest level of his sport.

"At the beginning, my confidence level was kind of down," says Azevedo. "I know I'm not the biggest fish in the sea anymore. [Being so talented and so young] makes me work harder to live up to all the expectations. [The hype] doesn't affect me that much, people are gonna say what they want to say. It just makes me work harder."

Much of the credit for Azevedo's grounded nature goes to the man who taught Tony the game , his father, Ricardo Azevedo. The elder Azevedo was a two-time collegiate All-American at Long Beach City College (1975, '77), played for the Brazilian national team (1974-80), coached Long Beach Wilson to four CIF titles (including the first three of Tony's four) and was the head assistant coach for the U.S. team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

"My dad taught me everything," says Tony, who began swimming and playing water polo when he was just 8. "I credit it all to him, my shooting, everything. He teaches me every day when we go to the pool. He watches me and helps me work on my technique."

It is that technique that has helped make Azevedo not only the youngest player ever to play for the U.S. national squad, but also an integral part of the team's offensive attack.

"[Tony is] a very, very intelligent player," says U.S. coach John Vargas, whose team got off to a 1-0-1 start in the UPS Cup, being played at the National Aquatic Center in Los Alamitos. "He's always a step ahead of people, more in his head than in his physical body. He's able to read the situation, read the goalie and the defense. That helps make him such a great shooter."

Azevedo is undeniably an incredible individual talent, but his goals for the summer are strictly team-oriented.

"It's always been a goal of mine to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal," says Azevedo. "That's always been something that's intrigued me. The experience should be extremely fun, but I have to try to keep that out of my mind. I want to win a gold medal."