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Sunday, October 1
Americans play elsewhere after Games
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The U.S. men's water polo team
struggled in Sydney -- but then again, it struggles back at home,
too.
With the best leagues, and some top U.S. players like Chris
Humbert and Kyle Kopp, in Europe, it's hard to call a practice,
watch film or go to dinner with the national team.
"Those guys in Europe, that's their whole life," U.S. scorer
Wolf Wigo said after American took sixth at Sydney with a 10-8 loss
to Italy on Sunday. "They can play all the time, drive a couple of
hours and practice with the national team. We need a plane ticket
and a lot of time to make it home."
Is that going to change? Probably not.
America's not sitting on a big boom the next four years where
pool construction takes off, water polo moms drive kids to Saturday
workouts and the U.S. world presence grows.
When women's water polo became an Olympic sport, the U.S.
federation was given $1 million -- same as in 1996 for the men -- to
split between both American teams.
American medals are treated with a "That's great, but where's
the football game?" attitude, said U.S. assistant Monte
Nitzkowski, who won a bronze and silver as national team coach from
1967-1984.
"We always get some attention, but it's hard to maintain," he
says.
Nitzkowski fought to have a year-round national program in 1970s
with a feeder system to bring the best juniors to the elite level.
It helped America win two silvers in the 1980s -- the United States
lost the gold to Yugoslavia at Los Angeles despite not losing a
match -- and build a team that was respected throughout the world.
But when players like Terry Schroeder, Jody Campbell and goalie
Craig Wilson retired, top-notch replacements were not a couple of
pools away like in most Eastern European water polo powers.
"We can only have so much time, about 15 to 20 games to get our
style in," U.S. coach John Vargas said. "It's a good style, it's
one we can win with when we're working together."
That isn't often. Humbert, America's 6-foot-7 scoring star who
shared the team scoring lead this week with Wigo at 16, says he has
to play in Europe if he wants to improve. "I can't work in the
U.S. at something else, do this on weekends and play on an elite
level," he said.
But that means fewer national team practices and more missed
connections, botched plays and lost games.
Look what happened here.
The United States show flashes of Eastern European flair. It led
gold-medal winner Hungary three times in the second half but lost
10-9. It overcame a three-goal deficit to lead silver medalist
Russia 7-6 in the second half but lost 11-10 in the quarterfinals.
"I know we would beat Russia seven out of 10 times," Wigo
said. "We came a goal away here. We can play with people."
Where the United States lost it, coach Vargas said, was their
mental focus. Too often they would follow a magnificent goal with
shoddy defense, leaving goalie Dan Hackett alone to defend the
world's best shooters.
"You can't win like that, not here at the Olympics," Vargas
said.
Who knows what's next?
Humbert, at 30, has talked at times like 12 years with the
national team is enough. Vargas says Kopp, 34, probably won't be
back. The 30-year-old Hackett and 29-year-old Chris Oeding also
have decisions to make.
Perhaps the biggest one for United States Water Polo is how to
keep the players home where the money isn't.
"It's a sacrifice," said Vargas, his own job in review after
the sixth place finish. "But if you want to win a medal, you've
got to make those sacrifices just like everyone at the Olympics."
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