It’s the difference between playing outdoors in the warm sun while enjoying the notoriety of a big-time varsity college athlete and an indoor pool below street level in the middle of a city where people leave when it gets hot and internships are more valuable than scholarships.
So why play men’s water polo in Washington instead of on the West Coast?
“All my friends that play out there, they have to stay at school during the summers, play with the team, and it’s much more of a life commitment,” said George Washington junior goalkeeper Chris Whittam, who hails from Hillsborough, Calif., south of San Francisco. “For some of the schools I feel it’s more water polo than school, and here it’s really you’re a student first, water polo is second.”
Yet the Colonials (6-2), who got off to the best start in the program’s 24-year history by winning their first four matches, are generating some East Coast buzz this season. George Washington knocked off nationally-ranked Santa Clara during that stretch and plays its second College Water Polo Association league match of the season tonight at Johns Hopkins.
“Our conditioning has been pretty strong,” said GW senior John Hornberger, who has a team-leading 23 goals. “We’ve got some real exciting young players and a bunch of good upperclassmen.”
While plenty of things lure college students to the nation’s capital, Colonials eighth-year coach Scott Reed offers not only Washington’s only varsity water polo team but a chance to play all four years.
“In some cases, we get some players who could go to UCLA or Stanford and sit and wait and wait, and by their junior year they’ll be playing, but here they have the opportunity to possibly play right away,” said Reed, who has just four upperclassmen on the roster.
One is Whittam, who said water polo in California is right up there with football.
“Here I got a lot of playing time my freshman and sophomore year so it was probably the right decision,” said Whittam, who posted a career-high 19 saves against Princeton last week.
Just like most of the type-A personalities that dominate Washington, the Colonials still have serious aspirations. They’ve finished under .500 in each of the last four seasons, but they believe winning the Eastern Championships is a realistic goal.
“The way our league is setup, anyone can with the championship, it’s just a matter of putting the right pieces together,” said Reed. “Finally, I see the group where we’re just about there.”
All of which won’t change the fact that they’re a bunch of guys hanging around the pool.
“Most of the water polo players are very laid back, easy going,” said Hornberger. “We’re not real uptight, but we get it done. We work hard and we relax.”
