March 27, 2006
By PETE IORIZZO, Times Union Staff writer First published: Sunday, March 26, 2006
LOUDONVILLE -- The typical water polo game goes something like this: Fourteen players dive into the pool and, for 28 minutes, maul each other -- mostly below the water's surface -- in a frantic effort to control what looks like a bloated softball. Like in basketball, a referee calls fouls. Like in soccer, players shoot the ball at a net. Like in wrestling, opponents grapple, clutch, grab and tug.
Blood can color the pool red. Noses break. Shoulders dislocate.
A Siena player once had her swimsuit torn off.
Oh, and the team that scores the most goals wins.
"Basically," Siena's Caitlin Smith said, "water polo is like boxing, hockey, soccer and getting mugged all at the same time."
Such frenzied competitions take place almost daily at Siena, which, to the surprise of many, supports one of the nation's 61 Division I women's water polo programs. The team, now in its fifth year, was at first barely buoyant. But now, under the direction of a full-time coach with almost a full complement of lifelong water polo players, Siena hopes to swim with the sport's big fish while showing the Capital Region what this obscure yet storied game is all about.
"The sport isn't big here," Siena coach Rob Swingle said. "Your readers don't know how to spell water polo, let alone what the rules are or how we recruit or anything like that. That's OK. I don't expect them to know. We understand that this is a young program and it takes time. But a lot of exciting things have happened for us."
Indeed, the Saints returned last week from a spring-break trip to the water polo hotbed of California, where they played six games and, at least a few times, saw Siena spelled S-I-E-N-N-A. But the Saints won two games, helping push their record to 5-13. Modest as it may sound, that puts the program on pace for its best-ever finish.
"To actually go out there and win two games and be competitive in almost every game is a step up for this program," senior Lauren Earl said.
Forms of water polo date back 1,500 years, to when a simple game with balls and makeshift nets was played on the flooded rice paddies of ancient China. The modern form ballooned in 19th-century Great Britain and, in 1908, it became the first Olympic team sport. Today, there are national tournaments for players as young as 6.
Siena started its program because of Title IX, a law requiring schools to strive toward equity in the number of men's and women's sports. When Siena wanted to add a women's sport, water polo seemed like an affordable fit. The school already had a pool, and water polo's equipment demands are minimal -- all it takes is a ball, a net, bathing suits and modified swim caps, which actually look more like wrestling headgear.
Just one problem: Very few water polo players call New York home.
In the Siena program's infancy, the team culled a few players from the Northeast and filled out its roster with walk-ons, mostly students who swam and wanted to try the sport. In its first three years, Siena water polo employed three coaches -- one who coached both swimming and water polo, one who quit halfway through a season and one who also coached Siena's field hockey team. Before Swingle arrived, Siena posted a 4-34 record and lost all 10 of its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference games.
"When I was a freshman," senior captain Shanna Allen said, "no one here knew what water polo was."
So Swingle, whose nose remains crooked from his playing days, set to making the program more visible. He attended countless alumni events, raising eyebrows and drawing sideways glances whenever he introduced himself as Siena's water polo coach. He also began tapping the wells of water-polo talent in states such as California, Illinois, Texas and even Hawaii; only four of Siena's 12 players are from New York. This season, Swingle said recruiting sent him to California seven times, to Florida twice and to Illinois once. He also set stricter standards in the pool, including more rigorous practices and more games. In a typical practice, Siena players swim more than 2,000 yards and tread water for up to 25 minutes, because, in a game, they swim more than a mile, and rules prohibit their feet from touching bottom.
By the middle of last season, Siena became noticeably more competitive. On April 10, 2005, the Saints beat Villanova in overtime for the program's first MAAC victory in 15 tries.
"That was really a special day for me," Swingle said.
Though almost half of the country's D-I water polo programs are supported by California schools, Swingle said he believes the sport can flourish in New York. His proof visited Siena this past Thursday, when Hartwick, located in Oneonta, whipped the Saints 17-4. Hartwick, a small, liberal arts college, has one of the nation's top programs, bringing in athletes from as far away as New Zealand. The sport is so well-known on campus that when Siena players traveled there last year for a game, Hartwick students informed them, "Our water polo team is going to kick your butt."
"It's hard going out and convincing kids to come to upstate New York to play water polo," Hartwick coach Alan Huckins said. "We're working on it, but there is no high school water polo here. There are kids who want to play, but you've got to go out to find them."
Water polo usually draws strong swimmers who enjoy a full-contact game. In addition to the swimming, water polo requires that players have enough hand-eye coordination to catch, throw and shoot a ball one-handed. They need leg strength to propel themselves out of the water to shoot, arm strength to throw and enough grit to fight through constant tugs and pulls, which often escape the referee's attention.
The sport once was even more physical, but the rules changed because too many players drowned. These days the players and the sport -- even at Siena -- are staying afloat.
"We certainly have the ability to be successful here," Swingle said. "We have the ability to win. There are eight varsity programs in New York. Can we compete with them? I don't see why not."
