Cal Poly men's water polo club to host Pacific Coast Championships

The Cal Poly men’s water polo team, four-time holder of the Collegiate Water Polo Association national title, is hosting the 2007 Pacific Coast Championships at the Recreation Center pool this weekend.

Championships begin 8 a.m. Saturday and will last until Sunday afternoon.

If Cal Poly wins its first game it will play again at 7:40 p.m. or 8:50 p.m. Saturday.

The final championship game will take place at 1:50 p.m. Sunday.

The team is seventh in the nation and is the No. 2 seed of the Pacific Coast Division.

Cal Poly is currently 7-1 in its division, with its only loss to the UC San Diego.

The team’s biggest rival is 8-0 UC, Davis.

If Cal Poly wins all three games this weekend, the team will go to Nationals being held at the University of Arizona. But even one loss will knock them out of the running.

Last year the team placed third at Nationals, but they are hoping to place first this year.

“We are just going to take it one game at a time, even with our first game if it’s against Cal Maritime,” said Austin Price, a member of the team. “We can’t overlook anyone at this point. Our ultimate goal is to get to this championship game and beat Davis but we can’t think about that until we get there,”

Price is a landscape architecture senior.

The Pacific Coast Division is made up of 12 teams from all over California, including the newest addition, the UC Santa Barbara.

There are about 32 members on the Cal Poly men’s water polo team, but only about 24 will be competing this weekend.

Starters for the team include Josh Mix, Bobby Erzen, Daniel Harris, Ryan Smillie, Kevin Heinichen and Justin Lekos. The team’s top scorers are Smillie, Harris and freshman standout Brandon Ross.

Mix, team president and ag business senior, expects two-meter offensive player Kevin Heinichen to be a huge threat to opposing teams.

The biggest strengths of the team are its depth, speed, raw talent and physical strength, Mix and Harris said.

“Our weakness is really just ourselves: teamwork. We have so much talent, but we need to work together to win the game, rather than be separate players out there,” Harris said.

A game of water polo has six field players and a goalie. It has been described as a mix of soccer, basketball and hockey. Points are earned through making goals and there is no offsides.

A team wants to get down to the end of the pool before the other team in order to have a more open shot at the goal.

When a player has the ball, he is looking for an open teammate and are being blocked by a defender from the opposing team. A defender can aggressively prevent the offensive player from scoring when the offensive player has his hand on the ball. If the offensive player lets go of the ball while a defender has his hands on him, the defender gets a foul signaled by a one-whistle blow. A foul gives the offensive player three seconds for a free pass.

After a player accumulates three personal fouls, they are ejected from the game for 20 seconds. A referee will take a player out of the game after three ejections. The team’s goal is to score on every ejection, Harris said.

Players can be substituted after every goal. Mix said it’s pretty rapid substitution because it is a tiring game.”

The team practices about seven times a week at the Recreation Center pool under the coaching of Matt Landre. Landre, a Cal Poly graduate, played on the team while they won its first two national titles, and coached the team through the last two title wins.

“We really want students to come out and support us because we have won national championships four times and we are trying to do it again,” Price said. “We need their support. If they could come to any games it would help us a lot.