Water Polo Brutality
By
Kelsey Rodgers
Staff
Writer
Water polo
players make it seem as though all the action is above the water. That is a
huge misconception, as most of the action is under the surface.
“We used to go
home after the games and we would have bruises all over our legs from getting
kicked so much,” said junior Melyn McDonald, who
played water polo for
Water
polo by definition is a very harsh sport. There is the kicking, biting,
punching, scratching, pinching, knees to the privates,
choking, dunking and in rare cases stabbing.
But
how far is too far?
“Some
players can get badly hurt, they mostly get broken hands, jaws, fingers, toes
and noses,” said men’s assistant coach Ray Meadows, who broke his nose playing
college water polo.
It seems as
though water polo has been harsh through the years, which means that all of
this brutality is not a new thing.
In
1956,
The
Hungarian’s won, only after the ref called the match early because there was
too much blood in the water, and he was afraid the fighting would spread to the
stands.
“Recently
I got an elbow in the face and the whole inside of my lip was all torn up,”
said sophomore Bashar Badran
whose worst injury was a gash from his neck all the way down to his lower back.
These
days, referees do what they can to try to keep the violence to a minimum, even
though they obviously can’t see everything below the surface.
“Brutality
is part of the game, but since there are only two refs they can’t see
everything that goes on,” said senior varsity player Alli
Henry. “When they aren’t watching we can pinch people or give them wedgies.”
The
men’s suits, being small, still get ripped easily, whereas the women’s suits
however have a lot more to them. But they still seem to rip more often
especially when people are grabbing and swatting at you all the time.
These
days’ water polo players wear two or three suits a game, and sometimes they may
rip four or five each season.
“We
get exposed a lot, that’s why we wear so many suits,” said Alli
At
the beginning of each game, all of the players sit on the edge of the pool and
the ref feels every nail to make sure they are smooth and short. Sometimes In a
tournament however, the refs only check nails once in
a three or four day period, this can be an opportunity for the players to take
advantage of scratching and pinching.
“The
worst thing that has append to me was when I was domed
(dunked) or when I was hit in the head by the ball a couple of times,” said
junior Mike Spahn, a varsity player.
Many
times during the game two players will be fighting for the ball or for position
and all the sudden one player is gone, dunked under
water and held there until they can get themselves back up.
High
school players are mostly kept away from anything too brutal, but out in pro
games, things aren’t so mellow.
This summer in
The
restrictions of water polo are very clear, but not everybody likes to play by
the rules. If a referee catches a player committing a Brutality fowl, they are
usually ejected for 20 seconds and the other team is given a power play
advantage, if the fowl is more extreme the player will be ejected for the rest
of the game.
“I
don’t go into the game trying to hurt people, sometimes you get really into the
game, a lot of people start throwing fists trying to start fights. Everything
is about your territory, so people might get aggressive,” said Bashar.
These
water polo players deserve more credit than they are given. They have to go
home and wonder where their new bite marks came from or if they should get
stitches for their new scratches.
“Brutality
is part of the sport and makes this sport so competitive,” said Monte Vista
junior Will Howes. “Do you think tackling should be
removed from football? Water polo is a very physical sport and that makes the
sport more difficult.”
The Californian
Wednesday, October 6, 2004