Santa Barbara water polo players have been all-Americans, Junior Olympians and Olympic athletes.
City College has finally gotten in to the swim.
A new coed water polo class was added this spring and spots were filling before the semester started, according to water polo instructor Nathan Resch.
Resch has been playing water polo in the community for 18 years, first at Dos Pueblos High School and then at UCSB.
The beginners’ class practices drills to strengthen basic skills in the sport.
The group of 30 meets Monday and Wednesday in the evening.
According to Resch, it includes typical City College students, some staff and even some Santa Barbara professionals who miss their polo days and are willing to strip down to their Speedos to play a game of water polo.
“Once you are done with high school, unless you are good enough to play for the university or go pro, you’re basically done,” said Carlos Rexach, anthropology major and advanced water polo student at City College.
“I liked water polo enough not to hang it up yet,” he said.
The demand for water polo at City College was always there, but the pool was not, according to Athletic Director Mike Warren. City College currently uses the Los Baños Municipal Pool, but the pool is too shallow on one end to properly play competitive water polo.
According to the students, there’s also an issue with the time the class is offered.
“I know a lot of people who want to play, but at 8 p.m. it’s not worth it to them. It’s too cold or late, they work, you know,” commented Alex Foster, an art major at City College.
While time is an issue, accessibility for students is a main priority for Warren.
“I am exploring all possibilities to build a pool on campus, but it’ll be the one option that could take the longest to accomplish,” Warren said.
“The best thing would be a joint effort with the city or Santa Barbara Water Polo Club to build another pool behind Los Baños or develop the wading pool into a competition pool.”
To even out the number of team sports available to men and women at City College, a women’s water polo team is being considered. Although according to Warren, “it is still up in the air.”
More women are enrolled in the advanced class than men according to Nicole Louie, 21, and who used to play at San Diego State.
She says it gets more competitive with coed teams.
“It’s nice to be able to come back home and be able to play any type of water polo,” Louie said. “I would definitely be down for a girls’ water polo team. I know a lot of people who would join the team because they love it, just the hours you know?”
