Men’s water polo: Oeding, USA aim for Sydney

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Team captain and Corona del Mar High product Chris

Oeding, as well as Coach John Vargas, who also guides the boys and girls

teams at CdM, both admitted a few holes remain. But the U.S. men’s water

polo team went a long way toward filling at least one of them with a 7-4

exhibition victory over visiting Romania Sunday at Newport Harbor High.

“One of our goals was to start with more intensity and come out firing

from the start,” Oeding said after the first of three tuneup contests

with the Romanians, before the Americans head to Sydney Australia and

open Olympic competition against Croatia Sept. 23.

“We had five goals in the first half (the first five of the game), so

I thought we did that,” said Oeding, who played a leading role in the

impressive start. “We’re using these games to fine tune. By the time we

get to Sydney, we want to be a bulletproof team.”

The hosts not only fired the first shot Sunday, they nearly emptied

the magazine, before the Romanians, who finished one goal shy of

qualifying for the Summer Games, finally got on the scoreboard with 2:48

left in the opening half.

And Oeding, a veteran playmaker, was right in the middle of the early

offensive outburst.

Oeding, who recently resigned as the men’s coach at Orange Coast

College, had a hand in the first three U.S. goals. He assisted Chris

Humbert on the opening goal of the match, then finished a counterattack

with a strong scoring shot of his own, which he rocketed through the

upraised arms of Romania goalie Gelu Lisac.

Oeding, who also posted one of his two blocked shots in the opening

quarter, then earned the assist on Tony Azevedo’s tally with 1:39 left in

the opening period.

The Americans, in front of a home crowd which included several

appreciative Newport Harbor High players, took the 3-0 margin into the

second period, but quickly expanded it.

Wolf Wigo and Humbert added goals to make it 5-0, before Romania

scored to finalize the first-half scoring.

Romania scored the only goal of the third period, then answered an

American goal by Robert Lynn with two more scores to close to within 6-4

with 3:12 left in the game.

But Kyle Kopp finalized things for the Americans, whom Vargas said are

building momentum at precisely the right time.

Oeding scored the game-winning goal in a 9-8 victory Aug. 9 over host

Hungary, a team being mentioned prominently, along with Yugoslavia, as a

favorite for the gold medal. Both Hungary and Yugoslavia, incidentally,

are among the five teams joining Team USA in Group B in Sydney.

“We talked about building momentum throughout this whole year,” Vargas

said “We began with goals in January and February and we’ve hit each one

we wanted to, so far. It’s gone just as planned, so I’m pretty pleased.”

Vargas had plenty to be pleased about Sunday, including strong defense

anchored by goalie Dan Hackett (nine saves). He also credited his team’s

impressive start and had praise for Oeding.

“Oeding is just so solid out there,” Vargas said. “It’s nice to have

that stability controlling our offense. He will take the shot when it’s

open, but he doesn’t have that scorer’s mentality.”

Oeding said he enjoys setting up his teammates.

“I’m not the biggest guy out there, so the way I succeed is by

communicating and acting as the point guard, so to speak,” Oeding said.

The remaining games with the Romanians are scheduled Thursday (7:15

p.m. at El Toro High) and Saturday (2 p.m. at Pepperdine University in

Malibu).

Team USA leaves for Australia Sept. 10 and will arrive Sept. 12.