Water Polo: Cupido ready to be a leader

There are nine first-time Olympians competing for the United States men’s water polo team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Head coach Dejan Udovicic certainly believes that Newport Beach resident Luca Cupido won’t stop at one Olympic Games.

“He’s got a bright future,” Udovicic said last month when the 13-player roster was named. “He can be, in one of the upcoming years, the best player in the world. No doubt ... In the next two or three years, he can be the best player in the world.”

At 20 years old, Cupido is clearly a budding star for the United States. He has totaled two goals, two assists and two steals in Team USA’s first three games. Cupido scored a goal Wednesday as Team USA beat France, 6-3, to notch its first victory in Group B play.

Cupido likes the big stage. He was the one laughing and smiling next to U.S. flag-bearer Michael Phelps during the Opening Ceremonies in Rio, for millions to see on television. Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all-time, has 21 gold medals in swimming and counting. Cupido wants to help the U.S. team earn gold, after a disappointing eighth-place finish in London four years ago.

He’s no stranger to high-level water polo. Growing up in Italy, he played for the youth national team before moving to Newport Beach prior to his senior year of high school. Cupido wanted to improve his English before going to college. Jeff Chase, a former collegiate water polo player at UCLA who played professionally in Italy, got to know Cupido and his family and helped him get settled.

Chase lived in Pasadena. The Cupidos thought Newport Beach, where Chase’s sister-in-law Marena lived, might be better. So Luca and his mother, Danielle, who was born in San Francisco, thus allowing her son to have dual citizenship, moved from Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy into an apartment just a few blocks away from Newport Harbor High. They quickly became good friends with the Paddens, whose son Charlie was a junior water polo player at Harbor at the time.

Cupido shined in his senior season with the Sailors, helping them advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals and earning 2013 Newport-Mesa Dream Team Player of the Year honors. He committed to Cal, but thought he was done with the national team. His coach in Italy, where Cupido played for the Camogli club, still desired his service.

“Coming here, I talked to the coach, and he wanted me to come back to Italy for practices every month and a half,” Cupido said. “With water polo here and school and the distance not very close, it was impossible for me. I thought really, I was done. I couldn’t do that.

“I thought I was done with national teams once I moved. Then [Udovicic] approached me, and I said, ‘Yeah, why not give it a shot?’ Slowly I realized I could be part of something bigger: the Olympic team. I’m pretty proud of my decision, and thankful for the opportunity ... I was very pleased about the opportunity that USA Water Polo gave me to be representing the country.”

Cupido quickly proved he could be a go-to player after first making the senior national team in August, 2014. The following April, he earned tournament MVP honors as Team USA earned bronze at the FINA Intercontinental Men’s Water Polo Tournament at Corona del Mar High.

Then, twice in a matter of weeks in the summer of 2015, he scored game-winning goals for Team USA. The first was at the buzzer to help the Americans defeat Serbia and complete a four-game sweep at the University of Illinois. The second was even bigger, as Cupido’s strike helped the U.S. beat Canada at the Pan American Games in Toronto to clinch its Olympic berth.

Cupido, who stands 6-foot-4 and weights 210 pounds, is an aggressive attacker who is leading U.S. field players by averaging about 25 minutes per game during Team USA’s first three contests. Water polo games at the Olympics last 32 minutes.

“There are games that I feel like I have to take my shots,” he said. “I always try to do whatever is best for the team. If there are times when it’s my shot and I have to hit a game-winner or something, I’m going to take it. I’m not afraid to take responsibilities. If the team needs me in any position in the water, I’ll try to cover it the best I can; try to be successful and help the team be successful.

“Hopefully we will win games by more than one goal, so I don’t need to hit game-winners anymore. But it’s very nice to win a game. It brings the team together. It’s a very good feeling for the whole team, not just for me. When you win a game at the end, it makes everyone happy. Even for the future, it makes you a better team, I feel like.”

Team USA, which dropped close games against defending champion Croatia and Spain in its first two Olympic contests, has its final two Group B games on Friday against Montenegro and Sunday against Italy. The top four of the six teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals.

One person watching with interest is Padden. Cupido has lived with the family on and off since graduating from Newport Harbor, as the U.S. often trained close by at Segerstrom High. At this point, Padden said she considers Cupido a member of the family and her unofficial godson.

The family didn’t go to Rio, but watched Cupido walk in the Opening Ceremonies on television with pride.

“I think he said Michael Phelps asked him for his autograph, which was funny,” Padden said. “I think that was a really exciting high for him, because he’s been really cooped up here in Newport. He’s lived in my son’s little room, and he’s hanging out with my two daughters and our family every single day. He’s with the team, but he doesn’t go and socialize with the team that much. I’m just so happy that he got to get a moment, relish in the glory. I think he was over the moon about that.”

Earlier this summer, she took Cupido to get a pedicure with her two teenage daughters, Trudy and Leah. Trudy will be a senior at Newport Harbor, and Leah a sophomore. Padden called it a good experience for Cupido, and reflective of his fun personality.

“He’s just a very disciplined human being, but he’s still the fun kid,” she said. “That’s the beauty of him and why we love him so much. He just brings so much joy to my family. He can be ornery and in a bad mood, but he can always find the positive.”

Cupido has reason to be positive. He said that life is going well right now.

“I think the decision of moving to the States three years ago, when I was still 17 at the time, for some it could be scary or very wild,” he said. “I’m very happy with the decision I made.”

There still won’t be a lot of time for self-reflection after Cupido’s first Olympics, at least not right away. Quicker than one of his shots, academia will call.

He has to go back to college at Cal, where he was first-team All-American and All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation last fall as a sophomore. Cupido took the spring semester off to train with Team USA.

“The Olympics are done on the 21st, and school starts on the 24th,” he said. “It’s going to be rough. I’m flying out on the 22nd from Rio, have one day to prepare myself and then I’m ready to go, you know?”

Udovicic believes Cupido could become the best player in the world, but it’s all in due time.

“The best thing for us is that we are united as a team,” Udovicic said. “We are sticking together all the time. I will not put pressure on him right now ... he doesn’t need the pressure right now. He needs to focus on every game, try to play at a high level as much as he can.”

It’s not Santa Margherita Ligure or Newport Beach, but for the next two weeks Cupido will try to make a third beach city — Rio de Janeiro —feel like home.