Men's Water Polo Season Outlook
Sept. 5, 2006
Providence, RI - Head Coach Jason Gall's men's water polo team had a breakthrough season in 2005, finishing with a 20-11 record and a Top 20 national ranking. Entering this fall ranked No. 19 in the country once again and with much of the team's core returning, the Bears again hope to improve yet again, this time by winning the Eastern Championships.
The Bears ended the 2005 season ranked 19th in the country after finishing in fifth place at Easterns and second at the Northern Division Championships. Brown scored a number of impressive victories over the course of the season, including wins over Air Force, Redlands, and Slippery Rock, all teams that were ranked in the Top 20 at some point. Bruno also took two of three games from rival Harvard, including the Northern Division semifinal.
Four Bears graduated in May, but Coach Gall welcomes four newcomers -- three freshmen and a sophomore walk-on -- to the squad. The team's two senior captains, Luke Samson (Miami, FL) and Stu Thompson (Sacramento, CA), will have big shoes to fill, as Gall noted the importance of his four seniors' consistency in last season's success. He's hoping for similar results from Samson and Thompson, who will both likely start.
Last season's stellar rookie class will drive the offense. Mike Gartner (San Jose, CA) led the team in scoring as a freshman, scoring 60 goals on 141 attempts and drawing an impressive 61 ejections at the two-meter offense position. Classmate Grant LeBeau (San Diego, CA) was right behind him, scoring 43 times in 107 attempts. LeBeau's .402 shooting percentage was also second on the team to Gartner's .425. Hank Weintraub (Los Angeles, CA) finished fourth on the team with 34 goals, but keyed the Brown attack with a team-high 56 assists. Weintraub really kicked his game into gear during the CWPA season, dishing 25 assists in the seven conference games. He was also second on the team with 36 steals.
On the other end of the pool, junior Gerrit Adams (Winnetka, IL) may be the best two-meter defender in the CWPA. Finally able to concentrate on his defense last season with Gartner's arrival, Adams routinely shut down the opposing team's top scorer. His defensive skill will be especially important this season, withfreshmen Kent Holland (Orinda, CA) and Mike Peterson (Los Altos Hills, CA) competing for time in the cage.
The team's other two newcomers, freshman Zach Levko (Wildwood, MO) and sophomore Jerry Wolf Duff-Sellers (Malibu, CA), bring intriguing skills to the pool. Levko's speed may be his best asset; he also plans to compete on the swimming and diving team in the winter. Duff-Sellers' shot was clocked at 48 miles-per-hour in the preseason, five mph better than any of his teammates. How soon the two adjust to the college game -- especially Duff-Sellers, who took a year off before enrolling at Brown and hasn't played in two years -- will go a long way to determining the Bears' success this season.
Off the bench, Nico Fort (Miami, FL) rounds out the sophomore class. With the departures of three graduated field players, he should see more time on the perimeter. Junior Alex Robb (Winnetka, IL) could also see more minutes.
With a number of rule changes going into affect this season, Coach Gall feels his team's speed will allow it to adapt to a much faster game. The seven-meter line, behind which fouls lead to a penalty shot, has been moved forward to five meters from the net. This should lead to more scoring opportunities Brown's perimeter players. Another change that allows players on defense to deflect shots out of the pool and obtain possession, rather than turn the ball back over to the offense, will put a premium on man-up opportunities, another change Gall is confident will help his team.
The season starts Sept. 9 at the MIT Tournament. Three more tournaments and the team's CWPA regular season slate will round out the schedule before the Northern Championships at Harvard, Oct. 28-29, and the Eastern Championships at Princeton, Nov. 11-12.
