Hall of Fame: Katie Grogan (Costa Mesa)

Richard Dunn

A pioneer in girls water polo, Costa Mesa High product Katie

Grogan, still pursuing an Olympic dream, was overcome with emotion the

day she earned honorable mention All-Pacific Coast League honors her

senior year.

That’s because it was the boys all-league team.

Grogan, who played four years of boys water polo at Costa Mesa,

including two on the varsity, was the primary ringleader in recruiting

players for the inaugural girls polo team.

And, after countless pool hours of hard work during her prep career,

Grogan was finally rewarded.

“It made me cry,” she said of her honorable mention all-league

selection. “I was just so thankful that somebody recognized that I worked

hard. I worked hard in high school and picked splinters out of my butt

all the time. I guess beating up on the starters every day eventually got

noticed. I felt the guys didn’t notice, but they did.”

Grogan also played on Mesa’s girls team and dominated in the fall of

1995, her senior year, before the CIF Southern Section switched girls

polo to the winter.

“We got enough girls together to have a girls team (under Coach

Crystal Whitmore),” Grogan said. “We’d just play any team that had a

girls team. We’d play before the guys games.”

Grogan, also a swimmer, basketball standout and track and field

athlete at Costa Mesa, earned a water polo scholarship to the University

of Massachusetts, where she helped the program rise to No. 5 in the

nation her senior year.

“That was a big accomplishment for us. That was great,” Grogan said of

the ranking.

Although Grogan was an All-Newport-Mesa District selection in

basketball at Costa Mesa, water polo was her main focus, and, because it

was played in the fall at the time, it didn’t conflict with hoops.

“Water polo has done so much for me,” Grogan said. “I like the

competitiveness of all sports, but water polo has been the most

beneficial for me.”

Grogan, the 1996 Newport-Mesa District Female Athlete of the Year,

competes in masters water polo competition and is “trying to get back on

the national team.”

Once a member of the U.S. national ‘A’ team, Grogan said she’s

“playing anywhere I can” to stay in shape, while hoping to land a spot on

the 2004 U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team in Athens.

“I love sports, it’s fun for me,” Grogan said. “I like to play them.

I’m not a big fan of watching (sports). Like right now. I’m traveling a

lot (while commuting to and from her job in Los Angeles) and I always

have a bag in my car with a swimsuit and towel in case I find a practice

or game. If they need extra players, I’m there.”

After attending a private elementary school, one of Grogan’s club

swimming teammates, James Comfort, suggested she try to meet some people

in her new environment at Costa Mesa Junior High and playing water polo

would be a good way.

“I didn’t really do much in elementary school,” she said. “You know

how a lot of kids do soccer and youth sports, well, I didn’t. I started

swimming first, then I just got into water polo as soon as I got in

junior high.

“I always liked sports. I like to be busy and do things, like

extracurricular activities. I was in choir, too. That’s fun stuff for me.

That’s the best time.”

Grogan, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and is working for a property

management company. She’s single and lives in Costa Mesa.