Catching Up With: Robert Grayeli

Bryce Alderton

Former Costa Mesa High Water Polo standout Robert Grayeli is giving

something back to the sport he loves.

The 24-year-old Tustin resident is in his first year assisting first

year Newport Harbor High water polo coach Jason Lynch with the Newport

Harbor summer club water polo team, who play games at Tustin High every

Wednesday and compete in weekend tournaments.

Grayeli, who was named CIF Division II Co-Player of the Year in 1995

(sharing the honor with Marina’s Stever O’Rourke) helped lead Costa Mesa

High to the Division II championship that same year and has known Lynch

since Grayeli’s sophomore year at Mesa when Lynch helped coach the

Mustangs, led by then-coach Brian Kreutzkamp.

The amount of praise and respect Grayeli gave Lynch give the

impression that Grayeli owes much of his success and love of water polo

to Lynch.

“I still appreciate that he gave me my first opportunity to come up

and play varsity,” Grayeli said. “That’s the reason I help him out. I

feel like I owe him.”

Each summer from 1996 to 2001, Grayeli would assist Lynch’s summer

water polo team at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, whom Lynch

coached for six years before taking the job at Newport Harbor in 2001.

When Lynch made the move to Capo Valley, Grayeli said he was

disappointed initially but respected Lynch’s decision.

“He got the offer from (Capo Valley), so he had to take it,” Grayeli

said. “I was a bit bummed he had to leave, but after we won the

championship (in 1995) I told Lynch that, ‘Part of this championship goes

to you because he put us all together.”’

Now the two have reunited at Newport Harbor, and Grayeli said they

each compliment each other well.

“Our coaching styles are a bit different,” Grayeli said. “(Lynch) is

very intense and I’m more of a...trying to feel positive all the time.

It’s all about being positive and giving confidence. They will do

miraculous things if they have confidence. Lynch coaches his youth team

like a junior national team, wanting to instill these good habits in the

kids. He runs counterattack drills and is a really good coach.”

The two have enjoyed success this summer, coaching Newport Harbor to

recent wins over Tustin and Corona del Mar. Newport Harbor redeemed

itself against CdM with a 14-11 win in the teams’ most recent meeting,

avenging a 16-4 CdM win over Newport Harbor earlier in the summer.

“Sometimes these kids play CdM and get intimidated because CdM has

been a good team over the last few years,” Grayeli said. “I teach them

attacking moves and try to tell them that’s it’s just another game and to

push (CdM) like you would push any other team. It’s really good the team

has a bit more confidence, and it’s just a good improvement from last

time because it was an absolute blowout. It’s good to see them come

back.”

Newport’s summer water polo team has players from incoming freshman to

seniors-to-be. The varsity team plays in the Wednesday night Tustin

league while the freshman team plays Thursdays at El Toro in addition to

weekend tournaments.

Grayeli can’t say enough about the players he’s worked with in just

one year at Newport.

“Six years coaching at Capo is nothing to the one year I’ve had at

Newport,” Grayeli said. “I love the kids, they’re awesome. They come out

with good attitudes and work hard. These kids have revived me. They keep

me young.” Grayeli has encountered some bumps in the road on his way to

Newport, six years after graduating from Costa Mesa.

Primed to play water polo at the University of the Pacific, Grayeli

learned just two weeks before he was to leave for school in the summer of

1995 that a class he had taken at Mesa didn’t count toward his

scholarship.

Battling a few tears, Grayeli instead went to Golden West College in

Huntington Beach, where he had been working out for two years with coach

Ken Hamdorf, who Grayeli considers one of his “all-time favorite

coaches.”

“He’s very personable and he’s a very good motivator,” Grayeli said.

Grayeli found success in his two years at GWC, helping the team win

two water polo state championships, one in 1997 when the team went 36-0.

After Golden West, Grayeli then played at Pepperdine with former

Newport Harbor teammate Mike Peetz.

Pepperdine reached the Mountain Pacific Championship game against

Stanford University in Peetz’ and Grayeli’s first year on the team, but

Grayeli’s second year wasn’t so successful.

Strep throat, a pulled groin and tonsillitis caused Grayeli to miss

the first two weeks of his senior season at Pepperdine, when he dropped

13 pounds from 180 to 167.

“I never felt right after that because I lost balance in the water,”

Grayeli said. “I had gotten so sick and lost so much weight. I never got

the (weight) base back.”

Grayeli graduated from Pepperdine with a degree in advertising in 2001

and traveled to Australia with five Pepperdine teammates to play with the

Camberra Dolphins for six months. Grayeli also played in New Zealand for

a month, eager to show people he could still play.

“The No. 1 goal was to prove to myself that I had had a bad season,”

Grayeli said. “I knew I was a good player and it was proving to people

that I could still do it.”

On June 6, Grayeli returned to Orange County and is submitting his

resume to companies.

“I want to get my feet wet and see what it’s like,” Grayeli said.