The name means closeness

Rick Devereux

Genai Kerr was destined to have close relationships with people since

his birth.

“My name, Genai, it means ‘I and I’ in Jamaican,” Kerr, a

goaltender for the United States men’s Olympic water polo team, said.

“It’s any close relationship. ‘Me and you,’ ‘father and son.’ It’s

mostly ‘father and son’ for me and my dad.”

In a normal team-sport situation, there is a sort of rivalry

between teammates to see who gets the starting job. The backup is

always pushing to impress the coaching staff enough to get more

playing time, while the starter tries to stay ahead of the backup.

But the close relationship Kerr and Brandon Brooks have forged

make the situation different.

“It’s not necessarily a competition as much as we are training

partners,” said Kerr, the 1999-2000 UC Irvine Scholar Athlete of the

Year. “Everyone is a starter. We alternate starts. Anyone can start

at any time.”

For U.S. Coach Ratko Rudic, the problem of picking a starter is

nice compared to the alternative.

“At this moment, Kerr and Brooks are on the same level,” he said.

“They are two good goalies. It’s a nice dilemma.”

UCI’s legendary coach Ted Newland said Kerr’s strength in the net

is his relationship with his teammates.

“He’s very supportive,” Newland said. “He really enjoys what he’s

doing. He’s a very positive influence on the team.”

One person Kerr has an especially close relationship with is

former Anteater teammate and current Olympic teammate Omar Amr.

Amr is one of the reasons Kerr played for UCI instead of other

schools, or basketball, which he was also highly recruited for coming

out of Coronado High in San Diego. Kerr and Amr became friends and

roommates following Kerr’s rookie ‘hell week.’

The friendship put Kerr unexpectedly in harms way four years ago.

“I was out visiting him in Boston in September,” Kerr said. “I

flew back on the 10th. He was begging me to stay until the 11th and I

would have been on United Airlines Flight 175 out of Logan Airport.”

Flight 175 was the second plane that crashed into the World Trade

Center that morning and Kerr was very close to being another

passenger on that fateful flight.

“A lot of people thought I was coming home Tuesday on [Sept. 11],”

Kerr said. “I didn’t even realize [that I was almost on that flight]

until two days later because of the shock of everything.”

Kerr said he is not worried about terrorist attacks at the Summer

Games, which begin with opening ceremonies in Athens, Greece, Friday.

“[The team has] been to Greece in June and met the head of

security, Peter Ryan,” Kerr said. “He makes me feel very secure. We

visited the Olympic Village and the back side is a Greek military

base.”

Along with Olympic officials, Kerr and Team USA met with former

Olympic greats to discuss the safety of showing national pride.

“Janet Evans told us be patriotic and wear red, white and blue,”

Kerr said. “That is exactly what we plan on doing.”

The U.S. will begin its quest for gold Sunday against Spain.