Lunde tournament opens today

Gray Lunde’s memory lives on through annual water polo event hosted by Newport Harbor High.Ten years ago this month, budding water polo player Gray Lunde, a freshman at Newport Harbor High, passed away at the age of 14 from a congenital heart defect. Lunde died during a water polo practice at the school.

Ever since, the school has paid tribute to Gray and his family by putting on the Gray Lunde Memorial Freshman-Sophomore Water Polo Tournament. This year’s tournament opens today.

The 16-team tournament will be played at Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar High, with the finals slated for Saturday at 1:50 p.m. at Newport Harbor High.

“I was there that day,” said Les Cutler, a water polo coach at Newport Harbor High at the time. “He felt weak and dizzy in the water, so we brought him to the side, where he collapsed.”

The CPR-trained coaches tried to revive him, to no avail, before the paramedics arrived and took him to Hoag Hospital, according to Cutler.

Cutler spearheaded the effort to rename what was once the Halloween Invitational.

“I asked Mr. and Mrs. Lunde if we could change the name, and they felt it was a very nice gesture,” Cutler said.

The Lunde family is still thrilled to have the tournament named after Gray.

“It’s hard for anyone to understand what it’s like when someone loses a child,” said Bob Lunde, Gray’s father. “You lose their future, you lose their children. So to have someone memorialize your child in any way is really an honor.”

Cutler no longer coaches at Newport Harbor but still organizes the tournament he helped start, helping Sailors frosh-soph and junior varsity Coach Brian Melstrom.

“He was just a great kid,” Cutler said. “He had a great ability to perform beyond expectations, and he worked well with teammates. He was strong academically and very mature for his age.”

“We still hold the tournament not only for Gray, but for the Lunde family itself,” Newport Harbor Athletic Director Eric Tweit said. “The family was always a strong supporter of our high school and the water polo program.”

Gray Lunde showed a lot of promise as a water polo player.

“Unfortunately, it [his death] happened before he even had a chance to show what he was going to be like as a player,” Tweit said.

The Lundes still follow the the tournament’s progress in the newspaper. They attend the championship game if Newport Harbor is in it, and receive the trophy with the team if the Sailors win.

The tournament opens today with a bang, as Newport Harbor will take on Corona del Mar at 3 p.m. at Corona del Mar High.

Group A, which plays at Corona del Mar High today, includes El Toro, CdM, Laguna Beach, Royal, Tustin, Santa Margarita, Villa Park and Fountain Valley.

Group B, which plays at Newport Harbor High today, includes Newport, Los Alamitos, Esperanza, Capistrano Valley, Edison, Riverside Poly, Dana Hills and Marina.

Action continues Friday at Newport Harbor High starting at 3 p.m., and concludes Saturday with a full schedule of games starting at 8 a.m.