Hitting fork in the wave

Tough choices like the one Kaleigh Gilchrist is facing aren’t supposed to come in the first year of high school.

There is water polo or surfing or both. Each comes with a sacrifice.

For now, Gilchrist, a freshman at Newport Harbor High, will compete in both. Gilchrist has played water polo for six years and has rare varsity potential for her age. In surfing, she has dominated high school competition and is on the U.S. national team.

This year, Gilchrist has worked out a deal with both sides. She misses two morning water polo workouts a week to attend surfing practice.

It is a choice that will probably prevent Gilchrist from playing varsity water polo this year. Participating in both also means two physical education classes a semester.

With surfing comes a chance to get paid to travel the world and the free clothing and accessory perks that come with being sponsored.

With water polo, there is school and a chance for a college scholarship. School would have to be sacrificed in order to be a professional surfer.

Gilchrist understands the difficulty of being a star in both.

“Basically, I don’t want to think about it,” Gilchrist said.

The decision will come at the end of the high school surfing season in May when Gilchrist will compete in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. nationals. If she does well, the choice will be surfing.

“My name will already be out there,” Gilchrist said.

But Gilchrist has already begun sacrificing. One of Gilchrist’s surfing sponsors offered to pay for her to go to Hawaii for a month to surf and watch surfing competitions. Water polo practice begins Nov. 11, so the decision was quick and easy, albeit painful.

“I was pretty bummed,” Gilchrist said. “It would have been super fun to hang out with the O’Neill girls and surf. I told them right away because of polo.”

In May, water polo will be sacrificed. As a member of the five-girl U.S.A. Surf Team Gilchrist will be in Portugal for two weeks, competing in the world championships.

She will only miss water polo conditioning so it was a painless choice.

Though she has only surfed for four years, Gilchrist has amassed an impressive resume. She won the 2005 OP Newport Classic girls’ open division. Gilchrist has also won all three of her girls’ shortboard competitions this year for the Sailors.

Scott Morlan, in his 12th year as coach of the Sailors, watched in April as Gilchrist, then of Ensign Intermediate, won the women’s division in the Newport Classic.

“I kept hearing ‘Kaleigh is coming up,’ ” Morlan said. “She’s an absolutely fabulous athlete. She has a great shot at being a world champion.”

Morlan recalled how he recently watched Gilchrist take on a wave, as everyone on the beach stopped to watch.

“She hits the lip and comes off and absolutely utilizes the wave to its maximum potential,” he said. “All her maneuvers were perfect. She rode it all the way to the beach. Jaws just dropped. She is not afraid to commit to a wave. There is no ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll make that move.’”

Watching Gilchrist progress over two months of the high school surf season, Morlan has come to realize her potential more and more.

“My money is on Kaleigh to finish first at state and first at nationals,” said Morlan, who could not find an area in which Gilchrist needs to improve as a surfer.

But Morlan knows for Gilchrist to excel at either, there will need to be a choice. The Sailors’ water polo program maintains its excellence because of a rigorous workout schedule, and missing two days a week will only hinder efforts to be a varsity player.

On the surfing end, Morlan said Gilchrist is better at this age than former Sailor Erica Hosseini, one of professional surfing’s top young talents. And Hosseini was dedicated to surfing alone.

Morlan sees that high school competition is becoming too easy for Gilchrist.

Gilchrist’s two P.E. periods will be difficult to keep up throughout high school because she is already down a language class.

“At the end of the year, I will sit down and have a talk with her,” Morlan said. “I just hope it’s a no-brainer.”

Newport Harbor girls’ water polo coach Bill Barnett watched Gilchrist compete over the summer for the Newport Water Polo Foundation girls’ 14-and-under team. The second half of the summer, Gilchrist was working out with the Sailors’ varsity.

Barnett, a former men’s national team coach, said Gilchrist has the potential to play varsity, something he said only three or four freshmen have done.

“She is right on the borderline of playing varsity as a freshman,” Barnett said. “Next year, she’s a starter on varsity.”

Barnett, who guided the Sailors to three CIF Southern Section titles in the past seven years, is unsure of what sacrifices will need to be made.

“Right now, she goes with them two mornings a week. I’m certainly willing to trade that off,” he said. “It’s up to her. I’m not sure how much conflict there will be. If she is doing what she is doing right now, it doesn’t bother me. If it becomes more of a commitment, we’ll see. Water polo is a team sport. You have to work out with the team.”