Mello no longer caged

No one would think UC Irvine’s biggest shark in the pool feared the sea.

But Colin Mello did.

Instead of bodysurfing with the rest of his water polo teammates, Mello stayed behind. The kid who grew up in the country in the Central Valley preferred playing in the sand to catching waves.

“Colin was known for going out there and digging a hole,” said UCI second-year head coach Marc Hunt. “He’s finally kind of coming around.”

It took some time after spending so much of it the last three years at the beach with his team to face his phobia.

Not seeing a shark chomp on someone helped.

He now joins his teammates with some ease, because as he put it, “I know there aren’t really any sharks out there.”

That’s because the 6-foot-4 junior is proving to be the only shark around.

Mello, a driver, has gaudy numbers — 84 goals. It’s the best total of any player from the competitive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Now the young Anteaters are looking for Mello to stir the water during the MPSF Championships, a three-day, eight-team event that starts Friday at UCI.

It will be a tough task for Mello as eighth-seeded UCI (10-18 overall, 2-6 in conference) opens with No. 1 USC (23-0, 8-0) at 10 a.m.

For the Anteaters to qualify out of the tournament to the four-team NCAA Division I Championships at Loyola Marymount on Dec. 2-3, they will need to receive the conference’s automatic bid.

That means they must win outright, something Mello believes could happen.

“They have a lot of guys who are very talented and have played at this level for awhile, and even some young guys who have a lot more experience (than us),” said Mello of the defending MPSF champion Trojans, who have outscored UCI, 40-13, in three matches.

“But if we thought we were going to lose, why even be here?”

The way UCI is playing of late, it could possibly challenge USC, which won the NCAA title last year.

On the road the Anteaters, ranked 11th, hung with two of the country’s upper-echelon programs, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 Stanford, down the stretch. They beat the Cardinal, 9-8, and lost to the Bruins, 8-5.

Like he’s done in 23 matches this year, Mello led the way for UCI. He found the back of the cage four times against Stanford and three against UCLA.

But scoring hasn’t been a problem for Mello.

Getting used to a team losing its entire starting lineup from a year ago to graduation, redshirting and injuries has been rough.

“Scoring is the easiest part of my job,” said Mello, who has accounted for close to 40% of the Anteaters’ offense. “The hardest is communicating and trying to move some of the younger guys around and getting them to the right spots … and learning to play with them.

“Some of the younger guys play really hard, but they don’t necessarily think a lot.”

Mello understands why. When he watches one of the program’s handful of freshmen, he sees a lot of himself. He used to be the young gun driving all over the place without much thought.

Well, Mello did have an excuse. He did come to UCI as a goalie. But why did the kid who preferred the country lifestyle want to escape to a surfer’s paradise?

“Because they’d take me for water polo,” said Mello, laughing.

He didn’t have many schools courting him, but the North Yosemite League MVP made the transition from being in front of the cage to field player.

Using his speed and aggressiveness as a swimmer allowed Mello to transform into what he is now — a lock to earn All-American honors.

No one knew if it would be possible. Not on a team lacking experience. Not after sitting out last year with a knee injury. And definitely not without the contributions of last year’s All-American two-meter player in Tim Hutten, who helped UCI take second place in the MPSF and fourth at the 2005 NCAA finals.

“I expected that (Mello) was going to shoulder a lot of the offensive load,” said Hunt after Hutten redshirted this year because he was training with the U.S. National team. “I didn’t expect him to lead the conference in scoring.”

Mello’s done just that even though he doesn’t consider himself a “great shooter.”

He’s tallied 14 more goals than the conference’s second-best scorer because of his ability to create space. Last year’s top two UCI scorers, All-American Dreason Barry, who graduated last year, and Hutten, recorded 66 and 64 goals, respectively.

UCI’s school record for goals in a season is 110, held by Gary Figueroa. The mark is safe.

Mello just wants to continue to pound in goals. The more goals, the more opportunities three-time NCAA champion UCI has on advancing further into the postseason.

There’s enough time for him and his team to hit the beach later.

“It’s always kind of fun to watch guys come out from the Central Valley and guys who aren’t from around here to be able to go out and go bodysurfing,” Hunt said. “They learn a lot of body balance. It helps a lot with their water polo skills.

“When they go out they start to like it and want to go out all the time.”

Right now Mello is content with being the biggest shark in the pool.