Mello makes UCI go

Even before he set foot on the UC Irvine campus, Colin Mello was comfortable dodging convention, pinning expectations under one arm, while reaching out to possibilities with the other.

A big fish in the small water polo pond of Sanger, a suburb of Fresno, Mello, then a 6-foot-2, 180-pound goalie, said he recruited himself. He sent letters to every Division I college program and a few in Division II, as well.

Then-UCI Coach Ted Newland, who, by necessity, had consistently chiseled nationally ranked teams from projects and promise, was one of few who responded. “The Old Man,” as he is affectionately known, who is now the coach emeritus in the program run by Marc Hunt, said Mello could come, as a walk-on.

Mello, who arrived with more doubts than expectations, was soon told he had been sprung from the goalie cage, reborn as a driver.

His doubts increased.

“I was a little hesitant,” Mello said of the change that would eventually result in second-team All-American honors as a junior, when his 87 goals led the prestigious Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. “I knew I could do it, I just didn’t know if I wanted to.”

In this dichotomy of thought, Mello unveiled yet another band of tension at which he was pulling from both ends. While genuinely humble, he is also unshakably confident.

“I never came down here with the goals that I wanted to be an All-American, or I wanted to lead the conference in scoring, or I wanted to do this or that,” Mello said. “I think a lot of guys from Southern California come in thinking the coaches are going to treat them like royalty. I came in thinking ‘I could be the worst guy here’ and ‘I hope I make it through this week.’ There were some people up north who said I was going to get killed and that I’d never live up to the demands of this program. I said, ‘We’ll see.’

“My first goal, which is something that has probably carried through to today, is that I just wanted to wake up, put my feet on the ground and not quit.”

So, Mello began working at his new position, absorbing technique and building the physical strength and endurance necessary to swim with, and away from, opponents who were not always above delivering a little underwater reminder of their presence.

“At first, I didn’t like the contact aspect of it,” Mello recalled. “I was a swimmer in high school, but as a swimmer, you don’t have to worry about someone grabbing you, or doing something violent to you when you’re swimming.”

Hunt and Newland did their own brand of kneading and sculpting from the deck, shaping a formless mass of potential into a polished field player.

“I would say within the first month, I kind of knew I had the athleticism to do it,” Mello said. “It was just a matter of getting the necessary skills, playing time and experience. And [not having played the field before] I had no bad habits. Everything I learned, I learned the way [Hunt and Newland] wanted it.”

Midway through his sophomore season, Mello had cracked the starting lineup. Surgery to repair torn meniscus in his right knee forced him to redshirt the following season, but he returned in 2006 with a hunger for the game and some considerable responsibility.

With veteran standouts Tim Hutten and Cole Bitter redshirting, Mello, now 6-4, 210, assumed the bulk of the scoring load.

Once again, a dichotomy arose.

“At first, I loved scoring goals, because I had never really gotten a taste of that,” said Mello, who had scored a combined 28 goals his first two campaigns. “It was fun, but it wasn’t. It was nice to get the [MPSF] Player of the Week and the All-American stuff, but that wasn’t the most important thing. It was nice, but we weren’t winning [10-21].”

This season, Mello has reverted to his more familiar role of quarterbacking the No. 5-ranked Anteaters, who take a 12-10 record into Friday’s 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal of the MPSF Tournament against No. 3-ranked UCLA (19-6), at Cal. The winner of the eight-team event earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

“I love it,” Mello said of orchestrating for his team on both ends of the pool. “That’s my main role, with scoring being secondary to that. Sometimes, I’ll have a tendency to spend so much time coordinating our team that I’ll forget I should be getting involved in the offense.”

Mello has been involved enough to score 41 goals in 17 games, ranking fifth in the MPSF in goals per game (2.41).

“I think what allows me to be successful as a scorer, is that I’m fairly quick and explosive,” Mello said. “I can make a move and get separation real quickly. A lot of guys have a great outside shot or a great fake. That’s not what I do. I usually get in movement, get some contact, break out and score.

“If I’m going to try to set myself up to score, I’ll give the ball to another perimeter player, then I’ll drive. I’ll try to get a hold of my [defender] and put him on the outside of me, if I can, so I can move away and get my [shooting] arm free. Then I like to catch the ball and shoot quickly.”

Mello is optimistic the ’Eaters can win three straight and advance. But he plans to continue playing beyond college.

He would like to eventually make a run at the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. But, after obtaining his degree in psychology, most likely next spring, he plans to play professionally in either Australia or Europe.

Mello has no second thoughts about what it would have been like had he remained a goalie.

“I think I could have been good, but I don’t think I’d be as happy as I am now, that’s for sure,” he said. “I know, as a goalie, I would have had to sit the bench for two or three years. And, who knows, maybe I would never have played.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.