Bury is catalyst for Tars

Mimi Bury still wears her 2006 CIF Southern Section Division I championship ring on game days.

“Want to see it?” the Newport Harbor High senior said, pulling it out of her backpack on Wednesday night at Irvine High after helping the Sailors get back to the title game by beating Long Beach Wilson.

The ring sparkles, and Bury grinned as she pulled it out of her bag. The only reason she doesn’t wear it everywhere, Bury said, is that she’s afraid she might lose it.

“It’s a good luck thing,” she said.

She was only a sophomore on that team two years ago, a 13-player squad that featured nine seniors, three juniors and Bury. Now, she’s the only remaining varsity player from that unit as the top-seeded Sailors (27-3) go for their second Division I title in three years, tonight at 7 at Irvine High against Back Bay rival Corona del Mar (24-6), the No. 2 seed.

“It was so unbelievable,” Bury said of winning the title two years ago. “[The seniors] were all so motivated, and it was just a really good experience to strive for something. When I was a senior, I wanted to hopefully do the same thing for my team that they did for me.”

Bury has definitely done that. As much as that ring demands respect out of the pool, Bury demands respect in the water.

She is the Sailors’ lone captain, as voted by her teammates last summer. Heading into tonight’s game, the Stanford-bound Bury has 36 goals, 31 assists and 52 steals.

“Her leadership is invaluable, both in and out of the water,” Sailors Coach Bill Barnett said. “She’s very, very crafty, especially on offense. But, if we need her to guard a special person on defense, she’s very adept at doing a good job there. She’s obviously very intelligent. She didn’t get a single ‘B’ in high school.”

Bury has a 4.48 grade-point average, believed to be tops in her senior class. She has taken 11 advanced placement courses at Newport Harbor, including the five she’s currently enrolled in.

Those are the kind of smarts that Bury has been bringing to the water ever since she started playing the sport in fifth grade for the Newport Water Polo Foundation. She began playing the sport, she said, to try to tag along with her older brother, Michael.

Michael Bury, a three-time All-CIF player at Newport Harbor, was a four-year varsity player at Stanford. Playing at two meters, he scored 19 goals for the Cardinal last fall in his senior season.

“He comes to a lot of my games and critiques me, tells me what to do and what not to do,” Mimi Bury said. “He’s a pretty good role model, because he has always had everything in line in his life. He’s going to Stanford, and I signed with Stanford. We’ve kind of had similar paths. We’re doing similar things.”

Bury has done just about everything for the Sailors this season. She can play set, but she is also a deadly shooter on the perimeter. Defensively, she can also excel. She had a team-high three steals on Wednesday in the 5-3 semifinal victory over Long Beach Wilson.

“Multi-tasking is a good word, I guess,” Barnett said. “She’s a multi-tasker.”

She has been a key contributor to a Newport Harbor team that really has no set roles. After last year’s Dream Team Player of the Year, Sarah Roberts, graduated, there hasn’t really been a primary center.

Bury can play set. Then again, so can junior Nicolina McCall and sophomores Kaleigh Gilchrist and Kate Klippert.

“I still don’t know what my role is,” Bury said, laughing. “Our team is different than everyone else, because we have very fluid players. We don’t have specific positions. Everyone else, they have a set girl, they have a set guard. Everyone can play everything on our team, and it’s awesome, because then I think it’s hard to strategize against us. If they try to shut down one player, we always have someone else who can step up and fill in that role.”

But, beyond her skills in the pool, Bury’s role is that of team leader. She takes her title of team captain seriously, and is constantly encouraging her teammates.

“I think she brings some major enthusiasm to the team,” senior goalie Morgan Vickers said. “She always comes ready to play. This isn’t our first year playing on varsity. Once you have that confidence, it’s easier to come in more positive. When you do something wrong, you just want to make sure you don’t do it again. Mimi, if she does something wrong and she knows it, she’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. She fixes it, or she gets a goal.”

Bury has been steady for the Sailors all season, being named to the all-tournament team at both the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions and the Irvine Southern California Championships.

Newport Harbor won the latter title. Now, the Sailors are looking for the CIF title after losing last year in the semifinals, which Bury called a “disappointing” loss in a year where she was named first-team All-Sunset League.

The Sailors girls will also be trying to win the Division I title like the Newport Harbor boys did in November.

“They always rub it in our faces,” Bury said. “It’s always in the back of our mind. And when we lost our third game, the boys only lost three, so you always think, ‘We can’t lose more than the boys. We can’t lose another!’ ”

“It’s really cool, too. At the end of their season, as a team all of us girls went to their games and made posters for them. And [during Wednesday’s semifinal], the whole boys’ team was there cheering us on. It’s really cool how we’re supporting each other this year.”

And the Sailors know that tonight, Bury will be doing whatever she can in support of winning another CIF ring.

“She’s a very positive person,” Barnett said. “She energizes the whole team.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.