Water Polo: Grier honored with plaque at Newport Harbor

Angela Grier watched her daughter Emma, 10, as she walked around the pool deck at Newport Harbor High late Thursday afternoon.

Minutes earlier, a plaque honoring Angela’s late husband, Michael, had been unveiled on the wall outside of the long team room during a special ceremony.

Michael Grier was known as a great water polo player at Newport Harbor and Pepperdine, and on the U.S. men’s senior national team.

But, obviously, Michael was also a husband, a father and a son before he passed away at the age of 51 in May, 2013, after battling liver cancer and a staph infection.

“The nicest thing about this [plaque] is that Emma has some place to reach out to her dad,” Angela Grier said, noting that Emma will likely attend Harbor in four years.

The nicest thing about the ceremony Thursday was all of the people who came out to support the family and honor Michael.

Michael’s former high school coach, Bill Barnett, was in attendance. His father, Stan, said some words, and his mother Jane and sister Catharine Grier Carlson were also in the audience of about 25 people.

“He loved the game, but most of all, he loved his teammates,” Stan Grier said. “He knew that the combination of strong coaching and great teamwork were the fundamentals of his success ... The significance and power of being a part of a team were most evident at the end of Michael’s life. Michael and our family were overwhelmed by the kindness of Michael’s teammates, who came and visited him all the time.”

Grier’s former teammate at Harbor, John Layman, then came forward. He rang a bell that Michael himself had made to honor the 1979 Newport Harbor team that captured the 1979 Division 4-A title. Grier was the Division 4-A Player of the Year that season before graduating from Harbor in 1980.

Grier made the bell fixture, which included a team picture of the ’79 team, before he got sick. “In memory of our teammates who have sailed on before us,” the fixture reads. Layman said that two of the other players on the team, Monty Iverson and Mike Howell, also have passed away. Another noteworthy player on the team was current Edison boys’ and girls’ water polo coach Diggy Riley.

“Michael wanted it rung once for every time one of us passed away,” said Layman, who proceeded to ring the bell once in honor of his former teammate.

Grier, a 6-foot-4 center, was a great water polo talent, for sure. He was a two-time All-American at Pepperdine, and the 1984 NCAA Co-Player of the Year with Alan Gresham of Cal. He scored 93 goals and led the Waves in assists (50) and steals (54) as a senior as Pepperdine finished fourth in the country.

He was also a great best friend, said James Bergeson, a two-time CIF Southern Section Division 4-A Player of the Year in 1977-78 for Newport Harbor who went on to become a four-time All-American at Stanford and play for Barnett in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea.

“I got to know him when I was about 11 or 12 years old, and we swam together,” Bergeson said. “We both started water polo at the same time, at about 12. When we were 14 or 15, we used to just jump over the fence here [at Newport Harbor] on Sundays, jump in the water and play all the time. The game was a lot of fun back in the ‘70s. Not that it isn’t now, but I don’t think we could jump in.

“He was always a great teammate. He was always the center on the team, and it’s always nice to have a guy that’s big and strong on your team. Out of the water, he was very friendly and just a fun guy to be with. He was a great best friend to have in my teenage years.”

When the ceremony was over Barnett gathered with two of his former players, Bergeson and John Dobrott, who was a senior on the famous undefeated 1975 Harbor team. They had plenty of stories to remember, sharing anecdotes from decades past.

It seemed like something that Michael Grier would have liked to partake in.

Good thing he was there.