Water Polo: Bailey shines in semis
IRVINE — Ryan Bailey returned to the city in which he starred in college to play some water polo this weekend.
The Long Beach native and four-time Olympian, now 41, would be the first to admit it’s been a long time since he played at UC Irvine. But old age was actually part of the source of pride for Bailey, who is competing in the USA Water Polo National League for the first time this spring.
Bailey and his Olympic Club team, based in San Francisco, are now just a game away from winning their first National League title.
Bailey had a pair of goals as the Olympic Club beat USA University, 10-8, in a National League semifinal Saturday at Woollett Aquatics Center. The Olympic Club, which remains undefeated in the three-week tournament, will play New York Athletic Club for the title Sunday at 1 p.m. at Woollett.
New York Athletic Club features Corona del Mar graduate and two-time Olympian John Mann, Mater Dei’s Jackson Seybold and Ryan Hurst of Huntington Beach High. Mann scored two goals as NYAC beat the Alumni team by an 8-5 score in the second semifinal Saturday. Newport Harbor boys’ coach Ross Sinclair is an assistant coach for NYAC.
USA University will play Alumni in the third-place game at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Woollett.
Bailey said it’s fun to compete in the National League, especially with an older group like the Olympic Club. The USA University team featured current college players like Newport Harbor graduate Luca Cupido (Cal) and Corona del Mar alumnus Kyle Trush (UC Irvine), as well as five different 2016 U.S. men’s water polo Olympians, including Cupido.
Bailey, who sells title insurance for his day job, clearly still enjoys the competition.
“I wear a suit and tie every day,” he said. “It’s awful … We all have full-time jobs, and we all play water polo because we love it. We may not be in the best shape, but we can still work, play water polo and beat up on the young guys. That feels good.”
Bailey’s two goals in the semifinal game tied him for team-high honors with Cal alumnus Marin Balarin and UCLA alumnus Paul Reynolds, the former Foothill High star who is the National League’s all-time scoring leader. Bailey didn’t even mind that his final goal came at the game-ending buzzer into an empty net.
“I don’t know if I should have shot that or not,” he said. “There might have been a guy coming behind me to steal the ball. It felt good anyways, and yeah, I’ll pad the stats, why not?”
The USA University team led 7-4 early in the third quarter before Bailey helped the Olympic Club start a run, drawing an exclusion at center and scoring the goal. It began a string of five straight goals before UCLA’s Max Irving, who like Bailey is from Long Beach, scored with 2:58 remaining in the game to bring USA University within a goal at 9-8.
Cupido said the game got physical, and it bothered the college guys.
“We just lost concentration on playing the game,” said Cupido, who was scoreless in six shot attempts but did have two steals. “We just thought about hitting and getting hit. It wasn’t a water polo game. They were able to get our mind out of the game, and we lost. It was a lack of experience and being able to control external factors. They’re not in as good shape as we are, but they train together and they’re an experienced team.”
Cupido nearly had a pretty assist out of a timeout with less than two minutes to go. He flipped a pass to Ben Hallock, but Hallock’s lob danced near the goal line and ultimately didn’t go in.
Still, Cupido sees the benefit of the National League. He helped the USA Blue team win the title in the league’s inaugural year, 2015.
“It’s great to get some games,” Cupido said. “Water polo season is during the fall, so we don’t get to play a lot of official games in the spring. It’s nice to challenge yourself.”
Local high school players including Huntington Beach’s Hurst, Quinten Osborne, Ethan Wojciechowski and Jacob Cavano, plus CdM’s Tamir Avital and Newport Harbor’s Cole Brosnan, are also competing for National League teams this weekend.
“It’s best for those guys,” Bailey said. “That’s who’s benefitting the most from these games. Me, I get a workout and I get to play water polo with some friends. But for them, it’s an opportunity to play against the best guys, to measure themselves and see some things they can work on when they go to college next year.”
Olympic Club, which defeated USA Academy, 14-7, in a quarterfinal earlier Saturday, is now 8-0 in the tournament. NYAC got past the USA Junior team, 12-7, in another quarterfinal behind a game-high four goals from Mann.
Twitter: @mjszabo
