LJ g water polo: Cuts

Water polo prospects do their conditioning swim
in the morning Wed., Nov. 22.
(Photos by Ed Piper)

 



By Ed Piper

"I don't know who I'm going to cut. They're all working so hard," moaned Amy Jennings, second-year La Jolla High water polo coach, Wed., Nov. 22, as 19 varsity prospects swam the Coggan Pool laterally to do morning conditioning.

The morning conditioning--separate from the two-hour practice from 2 to 4 p.m. later in the day--ran from 7:30 to 9 a.m., and Jennings was already avoiding the early-morning heat by standing in the shade at the southeast corner of the swimming complex.

"It's a 10-degree difference between standing here and in the sun" on the opposite side of the pool by the dressing rooms, the veteran coach said.

Jennings is also the water polo coach at Miramar College, so she has a fine eye and a wide breadth of experience evaluating and coaching water polo players in high school and college.

"There are the two goalies (both sophomores)," she said. "But then everybody is bunched so closely that if I drop some down to the junior varsity, they won't get that play-up experience" that is so valuable to developing players.

She said she'd have to make decisions later in the day, after the afternoon practice, in time to have a pretty-much-set roster for Thanksgiving Day and the Alumni Game to come Black Friday, Nov. 24.

Four seniors graduated and moved on to college ball, including offensive assassin Karli Canale, who is at San Diego State. Ciara Franke, the two-meter, and others matriculated at UCSD. That means the team will have a whole new personality this year.