LJ b water polo: Momdzhyan ('MOME-djien')

An expressive Arman Momdzhyan,
who graduated a week ago from
UCSD and is now coaching water
polo at LJHS.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

More than the alphabet soup last name, the La Jolla JV/novice co-coach in water polo is--almost unbelievably--deathly afraid of the ocean.

"At UCSD (where he was NCAA Division 2 Player of the Year twice), we did ocean swims during Hell Week at Windansea, Mission Beach, Coronado, Scripps. I was terrified the whole time," says Arman Momdzhyan (pronounced MOME-jien in Armenian).

The guy is towering, pulling up at 6'5" in height--looking way down at his coaching boss, Viking head coach Tom Atwell.

But he's got this fear, like we said. "I hate the ocean," he confides on the deck at Coggan Pool early on a Monday morning during conditioning. "I'm also terrified of sharks."

At first, a reporter thinks he's joking. But he's dead serious. At least, alive, with the serious opinion.

The former Glendale High star, a two-time community college All-American at LA Valley College, has quite an international pedigree. His mother Luiza is from Belarus. His father Petros is from Yerevan, Armenia.

He admits, despite the many helpings of his mother's and grandmother's delicious tholma (a green lettuce wrap containing rice, with lemon flavoring--"It's amazing," Arman says), that he was a jerk (he uses a stronger word) as a kid.

In middle school, he was. And it continued into high school. Though he played for Glendale's school team, Momdzhyan attended Clark Magnet High School in nearby La Crescenta. His club team was Olympic Reserve Water Polo (ORWP), which played as the Armenian national prep team at one point.

"I learned the hard way," he says of a team ethic he hopes to impart to his Viking hopefuls. "I shouted at my teammates. I thought it was all about me. I was an All-American," so he was pretty full of himself.

His comeuppance came in initial workouts when he entered Los Angeles Valley College as a freshman. "We had gruesome training. I dropped 50 pounds, going from 300 down to 245."

He adds on his self-centered nature, "I had the normal growing-up (struggles)," and in the team process, was helped to become convinced that "without the team, you have nothing."

Arman just graduated from UCSD a week ago with his undergraduate degree. So he says the plan is to "take six months off", then begin his Master's and teaching credential program toward a Social Studies/Health combination.

"I'm in it (coaching) for life," he says. "This is what I plan to do."

So the big guy, terrified of the ocean, may be looking down on his varsity boss for the long run.