Boys Water Polo readying for cold weather season

If the world were normal, the Fallbrook Union High School Boys Water Polo team would be in the midst of their season right this moment.

Warm days, longer days, no need for parkas.

Head coach Bill Richardson knows things are going to be different when the boys open their training in mid-December and games in early January.

"It will be in play in the dark and all those fun things," he said. "I used to coach the girls. So, I remember the flu season and no lights, rainstorms and I'm going to have to buy a parka, I guess."

Another interesting hurdle to overcome is the fact that the boys and girls season will coincide, making pool time an issue.

"We're going to have to figure it out as we go," Richardson said. "(Girls head coach) Sean (Redmond) and I are pretty used to working together because we both coach swimming. Flipping pools and switching pools every other day and working together that way. The kids are used to it during swim, so I don't think it will be a huge deal as far as that goes, but we'll see what's gonna happen."

Richardson says there is still a lot in the air as far as how practices and games will take place.

"What's gonna be allowed?" he asked. "How much he can practice. when we can practice, how many coaches can we have per player? All those things are just changing all the time. Those kinds of things are more difficult."

Richardson said in normal times, the varsity kids have completed half of their practice by the time school is done because they have a seventh period class with them.

"Even if we go back where's the hybrid thing, trying to figure out how do we get a practice in early enough in the day to accommodate the younger kids that come in after school," he said. "Getting somebody like Kenny Brower coming over from San Marcos to coach, he's been the JV coach for both programs. So how does he do that? Coach JV girls and JV boys when you can only have so many kids per coach and without him being there for hours on end. So, yeah, there's a lot to figure it out."

Richardson recognizes that this is going to be a strange year either way.

"It's going to be an abbreviated year, I don't think there's any possible way we'll play a full schedule," he said. "I was just reading an email from a fellow coach talking about how some areas have plenty of pool space, then there's areas where the pools aren't even open yet. They don't know how they're going to practice. It's going to be a strange year.

"Just getting the kids in the water and then getting them a number of games and trying to make it as normal as possible is probably the goal at this point."

So far, they have a schedule for league games, he said.

"If everything works out right now, we will have our league games and we only play one round in league," Richardson said. "So, we have those games scheduled for us. We have two cross league games scheduled for us. We have to negotiate when those will be. The league schedule is set; we're playing Wednesdays and they have already outlined that that will be boys and girls programs in the same pool at the same time. It'll go JV Girls, Varsity Girls, Varsity Boys and JV Boys. Four games in a row. We're trying to work on keeping that pattern, that model, um, for the entire season, outside of tournaments."

Richardson said he has his kids via a computer only right now through distance learning, but some of the kids are working out with clubs in other towns and cities.

"I think they just want to play, you know, the kids, for the most part, they just want to go back to school and they want it to be normal," he said. "You know, they're bummed. If we can get them back in the water and try to get a season ...."

He said his team is young this year, so maybe it will work to their advantage.

"We're young and we're keeping them together and playing and building for the following year, I think," Richardson said. "It's just a wacky thing. And who knows, maybe we do better when it's wacky."

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].