Water Polo Profile: Chris Vidale, Trinidad and Tobago, Iona College

Feature by Julia Lam

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, October 7. UP-and-coming water polo player Chris Vidale has made short work of covering some major ground, aquatically speaking. He joined his first swim team as a high school freshman in Apopka, Fla.; discovered water polo in his sophomore year; and went on to win an athletic scholarship to Iona College, a Division I team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in New York. There, Vidale had a standout four-year career with both the varsity water polo and swimming teams. A two-meter defender and utility driver, he tallied 30 goals, eight assists, 56 steals and 38 kickouts drawn in 67 game appearances.

Today, water polo remains a central part of Vidale's life. Currently, he balances playing with the legendary New York Athletic Club (NYAC), and the national team for Trinidad and Tobago (his parents' country of origin), with a freelance job in television broadcasting.

I had the opportunity to speak with Vidale about his past, present, and future in water polo. The first in a series of water polo profiles with players from all regions, at all levels.

Just taking a guess, but it's probably no contest which sport our readers at Swimming World Magazine would name as their favorite. Let's get this one out right now: swimming vs. water polo?
Oh, there's no comparison. Put ball in a swimmer's hand and it changes his life forever. He'll never go back to swimming. Ever.

I mean, I swam in high school and I swam at Iona. There the majority of the swim team also plays water polo. Water polo comes first; then after the November break you start swimming full time with the team. I don't know if most other colleges in our league do it that way; everybody just has their own system. But it makes sense. Especially in the [water polo] off season, you need to be training.

But if you're asking me to choose, I'm picking water polo.

How did you come to play water polo?
I'm the only swimmer, water polo player, aquatic person in my family. My mom and my sister dance, my dad plays cricket, my brother plays football.

I started swimming in my freshman year of high school. There was a girls' polo team but not one for boys; when one opened up my sophomore year, I joined.

How would you compare water polo in each of the places you've played?
In Florida, it's a real small water polo world. A lot of us play club team together or against each other. You have a handful of guys who are really good.

Really, water polo in general is a small world.

For college, I only applied to water polo and swimming schools. I got accepted to Iona, and got a good scholarship. My dad knew of Iona because he'd lived in New York for awhile, and I just said, well, that works for me.

Internationally, the way I look at it is, in America we have systems and different functions and do things a certain way. That's what makes us so systematically better: we know how to get from point A to point B very easily. Playing in Trinidad, I would do one thing, everybody would do the same thing, but I was sneakier.

Tell me about your experience with the Trinidad and Tobago national team.
I started talking with them during college, but things didn't really start happening until after I graduated. I went down and tried out.

This summer, I was in Trinidad for a month and a half, training and traveling. My next visit will probably be around November. For now, we're kind of spread out – there's a mixture of guys on the island going to school, working, and there's two to three guys Stateside, one guy in Canada. One next big tournament for us will be the [2010] Commonwealth Games in India.

Right now, we're in a rebuilding stage. Two years ago, for CCCANs [Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships, which features competition in swimming, water polo, and synchronized swimming] the older guys, my age group, were pretty much overlooked by the water polo committee. There were some bad feelings, and a lot of the boys just went off to college ball.

But our captain has done a great job getting the core group back. This summer we played at CISC [Caribbean Island Swimming Championships, which also features water polo and synchronized swimming in addition to swimming]. We placed silver against Jamaica – it came down to a horrible call that led to a 5 meter from a Jamaican ref. Go figure.

What's the water polo scene like in Trinidad?
For Trinidad, the most popular sport is football, after that is cricket, after that everything just trickles through. But when I was with [my teammates] people would be like, "Oh hey, those are the national team guys."

[Water polo] is definitely more well known in Trinidad than in New York.

I don't really know how water polo got there, but I'm glad it did!

How has playing water polo impacted your life?
It's something I absolutely love. Something I love to do. It's one of those sports where people are like, "You play water polo? Wow, that's a tough sport." Or people who don't know it will say, "That's pretty lame, you wear a Speedo." But when they watch a game, they respect you.

But it's just been a great opportunity for me to travel, meet new people, and of course, stay in shape. I've gotten to go to Jamaica, to Trinidad. I got to see my family, see my roots, live where my mom and my dad grew up. Now I play for New York Athletic Club and travel with them. A lot of those guys play for their national team. It's another way to keep playing after college.

There's obviously not much money in the sport. It's just for the love of it.

Any tips for young water polo players?
Learn as much as you can. When somebody does something cool to you that you don't know, ask them about it. I got better by playing with people who were bigger, better and stronger than me. Don't be afraid to mess up. It's the only way you're going to learn.

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