Dante Dettamanti Responds to: On The Record with Loren Bertocci

Dante Dettamanti speaking with his 1986 Stanford team—NCAA champs. Photo Courtesy: D. Dettamanti

Editor’s Note: After remaining silent for many years, Loren Bertocci came out with a thunderbolt of opinions in his recent interview with Swimming World. There are likely to be a number of reactions to Bertocci’s view of the game; one commentator is Dante Dettamanti, Stanford men’s coach who for more than two decades led the Cardinal to 570 wins and eight NCAA titles. His comments are published in full below.

Losing Loren was a big blow to water polo. I think he was frustrated by the inadequate rules of the game and the way that they are being enforced. The way the rules are written should dictate how the game is played. The problem with water polo is that the rules are poorly written, and everyone interprets them in a different way. The ones that don’t work should be eliminated and we should add rules that reflect how we want the game to be played. This is what the TWPC and FINA will try to accomplish in the next 6 years in order to make water polo a more dynamic game that can be played by everyone around the world, and not by just a few select European countries of 6-8 giants.

In my opinion, the biggest problem in our sport is FINA Rule 7.3 (Advantage rule), the automatic exclusion on a static center who just sits there with the only purpose of getting his defender excluded from the game for 20 seconds. As long as this rule exists, all coaches will want to do is plant their biggest player in front of the goal and try to draw an exclusion foul so that they can play with an extra man. This is boring as heck to watch, because this is all that most coaches do.

The game has no movement, no counterattack and no driving to the goal. Can you imagine basketball planting a 7-foot center under the basket, and every time he gets the ball, the defender fouls him so he can’t shoot, and then in addition gets excluded for doing that. Add no driving to the basket and no fast break, and you have a boring game of basketball.

We need to play the game more like basketball and initiate a 3-second lane rule so that the center has to move when he/she is between the goal posts. Until we do that by changing the rules, the game is finished; without any semblance of the dynamic game that is necessary to appeal to the masses. Coaches are the sport’s worst enemies. Coaches could initiate a movement game if they wanted to; but all they care about is getting the ball to the center to get the center defender excluded from the game. In other words, they are taking advantage of the rules as they are poorly written.

The other biggest problem in water polo is fouling and the whistles. Players foul at will, anytime they want to and anywhere in the pool. The result is 100 whistles or more in a one-hour game. The reason for this is that the punishment for fouling does not fit the crime. A defender can foul anytime he wants to in order to prevent a shot on goal, because the player fouled cannot shoot the ball after he is fouled. A player can shoot after being fouled outside of six meters from the goal; but this has not been a deterrent to fouling because it is a low percentage shot due to the defender being allowed to block the shot and the distance from the goal

Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo

The only penalty for fouling (except on the center) is the awarding of a free pass to the player fouled. The rule for fouling has to be changed so that the penalty is harsh enough to keep players from fouling. Loren is correct. The game should flow. There should not be a whistle called every time someone touches the ball. I won’t even get into the constant holding that goes on underwater.

Loren was also right when he said “Bob Corb—or whomever is in charge at the NCAA level—[needs to say]: We’re either going to enforce this rule or not. And if you’re not going to enforce it then take it off the books”. However, this is not Bob Corb’s fault; it is the fault of the NCAA for adopting rules that don’t make sense and cannot be enforced. I will give you an example.

The NCAA Rules Committee, in their infinite wisdom, approved a new water polo rule this year that makes SIMULATING A FOUL an exclusion penalty. A defensive player whistled for simulating a foul will be excluded from play for 20 seconds. An offensive player called for simulating a foul will lose possession of the ball to the opposing team.

This is a rule that cannot be enforced! In fact, in 30 games that I have watched this year, I have not seen this rule called one time. In fact, players fake (simulate a foul) on almost every play. Offensive players fake in order to “draw a foul”, and defensive players fake to draw an offensive foul (like charging in basketball).

If referees wanted to, they could call this rule on almost every play in the game. As a result, they end up not calling anything. In fact, the referees actually end up encouraging players to fake. A player with the ball will purposely drop the ball and fake as if he has been fouled, sometimes when the defender is not even touching him; and the referee calls the foul and awards the offensive player with a free pass.

Talk about a rule that cannot be enforced. This one definitely should go.

It is encouraging to me that FINA will attempt to do a major re-write of the water polo rules in the next few years. Loren and I should be on that committee.

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