Northeast Water Polo Conference Round-Up: Brown’s Felix Mercado

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Brown Head Coach Felix Mercado. Photo Courtesy: Brown Athletics

Editor’s Note: Immediately following a tough 12-10 loss to the host Terriers at St. Francis Brooklyn College on September 29, Brown Head Coach Felix Mercado and Armen Deirmenjian spoke with Swimming World’s Michael Randazzo about the young Bears, the challenge of playing in the Terriers’ den of deafness and the impact of proposed rule interpretations being discussed by the NCAA Rules Committee and Bob Corb, NCAA Water Polo National Coordinator of officials.

Armen Deirmenjian, Brown junior from Beverly Hills, CA:

– You were part of the trip down to Texas to play Austin College; what was that experience like?

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It’s a whole different animal out there because my whole life I played on the West Coast so I was used to a certain style of water polo. In Texas I got a chance to see what the other side of water polo’s like.

– The discussion is that there a lot of potential for growth in Texas. Did you see that during your visit?

Absolutely. The fact that there’s a DI program there for the first time ever—to have varsity water polo out there is just fantastic. You want to see the sport grow there because we’re just so used to seeing California water polo being the hot spot. It’s great to see water polo growing outside of California.

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Felix MercadoBrown Head Coach:

– You and your team went down to Texas to play Austin College and to support the growth of polo in the biggest states in the U.S.

I saw the opportunity to help Mark [Lawrence] out but also to play the first varsity game there in over forty years. I thought it would be a good experience for our athletes to go to an area that’s up and coming and be part of that whole experience.

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Photo Courtesy: Brown Athletics

It didn’t disappoint; it was great. The crowd was great and in both venues we had great crowds and it was a lot of fun.

– Earlier this season there was a seminal moment for East Coast water as Harvard beat #3 Cal. You’ve got to have a sense of pride—even if it’s the Crimson!

I don’t! (Laughs!) I respect Teddy [Minnis] a lot and he’s done a great job. It was a great win for them.

– You’ve got a team that promises to improve throughout the course of the season.

We’re such a young team. We probably lost more starters than any other team in our conference, so the fact that we battled back from a four-goal deficit [agains St. Francis] to take the lead… our youth came out and we committed to many unforced turnovers.

I was happy we competed but I felt like we should have won that game [against St. Francis]. We need to do a better job of protecting the ball. But St. Francis is a great team. They basically returned everybody, and they have #6 [Djorde Stanic] who can shoot the ball. He’s very good and hit some big shots.

They’re a well-coached team and this is obviously an interesting environment. I love coming here. Everyone hems and haws about shallow-deep, but it’s a disadvantage to both programs. I’m sure if Bora [Dimtirov] had his choice he’d play in all-deep water all the time.

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Djorde Stanic playing for Serbia Junior National Team. Photo Courtesy: FINA

St. Francis home games are a great environment, lots of fans. I love battling with the Terriers. They got us this time, we’ll hopefully get them next time.

– There’s a re-assessment of how international water polo is being officiated, an effort that is also being reflected in the refereeing here in the U.S. As president of the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches, what’s your impression about what’s happening with how the college game is being called?

It’s important that the rules in our country, especially at the NCAA level, are properly written and applied. I don’t have a problem with more fouls. It’s up to [the coaches] to adjust.

The one thing that I’m [hoping for] but the jury is still out, is the consistency of the officials, not going back to the way [the game] used to be called. I don’t care how they call it, just call it the same way from the beginning of the season to the end so that when we come up for championships we’re not exposed to something different.

Promoting offense is important, and the advantage rule is to promote offense—there’s no such thing as punishing bad offense. If you’re holding, sinking, pulling back you’re going to be excluded.

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Olympic Referees Joe Peila and Mark Koganov. Photo Courtesy: Mark Koganov

My guys were talking about ticky-tack fouls. It’s a foul—whether it’s ticky-tack or not, it’s a foul and it should be [whistled]. I want consistency, and this is the direction the NCAA wants us to go in. I’m 100% behind it. I hope the officials give the players and the coaches an opportunity to adjust so that we can all move forward together.

I like [the new direction] because it’s easier to coach. Don’t pull. Don’t sink. Don’t hold. Apply the rules as written, I’m 100% behind that. I’m excited that we have a direction that it’s clear to everyone this is the direction we’re moving, I just hope we continue to do that.

– How does that happen over the course of the season, when it’s hard to adjust to any changes, including interpretations of the rules?

I don’t worry about FINA, I don’t worry about anything USA Water Polo does—though they’re working with the NCAA. It’s up to the officials. In our conference we’ve increased what we’re paying our officials, so we’re rewarding them for doing a good job. We need to support the officials and not jump all over them—let them ref the game and [coaches] adjust.

I hope that the message that comes out is: Call it how you see it, apply the advantage rule, and let the coaches and players adjust. I have a good feeling that we’re moving in that direction.

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