{"id":282027,"date":"2017-10-27T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T16:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=282027"},"modified":"2018-11-25T19:08:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T02:08:00","slug":"on-the-record-with-pomona-pitzers-alex-rodriguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-pomona-pitzers-alex-rodriguez\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Record with Pomona-Pitzer Water Polo’s Alex Rodriguez"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the brightest young minds in American water polo is not at USC. Or Stanford. Or Cal or UCLA. Alex Rodriguez<\/strong>\u2014known as \u201cA-Rod,\u201d just like the notorious former baseball player\u2014is head coach for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams at Pomona-Pitzer<\/a>, a Division III program located 35 miles east of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"cecil\"

Cecil the Sagehen<\/p><\/div>\n

During his decade in Pomona, Rodriguez\u2019s teams have enjoyed noteworthy success, including multiple trips to the NCAA men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournaments. Following a year-long sabbatical\u2014including a trip to the Rio Olympics\u2014as the top assistant to Dejan Udovicic<\/strong>, head coach for the U.S. Men\u2019s Senior National Team, Rodriguez returned just in time to guide the Sagehens to the 2016 NCAA Men\u2019s Water Polo Championship. In the spring of 2017 Pomona-Pitzer\u2019s women also qualified for NCAAs, their fourth appearance in six years.<\/p>\n

In many ways Rodriguez has been preparing his whole life to be one of the nation\u2019s top coaches. A walk-on at Pepperdine who became an integral part of the Waves\u2019 1997 NCAA championship team, he graduated to Terry Schroeder\u2019s<\/strong> assistant, a position that led directly to his current Pomona-Pitzer position. Hard work and choice opportunities have led him up the USA Water Polo ladder from youth coach to a prominent role on Udovicic\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

With his team out East for the Harvard Invitational, Rodriguez spoke with Swimming World<\/em> about his learning curve in the sport, a young U.S. men\u2019s squad\u2019s myriad challenges, his Sagehens\u2019 quest to again make waves in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and how tenacity, diligence and devotion have given him a prominent role with Team USA as they look to qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

You are \u201cAlex Rodriguez,\u201d and there are many people with that name. But there\u2019s one Alex Rodriguez\u2014commonly known as \u201cA-Rod\u2014who is universally known for his major-league baseball career. Is it tough to live in the enormous shadow he casts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A funny story is I have a high school friend, Matt Wise<\/strong>, who played major league baseball. When he was a senior in high school he went to travel ball and met Alex. He came back and told me: \u201cThere\u2019s a guy with the exact same name as you and he\u2019s great at baseball!\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed it off. I just figured he\u2019d never make it big because it\u2019s so hard for baseball players.<\/p>\n

And now you go by \u201cA-Rod\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I used to not like people to call me A-Rod, but I just gave up. And now both of my kids are A-Rod: Austin Rodriguez and Addison Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

You were a successful player at <\/strong>Bonita High School <\/strong>and at Citrus Junior College who walked-on at Pepperdine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was a 2-meter man in high school. What 2-meter man doesn\u2019t want to be coached by Terry Schroeder?<\/p>\n

I went there on a down year. Jack [Kocur]<\/strong> and Alan Herrmann<\/strong> red-shirted, I transferred in from junior college. It was great. I don\u2019t know if I would have gotten the playing time if it wasn\u2019t for this scenario. I was the leading scorer my junior year and an All-American.<\/p>\n

Senior year was amazing. Merrill [Moses] was a sophomore; Jack and Alan came off redshirt. Jeremy Pope<\/strong> came in and suddenly we went from really bad to really good.<\/p>\n

We started the season ranked fourth or fifth and had to play Stanford at home, and then again a few days later at the SoCal tournament. We beat them both times and then we had to play Cal, who was #1 that year to start off.<\/p>\n

I still remember that game against Cal [an 8-6 Pepperdine win]\u2014that was the first time we really believed we could win the national championship. We rode that for a long time, only lost one game until Mountain Pacific [Sports Federation tournament] and lost three games all year. It was pretty special for us.<\/p>\n

We played USC in the NCAA final [an 8-7 OT win by the Waves]\u2014and just had our twenty-year reunion. Most of the players came back. It was great to see everyone again and be honored during a Pepperdine vs. UCLA game.<\/p>\n

What was it like being coached by Coach Schroeder?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Terry is such a good guy. I\u2019ve had some very fortunate opportunities and some amazing people in my life as coaches.<\/p>\n

\"a-rod-pepp-oct17\"

Future coach with mentor, Terry Schroeder. Photo Courtesy: Alex Rodriguez<\/p><\/div>\n

He has a command of men that I haven\u2019t seen anyone else have. He makes you feel like you want to play for him. I learned a lot about presence and leadership from Terry.<\/p>\n

[After graduation] I came back and was his assistant for three years. That was a great experience for me because Terry\u2019s a chiropractor, too, and I was able to do a lot of the management stuff for the team [including] budgets and travel arrangements when he was out.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019ve moved up in esteem within USA Water Polo, you\u2019ve become one of the leading decision-makers for the U.S. Senior Men\u2019s Team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I owe Coach Udovicic a lot. He looked at my resume and said: \u201cYou coach here, you coach here, you had success here; you\u2019re a coach!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was appreciative, but honestly I\u2019ve worked my ass off to get where I\u2019m at. I was hired as a youth junior coach\u2014and I expected as a youth and junior coach to be at every national team practice I can.<\/p>\n

One of the things I feel in our sport is that professional development is non-existent. We had Nikola Malezanov <\/strong><\/a>of Washington Jefferson come to Australia, we had Bryan Suhovy <\/strong>of Fresno Pacific as a videographer for our Russia trip. Teddy Minnis <\/strong><\/a>from Harvard was with us for world championships. They got to sit in on meetings and get to absorb [things].\u00a0 We need more of these opportunities in our sport.<\/p>\n

How can we make certain that our men\u2019s senior team is fully prepared to win?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was talking to Tony Azevedo <\/strong><\/a>about the Final Six [European professional championship] and asked him: \u201cHow many American players in the last 20 years have played in the Final Six<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

We were guessing three. Did you know that the Serbians had 11 or 12 of the 13 on their [2017 FINA World Championship] roster that played in the 2017 Final Six?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple: it\u2019s about experience and playing. Americans play a lot while we\u2019re in college, though in spring we\u2019re not playing. And it\u2019s not like football where college players can make a lot of money. These kids have to study. Several college players finished finals in mid-June and then joined us. What kind of shape were they in?<\/p>\n

I know we lost to Japan. And I don\u2019t really have an answer [for that]. I\u2019m not a person to ever pass the buck.<\/p>\n

\"United

McQuin Baron. Photo Courtesy: Julio Cortez<\/p><\/div>\n

Except for that game, we had a pretty successful summer. We went into a shootout with Serbia; McQuin Baron<\/strong> played out of his mind in that game. We went into a shootout with Italy. We handled Russia\u2014and if you take away some of the extracurricular activity we had an opportunity to win by seven.<\/p>\n

All of us own up to what happened with Japan. If we had our more experienced players, and if there was more motivation for those experienced players to play\u2014but also a better system for us. European Championships is a fantastic tournament. It\u2019s such an experience, especially before the Olympics.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a simple person; you train, you play. How you train is how you play. You put yourself in pressure situations, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed, you keep doing that until you\u2019re good at it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m an NCAA champion and I can tell you; the Olympics for players in other countries is a whole different kind of pressure. If they don\u2019t do well in the Olympics representing their country their performance is connected to their contract for a professional club.<\/p>\n

This is the problem: I don\u2019t see our guys getting enough high-level competition consistently throughout the year. High, high level competition, like where you\u2019re \u201cliving and dying,\u201d based upon the outcomes.<\/p>\n

If the question is how to get our players consistent, high-level competition, what does it take for the U.S. to get players in the top professional leagues in Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like things are very easy to see, if you really look at them. The salaries [in European professional water polo] are going to affect more people from Australia and U.S. The cost of living here is way greater than living in Hungary and Serbia.<\/p>\n

I just don’t know if our kids want to go live in Europe.<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019m disappointed about [is] my parents are from Cuba. My mom wanted to have me here. I\u2019ve always been brought up with love for this country.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how I felt about anybody, I would always support the national team. That\u2019s my flag and this is the country that\u2019s given my family a fantastic life.<\/p>\n

Representing our country in Brazil was the proudest moment in my life.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I always preach and that\u2019s what I do. I had an opportunity to coach with the national team and I\u2019ve done everything I can to take it and learn from it and get better. I\u2019m continually trying to get better. And now I\u2019m trying to help my colleagues get better.<\/p>\n

We can talk about how great Adam Krikorian<\/strong> is or Dejan is but, there has to be a solid base.<\/p>\n

And our base as a sport can be a lot higher. I love this sport and I coach it all the time. I would love to see it better in this country. I\u2019d like to see our athletes really have an opportunity\u2014I\u2019d like to see McQuin play in four or five Olympics, if he wants to, and not have to sacrifice financially to do it.<\/p>\n

\"Photo

Pomona-Pitzer in action versus Brown. Photo Courtesy: Andrea Gross<\/p><\/div>\n

Bringing it back to the U.S. college game, you\u2019ve got two teams\u2014men and women\u2014that you coach at Pomona-Pitzer. Both teams have a pathway to NCAA championships. What will it take for your men to return to the tournament?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is probably my best team individually because of my athletic director, Lesley Irvine,<\/strong> who has changed everything for me at Pomona-Pitzer. More than anything, she brought passion to me [when] she asked: \u201cWhat can I do to help you win?\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have that before.<\/p>\n

For us it\u2019s winning the conference and getting the bid. My goal is to keep moving up the ladder. You can see it in my freshmen who came in last year: Joe Schafer<\/strong> and Jacob Niskey<\/strong>. They produced right away and they give us some depth.<\/p>\n

This year with Dylan Elliot<\/strong> and Adam Gross<\/strong> we have water polo players. I used to have players that played water polo.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited. I have great kids who want to learn, want to get better. Some people wonder if I struggle going from Tony Azevedo to [our kids] and I don\u2019t. I just love teaching the game. I love individually breaking it down. I love learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor One of the brightest young minds in American water polo is not at USC. Or Stanford. Or Cal or UCLA. Alex Rodriguez\u2014known as \u201cA-Rod,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":282033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[3384,2653,63435,27241,1427,379,64258,64257,42639,60192,64259,64115,64256,44523,60622,382,3671,3613],"class_list":["post-282027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-adam-krikorian","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-bryan-suhovy","tag-dejan-udovicic","tag-harvard-university","tag-jack-kocur","tag-lesley-irvine","tag-matt-wise","tag-mcquin-baron","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-nikola-malezanov","tag-pomona-pitzer-water-polo","tag-sagehens","tag-southern-california-intercollegiate-athletic-conference","tag-ted-minnis","tag-terry-schroeder","tag-tony-azevedo","tag-usa-water-polo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nOn the Record with Pomona-Pitzer Water Polo's Alex Rodriguez - 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