{"id":334116,"date":"2018-10-22T08:09:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T15:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=334116"},"modified":"2018-10-23T10:43:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T17:43:00","slug":"on-the-record-with-loren-bertocci-whats-going-on-under-water-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/on-the-record-with-loren-bertocci-whats-going-on-under-water-doesnt-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Record with Loren Bertocci; What\u2019s Going on Under Water Doesn\u2019t Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Though he hasn\u2019t donned a referee\u2019s whites in almost a decade, Dr. Loren Bertocci\u2019s<\/strong> influence on water polo\u2014both in the U.S. and abroad\u2014remains pronounced. FINA\u2019s Technical Water Polo Committee is considering a host of rule changes to the international game, with Mark Koganov<\/strong>\u2014whose highly-decorated career includes officiating men\u2019s and women\u2019s matches at the 2016 Rio Olympics, began under Bertocci\u2019s tutelage\u2014as one of the TWPC\u2019s key decision-makers. In the U.S., Bob Corb<\/strong>, NCAA Water Polo National Coordinator of Officials, is currently spearheading a campaign promoting athleticism, not physicality, as the sport\u2019s dominant feature in America.<\/p>\n

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Loren Bertocci (left) and Joe Peila in undated photo<\/p><\/div>\n

All this change speaks the language of polo that Bertocci not only knows best, but has passionately advocated for decades. First introduced to the sport in the early 1970s, a young Bertocci was quickly swept up by polo, becoming coach, referee and teacher, ultimately rising to one of the most prestigious positions in the sport as a FINA-certified referee. He wielded enormous influence as USA Water Polo\u2019s<\/a> first-ever National Referee Chair as well as Technical Director\u2014and Head Referee\u2014for the\u00a0Collegiate Water Polo Association<\/a>. <\/strong>His connection to and passion for the sport has been mirrored by his wife Joan, one of the guiding lights of Water Polo Planet<\/a><\/em>, still one of the world\u2019s most influential outlets for polo.<\/p>\n

Swimming World<\/em> spoke recently with Bertocci, now Director of Marian University\u2019s Program in Exercise and Sports Science<\/a>, about his expansive views of the variety of ailments currently besieging polo\u2014and what may cure its many ills\u2014as well as his enduring passion for a sport where the referees are not only essential participants in an astounding, physical activity, but whose influence at the present moment may determine the continued viability of the Olympics\u2019 oldest team sport.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been involved with water polo for much of your adult life as a player, referee, teacher and coach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My introduction to real water polo was my first year at Stanford. I initially played intramurals and then club and then one thing led to another. It got to the point where I played on a club team in graduate school. I eventually got good enough that it was worth my while to go to the Olympic Festival tryouts.<\/p>\n

I moved to Dallas for a post-doctoral fellowship and with one of my teammates from graduate school started a club there. By 1990, when I refereed my first senior international match\u2014Cuba vs. Australia, leading up to the Goodwill Games\u2014I had already been assigned by USA Water Polo to be an American referee at the North American junior championships.<\/p>\n

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A new career as an Olympic-Style Weightlifter. Photo Courtesy: Loren Bertocci<\/p><\/div>\n

I had coached a club team to ninth place at Nationals and hosted a national championship. I\u2019d been region chair, zone chair\u2014and that was by 1990. I stayed involved until 2004, deciding in 2004 that I had done enough. I officially retired off the FINA list in 2004.<\/p>\n

Although I spent a couple a more years as the national referee chair for USA Water Polo, shortly after representing USAWP as National Referee Chair at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, I decided that what it would take to do what I wanted to do\u2014which was to stay involved but at the international level\u2014would have required more time and energy than I was willing to spend. So, I retired from that as well.<\/p>\n

Between 2007 and 2011, I stayed involved doing only two things: (1) actually refereeing at local events where long-time friends were hosting the events and (2) creating Water Polo Academy and teaching all USA referees via this online instruction paradigm. By the end of 2011, I simply became so busy in other aspects of my life that it made sense for me to completely exit from any further active involvement in water polo.<\/p>\n

– Your wife Joan is renowned for championing polo, primarily through Water Polo Planet. How do the two of you connect through the sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She comes from a hockey family. Her father was a great athlete in two sports, baseball and hockey. Her brothers got to the point where they were at the Olympic tryouts for the famous Herb Brooks team in 1980.<\/p>\n

\"wpp-logo\"She started watching me referee, [and] it didn\u2019t take her long to figure it out. Ultimately, the Water Polo Planet idea came up\u2014she was sufficiently involved because of my involvement, and doing something in the back room setting made sense to her\u2014 on the condition that I post in the referee area because she thought water polo people might want to read some of my thoughts about the game.<\/p>\n

– Even though you weren\u2019t at Stanford when he coached men\u2019s water polo there, you have a strong connection with Dante Dettamanti<\/a>, the Cardinal\u2019s legendary men\u2019s coach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was at Santa Barbara with another group of my friends\u2014Greg Boyer<\/strong> and Pete Snyder<\/strong> [who] took over for Dante when he left for Stanford. Pete and I went to Stanford together.<\/p>\n

I got to know Dante well only after he retired from coaching. While he was coaching, he was like most coaches, at war\u2014to some degree\u2014with the referees. It is rare for referees and coaches, in this sport anyway, to get along well if the referee is actually officiating the game the coach is coaching. There are a very few exceptions to that but normally you only get to be friends after at least one of you is done. Dante and I got to be friends after both of us were done.<\/p>\n

The first in-depth contact I had with him was when he was in the process of writing a book\u2014and if you\u2019ve never read his textbook<\/a>, you should. It is so full of information that it\u2019s amazing. And I helped edit it for him. In the process of helping him edit it I read it.<\/p>\n

[I thought:] Holy Mackerel! This is exactly the game that\u2019s in my head. Dante\u2019s game\u2014the game that\u2019s in my head, the game that\u2019s in Mark Koganov\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> head\u2014and this is probably the place where I think it\u2019s best to start. It\u2019s a game that can be played equally well by big people and little people. The big people take advantage of the fact that they\u2019re big, but they\u2019re not so mobile because they\u2019re big. And little people can take advantage of the fact that they\u2019re mobile and quick, and they don\u2019t have to be big.<\/p>\n

In the NBA, the 7-foot center is not quick; the 6-foot point guard is. They can both play. But they don’t play the same way. That\u2019s where we start. And there are some nuts and bolts components that are not necessarily obvious to most people, but I\u2019m going to use a couple of examples to point this out.<\/p>\n

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Dante Dettamanti in an undated picture. Photo Courtesy: Stanford Athletics<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the fundamental issues that is a component of the game in my head is that, if it\u2019s possible for the defense in a water polo game to stop the attacking team, playing one-on-one everywhere, the game grinds to a halt completely. Whatever the referees and the coaches do, it must result in the center being double-teamed. If the center is not double-teamed, you can easily grind the game to a halt on the perimeter.<\/p>\n

As long as the referees\u2014and I\u2019m blaming referee instruction for this\u2014as long as the referees allow the center defender to be sufficiently physical that they neutralize the center, and the defending team does not need to drop a second defender\u2014you can suffocate the perimeter.<\/p>\n

The second piece of that\u2014and this is something when you talk about the advantage rule\u2014let me give you a micro example of what advantage really means in this setting.<\/p>\n

You are in possession of the ball on the perimeter and the defender does whatever defenders do, they go for the ball, they just go for the body, whatever. The referee dutifully calls a minor foul. The attacker gets the ball and gets back up on his or her legs. The ball\u2019s now a meter further away from the goal than it was before the foul, so this benefits the team that committed the foul. Worse, during that period of time, the defense can re-position. Again, this benefits the team committing the foul.<\/p>\n

That minor foul that we whistled in favor of the attacker, benefits the team committing the foul\u2014mostly for positional reasons.<\/p>\n

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Photo Courtesy: M. Lapham<\/p><\/div>\n

FINA\u2019s response to this problem was to change the rules and allow the fouled player to take a direct shot. We’re now however many meters away from the goal. And then we don\u2019t really stop the defense from interfering with the free throw because we don\u2019t really believe in the direct shot\u2014people are screaming [that] the defense should be able to continue to [defend]. We should argue that you just screwed up and that\u2019s why we have a minor foul. Now that you were judged to be guilty, put your hands down and back away. If you don\u2019t do that we’re going to exclude you.<\/p>\n

That would change the entire equation \u2013 it would start to make it so painful for the offending team to commit such a foul that they would be less inclined to play that way. This would instantly open up the perimeter and make it possible for player and ball movement to occur.<\/p>\n

It would be so easy to make this game work if they\u2019d just change a few small things. This is but one such example.<\/p>\n

– In a sport where 50-75% of player\u2019s bodies are obscured by water, how is it possible for the average spectator to understand how the game is officiated?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My response is that\u2019s a cop-out excuse used by people who don\u2019t understand the game. Of course it\u2019s all underwater! But, it doesn\u2019t matter, and I\u2019ll tell you why. The way the game ought to be is: the white team gets the ball and they go down to the other end, they shoot and score. Or they shoot and miss. Or they lose the ball. And by losing it, I mean that they threw (or gave) it to the other team.<\/p>\n

Then the blue team gets the ball. They go down to that end. They shoot and score, they shoot and miss, or they lose the ball. And that\u2019s what should happen. Nowhere in there should the referee blow the whistle and take the ball away from one team and give it to the other. Ever!<\/p>\n

You may need to whistle a contra foul if in fact the thing that the attacking team did would have resulted in a goal that otherwise wouldn\u2019t have been a goal. Or, if the thing they did was just so egregiously physical that you just can\u2019t ignore it. But other than that, this what the game should look like: Go down to there and play, go over there and play.<\/p>\n

Let me address why the underwater argument is inadequate. Let\u2019s take the simplest possible example and that’s the center. The defender\u2019s goal-side, the center\u2019s ball-side, the center is at the 3M line. There\u2019s an entry pass and the ball lands where it should land, half a meter from the center\u2019s hand. And they\u2019re all under water. And they\u2019re probably holding each other. That\u2019s the way the game\u2019s played.<\/p>\n

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Stanford center Ben Hallock scores against the USC defense. Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Hayne<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s only three things that can now happen. The center moves to the ball, picks it up and shoots it. And if that happens, then good. And that\u2019s what you expect to see if the defender\u2019s playing on the goal-side. Or, the center does not move for the ball. There are only three reasons the center would not move for the ball. One, he doesn\u2019t feel like scoring\u2014well I don’t think that happens very often. So the only two other reasons why the center\u2019s not going to go for the ball; one, he\u2019s being held. How do you know that? The ball arrives in a perfect position and the center doesn\u2019t move for the ball, and you don\u2019t see the defender\u2019s hands. That\u2019s an easy call. [The defender\u2019s] out.<\/p>\n

Or, he didn\u2019t move for the ball because he\u2019s holding the defender. He can\u2019t move because he\u2019s holding the defender. And, you know he\u2019s holding the defender because you look at the defender and his hands are up. So now you don’t do anything and you let the second defender come in and take the ball and that starts a counterattack the other way.<\/p>\n

What was going on under water doesn\u2019t matter. The only thing that matter is what everybody can see.<\/p>\n

– The game that you\u2019re describing\u2014going back-and-forth in the pool with no whistles\u2014is exactly how FINA\u2019s <\/strong>Andrey Kryukov described<\/a> the game that he\u2019s hoping to create by instituting new rules. Do you see an evolution for the game at this current moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only hope for the game is Mark and Andrey. And they have enormous headwinds because, in order for them to make this happen, they have to disenfranchise a large number of powerful administrators and countries that have a stake in making the game remain the way as it\u2019s been as they were recruiting and developing players. And they\u2019re not going to go quietly into the night.<\/p>\n

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FINA’s Andrey Kryukov. Photo Courtesy: FINA<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s no such a thing as a perfect game; you\u2019re still going to end up with fouls called. The fouls that must be whistled are the ones that, in the absence of whistling that foul, the game doesn\u2019t look like [ideal].<\/p>\n

A simple example: the perimeter minor foul. A foul that really is a striking foul and not just a reach for the ball. If it\u2019s a striking foul\u2014which it usually is\u2014that\u2019s got to be an exclusion. We’ve got to stop players from doing that. If they don\u2019t put their hands down and back away from the free throw, we have to exclude them for interference. And you know what will happen? They\u2019ll either run out of players or they\u2019ll change the way they play.<\/p>\n

– From the spectator\u2019s vantage point, are you saying that referees should be the sheriff on the pool deck, penalizing play by reducing rosters dramatically through exclusions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer is: sort of. We know on average, because of the size of the goaltenders and the cleverness of defenders, they\u2019re having a good day if\u2014with the man advantage\u2014you\u2019re better than 20%. If you\u2019re [at] 30% you\u2019ve got a pretty good power play.<\/p>\n

We also know that\u2019s a much higher percentage of scoring than perimeter shots, but the percentage of shots made by the center that go in is better than that\u2014something like 50%.<\/p>\n

If the game is whistled correctly, the physicality at the center has got to go away. Back in the Ratko Rudic<\/strong><\/a> age, when I was refereeing [for] Team USA, he\u2019d carry four or five center defenders. He was perfectly happy to let them keep fouling out as long as the other team\u2019s center never scored. The way the game was played then, it was worth it for your center defenders to foul out if it kept the opposing center from shooting from right in front of the goal.<\/p>\n

And if they don\u2019t stop; no problem. They will end up playing five on six and will lose.<\/p>\n

The problem is, we have these arguments and these instructions and\u2014as an afterthought\u2014an additional instruction comes from the evaluator: we don\u2019t want everybody to foul out! Spectators want to see the best players.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t have it both ways. If this is the game you want, it\u2019s up to the coach to adjust. And if they don\u2019t adjust, you know what? They lose. It\u2019s a simple as that.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Another facet of the new rules, only for the Olympics, is that the rosters are being reduced from 13 to 11 players. Going into a qualification cycle for the 2020 Tokyo Games is having teams playing short due to excessive exclusions a good look for the sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, it will look terrible. but you know whose fault it will be? The coaches.<\/p>\n

The eleven players [change]; that\u2019s not because FINA decided it was a good idea. It\u2019s because that\u2019s the first step towards eliminating the sport. That\u2019s a warning shot across the bow. It\u2019s not 13 it\u2019s 11 and next thing it\u2019s going to be nine and next it going to be no sport. The decision-makers within water polo have got to figure out what to do.<\/p>\n

Perversely, an 11-man roster will put even more pressure on coaches to adjust the way they play, which I think would be just fine.<\/p>\n

I promise you, if you presented an 11-man roster and the referee instructions that I used to do at the Water Polo Academy\u2014if you presented that to Dante, he would never have a team where too many players fouled out. He would never be playing five on six. Ever! He\u2019d adjust his defense. And I know exactly how he\u2019d do it.<\/p>\n

He would be forced to play the perimeter four on five and work triangles away from the ball and one-on-one at the ball and drop somebody away from the ball in front of the center, back-and-forth.<\/p>\n

Then when you do that, someone drops from the weak-side, it opens up a driving lane. That driver then has got to be smart enough not to drive into that person that just dropped to double-team the center. He\u2019s got to go somewhere else.<\/p>\n

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Bertocci and Luis Nicolao, undated photo<\/p><\/div>\n

A good coach can say: Ah! I love this. I\u2019m smarter than the other coach. And, if the game is sufficiently unphysical, now you can take advantage of your small and fast as lightening driver that no one can keep up with.<\/p>\n

Now you\u2019ve got a cool game.<\/p>\n

At the international level, what should happen\u2014somebody, Koganov [or] Kryukov says: this is the game. And it\u2019s taught via some process.<\/p>\n

Then the evaluators evaluate the game according to the instruction, and the coaches all know what\u2019s coming\u2014and they either adjust or they don\u2019t. And if the coaches don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming it\u2019s their own fault, because it ought not to be complicated.<\/p>\n

And if you can\u2019t change, you know what? You\u2019re not gonna win.<\/p>\n

– Again, this is very much like what I believe Koganov and Kryukov are preaching; if the coaches won\u2019t change the game than the referees will.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The game that\u2019s in my head, that\u2019s in Mark\u2019s head, that\u2019s in Dante\u2019s head, that’s what\u2019s in Andrey Kryukov\u2019s head\u2014one that is spectator friendly. I\u2019m not at war with coaches, I\u2019m not at war with anybody here. What I want is a game where a non-expert can look and say: I sort of understand what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

The game I just described, if you\u2019re a non-expert, what are you doing in the stands? You\u2019re watching the ball. That’s where your eyes are. [If] you\u2019re not a spectacularly high-level expert, every time a referee calls a foul away from the ball, there\u2019s got to be some thought about: Is this referee a crook?<\/p>\n

The only time a referee should whistle a foul away from the ball is in a situation where, if there\u2019s video replay, anyone watching the replay will say \u201cOh, look what he did! Of course he should be excluded!\u201d<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not that bad, it should not be whistled, because it doesn\u2019t matter. The fouls away from the ball can\u2019t just be holding unless the hold prevents a driver from being able to insert motion into the offense. The fouls that must be whistled away from the ball are things such striking, kicking, misconduct, that sort of thing. It\u2019s got to be something pretty bad.<\/p>\n

[T]he contra foul called at the one position, when the attacker\u2019s got the ball at the four\u2014that doesn\u2019t make sense. You just took the ball away from my team and gave it to the bad guys?! The non-expert (and often very partisan) spectator will be tempted to think that the referee must be a crook! This is the LAST thing the sport needs.<\/p>\n

– Throw in the particular conditions that exist in pools on the East Coast and this is why there\u2019s difficulties in refereeing polo in America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a couple of components to that. First, for the majority of the time I was any good as a referee, I was doing enough NCAA games that had a shallow end that you had to solve for the problem.<\/p>\n

The problem is that water polo cannot be played properly in a shallow end. You must start from that premise. WP 20.5 makes it clear that it is a foul to use the bottom of the pool while taking any active part in the game. The game cannot be played in a shallow end. If it can\u2019t be played in a shallow end, there aren\u2019t a lot of things that happen next that should surprise anyone. The first one is: as soon as the attacking team uses the bottom to catch a pass or to shoot\u2014it\u2019s a turnover.<\/p>\n

If the defensive team plants their feet on the ground to prevent the attacking team from moving, it\u2019s (functionally) an exclusion (for holding). If the defender jumps in the air and lands on top of the attacker, it is an exclusion for (functionally) sinking or striking. [The referee] will have to keep doing that until they get their feet off the bottom.<\/p>\n

What a good coach will do in that setting\u2014and I\u2019ve seen it happen many times, especially with coaches who knew me, because I would always take the shallow end. In my shallow end there will be no use of the bottom. A good team will go: Okay! At the shallow end where [Bertocci] is refereeing, our offense is going to be off the counterattack. Or, an outside shot. We\u2019re not even going to put the ball into the center\u2014because he\u2019s going to turn it over.<\/p>\n

So, a good team uses driving from the perimeter, and as soon as the defender puts their feet on the ground to hold the driver, they get excluded. [Now] it\u2019s 6 on 5, and you\u2019ve got to shoot from the top because it\u2019s too shallow near the goal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a perfect game but it\u2019s a manageable game. No one cheats and\u2014worse than that\u2014no one with leverage and gravity with their feet on the ground can use that leverage to throw a punch and break somebody\u2019s jaw; I have seen that happen several times and every time it was because of gravity and leverage. In the deep end there\u2019s no leverage for that to happen.<\/p>\n

– Are there challenges in this country because playing conditions between East and West are distinctly different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, a game played at Stanford looks the same as one played at Bucknell or Navy. It\u2019s an all-deep 50-meter pool. There\u2019s nothing magical about that. And there are some shallow deep small pools in California; all deep 50-meter pools are not everywhere.<\/p>\n

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Bertocci and Brad Peavey in an undated photograph<\/p><\/div>\n

The problem is, somebody in a position of authority has to say: In the shallow end, this is how the game will be refereed. We\u2019re not going to allow you to be the Wild West. I remember doing a game once at Marist where the coach said: We talked to [unknown] who said because our pool\u2019s too shallow the players can use the bottom here.<\/p>\n

No. That\u2019s not what the rule book says. [After protests] I said: I don\u2019t make the rules! I\u2019ll read it to you, and then I\u2019ll enforce what\u2019s written. [The rule book] says it\u2019s a foul to use the bottom to your advantage if I see it happen I\u2019m going to call a foul.<\/p>\n

Bob Corb<\/strong>\u2014or whomever is in charge at the NCAA level\u2014[needs to say]: We\u2019re either going to enforce this rule or not. And if you\u2019re not going to enforce it then take it off the books.<\/p>\n

– One point that Andrey<\/strong> Kryukov made is that\u2014much like coaches\u2014the more experienced and successful the referee, the less flexible that may be because of that success.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I disagree strongly. The best referees are the best because they have spectacular instincts and really understand the game. As the rules change\u2014as they do every once in a while\u2014a really good referee is going to adjust quickly. Really quickly. I\u2019m talking about a matter of games.<\/p>\n

– But it\u2019s clear that any smart coach is going to adjust their strategy to take advantage of whatever calls the referees will give them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you an example of how that\u2019s supposed to work. [The U.S. men\u2019s team] is at the [2001] world championships in [Fukuoka] Japan\u2014the one where Rudic was still suspended and Ricardo Azevedo<\/strong><\/a> was our head coach. As an international referee, one of my jobs is to scout the other referees. When I found out who was refereeing the next game that the U.S. would playing, I called Ricardo on the phone and said: These are the guys you\u2019re going to get in your game, they are offensive foul machines. They love to take the ball away from the center and turn it over.<\/p>\n

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Bertocci and his “boys.” Photo Courtesy: Loren Bertocci<\/p><\/div>\n

He said: Oh, okay. I\u2019m not going to play my normal centers in this game, I\u2019m gonna go with my little guys. It will look like they\u2019re being beat-up and the [defenders] will be excluded and we\u2019ll get a lot of 6 on 5s. So Ricardo took his three littlest guys, had them play center in the game\u2014no contra fouls against the U.S. All kinds of defensive exclusions against whomever we were playing because they were big. The referees did just what I told Ricardo they\u2019d do. [The Americans] adjusted and won the game. This is what happens when good coaches think and adjust.<\/p>\n

– You have stated: <\/strong>\u201cI have great fear that the sport is dead. I very much hope I am incorrect. VERY MUCH hope I am incorrect. But fear I am not incorrect.\u201d How should this concern of yours be interpreted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My fear is that, unless the way the game is whistled changes, so that [referees] enforce the game that\u2019s in Dante\u2019s head and in my head, in Mark head and in Andrey head, you\u2019ll get continuous bleeding of spectators and\u2014if the only people who get to play this game are people that are 6-3 and bigger who came up the line in Croatia, Serbia and so forth\u2014the Japanese can\u2019t play, the Americans can\u2019t play, the Brazilians can\u2019t play. Now we have a game where it\u2019s not world-wide anymore; we know the IOC doesn\u2019t like sports that are not world-wide. They don\u2019t like sports where only one or two countries from one part of the world win.<\/p>\n

Until we make these changes, so that the game is watchable and understandable to a non-expert\u2014and really only the stuff with the ball should be called\u2014and it\u2019s not too physical so that people don\u2019t get beaten up, and little people who are quick can take advantage of their speed\u2026if that all happens? [Polo\u2019s] gonna thrive.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not, it\u2019s going to continue its death spiral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor Though he hasn\u2019t donned a referee\u2019s whites in almost a decade, Dr. Loren Bertocci\u2019s influence on water polo\u2014both in the U.S. and abroad\u2014remains pronounced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":322634,"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":[67543,65028,3028,1190,184,20138,66676,71654,71384,71653,62486,60192,65966,5857,71652,60272,28657,71238,67121,3613,60384],"class_list":["post-334116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-andrey-kryukov","tag-bob-corb","tag-collegiate-water-polo-association","tag-dante-dettamanti","tag-fina","tag-greg-boyer","tag-joan-bertocci","tag-joan-gould","tag-loren-bertocci","tag-marian-university","tag-mark-koganov","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-pete-snyder","tag-ratko-rudic","tag-ricardo-acevedo","tag-stanford-water-polo","tag-technical-water-polo-committee","tag-twpc","tag-uc-santa-barbara-water-polo","tag-usa-water-polo","tag-water-polo-planet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nOn The Record with Loren Bertocci; 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