Document text
Scoles' venture to Florida pays off Ashland High junior selected to U.S. Water Polo youth team By TIM TROWER ASHLAND - Brad Scoles crammed what seemed like a career's worth of water polo into one memorable weekend. And when the last splash settled and the final ripple smoothed, he knew it was worth it. Scoles, a junior at Ashland High, was selected to the U.S. Water Polo national youth B team following three days of intensive work last weekend in Plantation, Fla. It is the first step, he hopes, on the path to making the U.S. Olympic team. Mike Claus is the coach of the Zone 5, or Pacific Northwest, team that placed eighth out of 10 teams competing in Florida. He doesn't minimize the achievement. "We are looking for and trying to identify the top athletes in the nation," said the Bellevue, Wash., coach. "So his actions and his play spoke volumes. He demonstrated he has the potential to be in what we call our 'Olympic pipeline.'" In Florida, the top 14 players out of 150 were selected to the A team, the next 14 to the B team. As a member of the B team, Scoles will train in Southern California the first two weeks of July before competing in a three-day international tournament in Santa Barbara. The team will get together again in December for the NORAM Games in Calgary, Canada. The A team, meanwhile, will spend nearly a month playing in Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece. "I wasn't really expecting to make the national B team," said Scoles. "I was just wanting to make the trip to Florida just to go and see all the good players. I was really surprised that I made it. I'm really happy." Scoles, a veteran state-meet swimmer as well as a first-team all-tournament selection in state water polo, is blessed with an impressive combination of size and speed and has developed enough savvy over years of playing that, in the tryouts, he stood out. His odyssey actually began this past December. He tried out first for the Oregon team, then for the zone team. Scoles went to Florida May 23 to acclimate to the time change and get to know the pool, then went to work. On Saturday, he played in five games, which is four more than he usually plays in a day. On Sunday, his team played a game in the morning before the top 40 players were separated from the group and went through training and drills that afternoon, followed by three games at night. Three more hours of scrimmaging ensued Monday before the A and B teams were picked. Though two other Oregonians made the top 40, Scoles was the only one picked to one of the teams. "I was so tired," Scoles said Tuesday, after arriving home at 12:30 Monday night and going to school the next morning. "It was the most polo I've ever played in a weekend. I'm still tired." Scoles, who is 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, plays the 2-meter or set position, which is like the center in basketball. "Normally," said Claus, "he's the closest one to the goal, and the other team doesn't like that. He has to maintain his position and be alert to what's going on on offense." The set is the axis around which the action revolves. He gets the ball and either tries to set up one of his teammates for a score or tries to score himself. "The defense puts its biggest guy on him and the whole idea of the game is to deny the ball to the set, especially at the international level, which is what Brad is starting to be introduced to," said Claus. Some of the defenders he faced were in the 220-pound range. The set has to not only withstand the banging, said Claus, but he must keep his composure and keep the offense together. "Brad is smart enough and has the awareness of the game to do that," said the coach. Throw in his speed - he was fifth in the state 100 freestyle and 12th in the 200 - and you have a rare mix. In a dozen races at the tryouts, his times were among the best. Scoles has gotten little attention on the national level because this was the first time he's tried out for the U.S. program. That should change, particularly with college coaches, who have yet to bust down his door. He'd like to play at a school in California, the game's hotbed. "This is really good," said Scoles. "It should really help with everything. It gets your name out there so the coaches know who you are." Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.