Wright doing water polo the right way at CSM

Wright started CSM's women's water polo program last year and, after a miserable 2-13 inaugural 2003, has the Bulldogs in the thick of the Coast Conference title chase this season. CSM currently resides in second place after a first-place showdown with Foothill on Friday, a 10-4 Bulldogs' loss, dropping them into second place, which is still above expectations.

"We figured third place was a reasonable goal," Wright said. "We had Ohlone circled on our schedule, Ohlone was always in third place. We wanted to beat Chabot (which they have three times) and we wanted to beat Ohlone (two CSM wins).

"Everything is slowly progressing. When I first got here, I thought it would take four or five years (to be a perennial Northern California contender). Now I think it's more like three or four. I want to be a team in the NorCal regional (playoffs) every year and have a chance to go to (the) state (tournament)."

Wright and his wife recently purchased a house in La Honda. With a place to hang his hat, he is setting out to turn CSM women's water polo into a powerhouse. Wright's comments are not wishful thinking or hyperbole. He has a pedigree that is unsurpassed by few coaches - at any level. A Southern California native, he was an All-American player at Los Alamitos High School. He had scholarship offers to a few solid DI schools - UC Irvine and Long Beach State - but he set his sights even higher. He walked on to the UCLA team and was cut. He came out again the following season and stuck with the team and became a key member of the Bruins' back-to-back NCAA championship teams in 1995 and 1996.

On top of that, he has been coached by five current or former U.S. national team coaches and his brother was on the 2004 Olympic team in Athens. Wright grew up playing with or against just about every player on this year's Olympic squad.

"It's hard to beat my background," Wright said.

He is also adept at starting new programs. He formed a high girls' team "that is a top contender in Orange County."

"Community college is more of a challenge," Wright said. "You have to get more (out of the players) in a shorter amount of time."

Wright hopes his pedigree and passion for the game will lead more players up the hill to CSM instead of down Interstate 280 to Foothill College, the only school on the Peninsula that offered women's water polo until CSM started its program.

Wright lives and breathes the sport. When he's not coaching, he is officiating high school matches from San Jose to San Francisco. When he's not doing that, he is running club teams, holding clinics and doing everything he can to put CSM women's water polo on the map, regardless of the school's less-than-stellar facilities.

"San Mateo doesn't have top facilities, but I am the only full-time water polo coach in the conference. This is my life. I'll be here the next 30 years. I know I'm going to keep moving forward. Girls don't want to necessarily go to the place with the best facilities, they want the best coaches," Wright said. "There are a lot of people who, year after year, went to Foothill. Now, people are seeing that it wouldn't be a waste of time to come [to CSM]."

Despite Friday's loss to Foothill, the Bulldogs rebounded by winning twice on Saturday - a 7-6 win over Fresno and a 19-8 victory over De Anza. Short of winning the Coast Conference championship, Wright believes his team will come up just a bit short of making the Nor Cal playoffs due to a lack of quality wins. As a new program, it's tough for Wright to schedule teams strong enough to help the Bulldogs' playoff cause.

"A lot of colleges don't want to waste a date playing a new team," Wright said.

Basically it boils down to this: good teams don't want to play CSM because a win over the Bulldogs doesn't help them but a loss definitely hurts. If the Bulldogs continue to improve however, other schools will avoid them because they don't want a loss on their record.

"I bought a house in La Honda. I'm going to be here for 30 years," Wright said. "I don't like the DI system. There's job security at a community college."

If Wright lives up to his past, his job security at CSM may cause the rest of the Coast Conference and Northern California to feel less secure.

Nathan Mollat can be reached at e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 x102. What do you think of this column? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.