Monday, December 1, 1997
Alas, playoff hopes sunk
M. WATERPOLO: UCLA prepares for next year with stars Kern, Wright
By Arin Aboulian
Daily Bruin Contributor
The men's water polo team finished its season last weekend at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship tournament and, with an early loss to USC, the chances of getting an at-large bid from the NCAA are zero to none.
In their second game against the California State University, Long Beach, the Bruins were victorious with a score of 10-5, but in the last game of the weekend against UC Irvine, the Bruins were defeated, 12-7.
Against USC, the Bruins showed great heart and character to come back from an 8-5 deficit, cutting it down to 8-7, but time once again ran out on them.
In the second game, the Bruins dominated from start to finish, but in the third game against UCI, the Bruins lost numerous chances to score and were put away by the Anteaters in the fourth quarter.
Yet despite the earliest exit in three years, there is a legacy of excellence developing in the men's water polo program under the guidance of head coach Guy Baker.
With two championships in 1995 and 1996 along with a great freshman class this season, the Bruins will be back on top in very little time.
Assistant coach Adam Krikorian said, "The freshmen are really talented, and they have a bright future ahead of them."
The freshman leading the pack is the leading scorer on the team, Sean Kern. Usually a 6-foot-6 guy on campus is assumed to be a football or basketball player, unless you pause to think, "Why in the world is he wearing a Hawaiian shirt?"
That person you passed by is neither a basketball nor a football player, but one of the best athletes at UCLA.
In his first season as a Bruin, Kern has emerged as a dominating offensive weapon.
Kern and fellow freshman Adam Wright are the leading scorers of the sixth-ranked team (13-12 overall, 5-6 MPSF). They anchor the Bruin offense. While Kern plays in the trenches and sets the hole at the 2-meter line, Wright takes care of play-making duties at point position.
Although these players both know how to find the back of the goal, they have taken different paths to reach success at UCLA.
Kern was born and grew up in Honolulu and attended Punahou High School there. Among his various awards, he is a three-time Interscholastic League of Honolulu Player of the Year.
He entered UCLA as the number-one overall recruit in the nation, according to various sources, and was expected to make an immediate impact, but he surpassed expectations by leading the two-time defending national champions in scoring.
Kern said regarding his entrance to UCLA: "I came in not really knowing what type of contribution I would make, but I talked to assistant coach (Krikorian) during orientation and he told me to be ready to play." Krikorian added, "We wanted him to play, but we had no idea he'd make that type of an impact."
Eager to start playing, he moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles a month early, and began three-times-a-day workouts in late August.
The move from Hawaii to Los Angeles was not an easy transition for Kern. He only knew fellow Hawaiian Eric Helfer, and his late-August move to Los Angeles meant there were not many other freshmen on campus to meet.
But Kern credits his teammates for helping him adjust to life in Los Angeles.
"The whole team came down to Hawaii in the middle of August for a tournament. I met many of the players, and we had a lot of dinners together. That helped a lot."
Kern has been maturing during every season game, and as he grows more and more comfortable with the team, he becomes a bigger threat to the opposing teams.
In his short career at UCLA, Kern has established himself as the premier scorer for the Bruins and hopes to lead his team to various honors and awards in the future, namely the NCAA Championship.
Kern's fellow freshman, Wright, has also established himself as a play-maker and an essential part of the water polo team. Wright is third in scoring and second in assists (tied with seniors Brett Stern and Steve Covec with 10), and is in the top five of almost all categories on the team.
Wright has shown himself to be an extremely clever and tricky player with numerous tricks up his sleeve.
"Adam is a very crafty and intelligent player, and he leads the offense and the defense because of his position despite being a freshman," Krikorian said.
Originally from Orange County, Wright came to UCLA when his older brother Randy Wright was a senior here last year. The transition from high school to college was much easier for Wright than Kern.
Because he is from Southern California, he had played many of the players in tournaments before. High school teammates Matt Armato and Micah Miller were already at UCLA.
After playing two games at the beginning of the 1996 season, he red-shirted last year and saved an extra year of eligibility.
"We had a lot of seniors last year, so we decided to save a year of eligibility for Adam," said Krikorian.
Like his teammate Kern, Wright also won numerous awards including 1995 California Interscholastic Federation Player of the Year. He was also a member of the U.S. Junior National Team, along with five other Bruin teammates, to whom he credits a lot of his maturing. "I learned a lot from the National Team experience because we lost so many games in Europe," said Wright.
Kern and Wright have turned into a potent force on the offense and are leading the Bruins with 34 and 27 goals respectively. Wright is also responsible for distributing the ball, and he is one of the leaders of the team with 10 assists.
Freshman Andy Baily has been a solid starter, and Blake Wellen has also emerged late in the season as a great 2-meter defender. Red-shirt freshman David Parker has received a lot of minutes as a 2-meter attacker.
The team's future looks great with a freshman class who have already made major impacts on the team this season, and will have great success in the future.GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Freshman Sean Kern passes in a season game against Stanford.