Publication Date: Wednesday Oct 18, 2000

COLLEGE WATER POLO: The savior is sitting

Tony Azevedo has been called many things during his remarkable water polo career, among them the best young player in the world. By the time he turned 18, Azevedo already had received a wealth of proposals to play professionally in Europe. The package, with endorsements, would have been worth about $100,000 for six months.

Azevedo, however, said no thank you, deciding instead to concentrate on the 2000 Olympic Games and then attend Stanford.

In Sydney, Azevedo was among the USA scoring leaders while adding to his growing resume--he was named, along with teammate Wolf Wigo (a former Stanford All-American), to a 14-player All-World team selected from the Olympics.

"Tony is a remarkable young athlete," said Bruce Wigo, U.S. Water Polo Executive Director. "For an athlete his age to play the way he does, at the international level, is just remarkable. The only athlete I can compare him to at his age, in terms of fundamentals, focus and a mind for his game, is Tiger Woods."

Imagine then, having Tiger Woods on your golf roster but not playing. That's the situation Stanford head coach Dante Dettamanti is facing this season, now that Azevedo has decided to redshirt his freshman year.

"He would make a difference in our team," Dettamanti said before watching his squad fall to top-ranked UCLA, 8-7, in overtime Sunday in Stanford's new Avery Aquatic Center.

Azevedo was in attendance, but only as a spectator. You can say the savior was sitting it out. His career with the Cardinal won't officially begin until the fall of 2001. Bottom line, Azevedo just needed some time off.

"It was just totally about that I needed a break," he said Sunday. "I don't want to get burned out. I love the sport too much."

Azevedo hasn't had a real break from water polo since his freshman year of high school, when he took off for a month with his family and hung out with them in Brazil, where his father, Ricardo, hails from.

"That's about it," Tony said.

The other determining factor was the sixth-place finish by the USA men's water polo team at the Sydney Olympics, from which the top five teams qualified for the 2001 World Championships.

"We didn't qualify for worlds at the Olympics, so that means we're going to start early January training--double days--for our tournament in March."

Since Stanford's season could extend into early December, Azevedo realized he'd have little time to rest before rejoining the USA National Team.

"Two years I took time off to travel and train with these (USA National Team) guys," Azevedo said. "I need a break because after this, I'm going to go four straight years again until the next Olympics."

Azevedo said training for, and competing in, the Olympics took its toll.

"It takes so much out of you because not only every practice are you there physically, but you have to be there mentally. The Olympics are there and you're so nervous and everything's going on. It's tough."

Azevedo has been on campus for less than two weeks now, having missed about nine days of classes, and now finds himself falling victim to my-body-is-worn-out kind of illness.

In addition to those factors, Dettamanti said Azevedo hasn't had time to know his teammates or learn Stanford's system. A break definitely was in order.

"He's only 18, for pete's sake," Dettamanti said. "I've seen older guys come back from the Olympics and not be able to handle it."

UCLA's Sean Kern has made the transition from Olympics back to college, but he's a senior and knew this would be his last shot at winning second straight NCAA title. He scored two goals against Stanford on Sunday, including the eventual game-winner just 1:35 into the first overtime period. It was the Bruins' first lead of the game, a rematch of the 1999 NCAA championship match that UCLA won.

"We're so close right now," said Dettamanti, whose team grabbed leads of 3-0 and 4-1 before UCLA rallied. "We had them on the ropes, but we let them get back in the game."

Despite the nonconference setback, which dropped Stanford to an uncharacteristic 6-6, Dettamani was upbeat.

"This was our best game of the year," he said. "Hopefully, it will give us some confidence and help us build toward next year, when Tony joins the team. We should be pretty tough next year." 

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