Coach Takes Swim During Water Polo Game

Coaching a sport is very rewarding in many ways. You are able to see young athletes develop their skills. You are making a difference by being a good role model. And sometimes you get a great story out of a coaching experience. I know this firsthand, because I am a coach and I have a great story.

A couple years back, I was the assistant coach for a high school girls' water polo team. For those unfamiliar with the sport, water polo is played in a pool and is, in some regards, kind of like basketball mixed with soccer, but in water. There are two goals, each defended by a goalie, and the object of the game is to throw (shoot) the ball into the other team's goal. The coaches and bench players sit on the benches, situated at two corners on opposite ends, while the game is in session and the referees walk along the side of the pool to make their calls.

Our team was participating in a tournament and one of the games was particularly close. We would score, and then the other team would. They would score, and then we would. The game was pretty much going back and forth like that.

Now, typically the "benches" are actually benches. For this tournament, however, the host school had lawn chairs for the benches. I don't mean the kind that reclines, but rather white ones which were actually a tad flimsy. So the coaches and the girls who were not currently in the game were sitting in these lawn chairs on the deck.

Our head coach had the seat furthest to the left, which was closest to the pool, for the best possible viewing angle. He was, after all, the head coach and needed to stay on top of the action in the pool. I was seated next to him and the five girls on the "bench" were all sitting to my right.

In the pool, the other team's goalie had blocked a shot and all the girls were swimming up the pool towards the side where we were seated.

Out of the corner of my eye, something seemed a little odd about the head coach. See, he was really into the game and leaning over the left side of his chair, intently watching the action in the pool. The thing was, though, he seemed to be leaning real far to the left.

Before anyone could know what happened, our head coach fell into the pool! And the chair went in with him!

There was a lane line between the field of play and out of bounds, so technically he wasn't interfering with the game. He was in the water, feet sticking out into the air and chair floating next to him. The girls on the bench were laughing hysterically. Parents in the stands had taken notice, too, and I saw that some of them were pointing to our coach in the water. The girls playing in the field hadn't noticed anything and the game was continuing as if nothing had happened.

As his assistant coach, I was stuck in a conundrum. Should I help him out of the pool? Should I call timeout? Should I just wait and see what happens? And why doesn't he just put his feet down?

Well, I knew he was an expert swimmer, since we were teammates on our college swim team, so I ruled out helping him out of the pool. Our goalie made a beautiful save and the best player on the team was streaking down the middle of the pool, wide open, so I ruled out calling a timeout (turned out to be a good decision since she scored the goal!).

Eventually, our coach put his legs down, and then pulled himself and the chair out of the pool. He tried his best to look nonchalant, but we all knew better. The girls on the bench continued to laugh about it. I asked him what the deal was with keeping his feet up in the air. He told me that he was trying to at least keep his shoes dry and was figuring out if there had been a way to get out of the pool without putting his feet into the water. Ultimately, he realized it was a lost cause.

At the quarter break, the girls who had been in the pool swam over to the side, with confused looks on their faces. "What happened to Coach?" The girls who had been on the bench were more than happy to update them about their coach's mid-game swim.