We’ll spare you the trip to Google, as we cue the addicting “Jeopardy” theme now running through your head and give you the answer to the question right here. You won’t even need the 30 seconds contestants in the game-show crucible get for Final Jeopardy.
“What was Cal State Fullerton 10, Pomona-Pitzer 8?” And with that, you know the question to the answer: “This represents Cal State Fullerton’s first men’s water polo victory in nearly 30 years.”
And while Kyle Witt knew the Titans would eventually break through — even with an opening weekend schedule featuring the likes of No. 1-ranked and two-time defending national champion Cal, No. 3 UCLA and No. 20 Navy — he lost exactly zero sleep and exerted exactly zero beads of sweat pondering when that would happen.
It would happen. And, more importantly, it would happen on Witt’s terms.
This is what keeps Witt traipsing merrily along on his endless conga line of chaos building the Titans’ men’s and women’s water polo teams from scratch. He did it in the spring with the women’s team, creating a team out of thin air that went a respectable 11-20.
And now, it’s the men’s turn. Witt spent more than a year recruiting the 21 players making up this year’s first Titans’ team since 1985. He scoured the state’s community college rosters, using the entire state as his base. That meant going north to find players at West Valley College in Saratoga and Modesto Junior College, then going south, where Witt uncovered players from Riverside City College, Saddleback College, Golden West College, Mt. San Antonio College and Rio Hondo College, among others.
Of the Titans’ initial 21 players, 16 came from the JC ranks. This is intentional on several fronts that, on the surface, gives Witt those pesky unintended consequences regarding Orange County’s reputation as a water polo mecca. While it’s true that Division I water polo players grow on OC palm trees, it’s also true that their…
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