Coast-to-coast

If there was such as thing as a free agent in water polo, Paige Hacker would be it.

The Desert Vista High School sophomore had been a competitive swimmer until she discovered water polo during a training break two years ago.

Now she can’t get enough of it.

She has been playing with the Sun Devil Water Polo Club at Arizona State University for the past two years and when an opportunity to play in the Water Polo Junior Olympics last month in California she went looking for a team. But Arizona doesn’t have a team of that caliber in her age group.

She thought she had a team lined up based in Las Vegas, but when that club failed to field enough players to fill the roster she continued her search.

Eventually she landed a spot, but it was with the Miami Riptide out of Florida.

“I had asked my coach (Todd Clapper) to find me a team that needed a player,” Hacker explained. “He knew a coach in Miami.”

She was able to hook up with the Riptide for five days of practice and scrimmages in San Jose, Calif., instead of making the cross country flight to Florida.

“They put me on their roster and I had enough to time get to know the girls,” she said. “I learned by watching them and getting in the pool with some really good players.”

The Riptide placed ninth among 48 teams in the under-16 division and this February she will rejoin them in Miami for an international tournament against teams from Russia, Israel, Hungry and other clubs from around the United States.

“I know now I can hold my own with them and getting a chance to play teams from Russia and places like that just blows my mind,” Hacker said.

In addition to swimming competitively Hacker also played volleyball and basketball before her baptism into water polo at ASU.

“We had a about a 30 minute break during our training for swimming and got a chance to try water polo,” she said. “I knew right then that I had to do this.”

Her years of swimming competitively with the Sun Devils Aquatics team at ASU helped give her the endurance and strength for water polo.

“It’s a lot harder to start out if you aren’t already a swimmer,” she said. “Since I was already a swimmer I could concentrate on things like going to the ball, throwing it and things like that.”

Hacker helped to put together a co-educational high school league team made up of Desert Vista students, many of whom had never played the sport, last spring.

“We didn’t know about the league until about two weeks before it started,” she explained. “This year we’ll have more time to be organized and have more practices.”

Eventually she wants to establish water polo as a recognized high school sport.

“I really want to get more high school teams involved,’ she added. “In Miami almost every school has a water polo team, and I’d like for that to happen here.”

An introduction to the sport is available from 9 to 11:45 a.m. Saturday at the ASU Mona Plummer Sports Complex, 601 S. College.

The free clinic, hosted by ASU assistant women’s coach Robbie Bova, is geared for 10 to 18-year-olds, will be an orientation and on the skills needed to play the sport. Information is available through the ASU Water Polo web site at sundevilwaterpolo.org or Bova at Robbie.Bova@ASU.com

Hacker thinks other teenagers will get hooked too.

“I knew the first time I played water polo I had found my perfect sport,” she added.

Larry Ward can be reached at (480) 898-7915 or at lward@aztrib.com.