Nov. 15, 2016 By Kyle UtsumiWhen women's water polo was added to the 2000 Olympic Games, team roster sizes were set at 11 for competition in Sydney. But for Olympic qualifications, rosters were at 13, so teams that qualified knew two players had to be cut. Below is an excerpt from Kyle Utsumi's new book, Sydney's Silver Lining, which is available at sydneyssilverlining.com or on Amazon. The Olympic roster size had no impact on the team before Palermo -- at that point, they weren't going to Sydney. Their single goal was to qualify, a feat that required the faith and teamwork of all thirteen players who made that team.
"I didn't even think about it; none of us did -- until we qualified," (Courtney) Johnson said.
The reality of the situation brought new nerves. Would the Olympic roster include one or two goalkeepers? What positions would be valued most? What two players are not going to make this team?
"We didn't talk about it as a team, but now it was definitely on everybody's mind," Johnson said. "At practices, it was easy to overthink everything. If you had a bad practice that was stressful because does that mean your spot is up for grabs? It was a lot of stress for sure when we knew it was only eleven."
The fight to get women's water polo added to the Olympic program hinged on gender equity -- yet when the event was added to the Sydney Games, the terms were far from equitable. At twelve teams of thirteen players, the men's tournament included 156 participants, compared to the sixty-six slated for the women's competition.
Shortly after qualifying in Palermo, Guy Baker met with Chris Duplanty and Michelle Pickering to discuss the unthinkable but inevitable -- cutting two of the players who helped the United States earn an Olympic berth.
"We sat down, and we knew this is a huge deal," Baker recalled.
When the team began training after Palermo, Baker enjoyed the process, engaged by the next challenge of preparing for the Olympics. But the eventual trimming of the roster lurked in the background. "With the team, I'd be talking about what we're going to do as far as schedule, training, everything's planned and organized, but the one thing I didn't talk to the team about is we're going to go from thirteen to eleven. It's the elephant in the room, because everybody knows we're going to have to get down to eleven players."
With the entire group slated to travel to Australia, tensions about the roster cuts hadn't erupted, but they surely bubbled just beneath the surface. On the Monday before departure, the team was playing soccer on the grass next to the pool at Los Al. As he often did, Baker joined in. Taking his turn to sub out, he reached the sideline just as Michelle Pickering emerged from her office, approaching him.
"Bruce is on the phone," she said. "He wants to talk to you."
Baker refused to leave the team to take the call from United States Water Polo Executive Director, Bruce Wigo.
"Tell Bruce to call back," he said tersely. "I'm in practice."
He quickly added, "I know it looks like soccer, but we're practicing."
"No, you need to talk to Bruce," Pickering calmly replied.
Baker was starting to get irritated. "I don't need to, I'm practicing. I don't talk during practice."
The action on the soccer field ceased as attention turned to the coach and manager, facing off, an argument apparently brewing.
Sensing the lost focus on the field, Baker ended the discussion. "I'm not coming in."
Pickering didn't budge. "You need to come talk to Bruce."
"Then she gave me a look like, You really have to talk to Bruce," Baker said. "I'm thinking, Oh, man. Well, first of all, it's not good. He knows what time we practice and wouldn't interrupt. Michelle's coming out in the middle of practice so, what the hell, this is not good."
Leaving the team on the field, Baker ducked into the office. He listened to Wigo say he had news.
"Then he says they've decided to have thirteen players per team in Sydney," Baker said, understanding Pickering's urgency in getting him to the phone. The two shared a laugh of both joy and relief.
Emerging from the office, Baker and Pickering found a minority of the team half-heartedly kicking the soccer ball around, the remainder lingering near the sideline.
"Michelle comes out and says I have to talk to Bruce, that's usually never a good thing, so everybody's wondering what's going on," Baker said. "I pulled everybody over and let them know that now it's going to be thirteen players. And they just go nuts."
For water polo players, who usually celebrate victories together in the pool, this was breaking new ground. The team went crazy, hugging and falling into a huge dogpile. Some ran around on the grass. Several cried.
"They just went absolutely, absolutely nuts," Baker repeated. "You think you know your team, like, Oh, maybe we don't need to address this, or we can talk about this later. They didn't show it, but it was definitely on everybody's mind at that point in time."
After enduring difficult times and overcoming the challenges of the past two years, things were coming together quickly for the United States team. Guy Baker pointed to a strengthened mentality across the boards, born from the entire qualification process.
"Coming back with all the coaches' experience and the team's experience, there was a really good connection between us all," he said. "We just had something tremendously special."
