U.S. team selected

COLORADO SPRINGS - United States National Team Coach John Vargas,

who doubles as Corona del Mar High’s boys water polo coach, announced the

members of the team that will compete in the XI FINA Water Polo World Cup

Septe. 28-Oct. 3, in Sydney, Australia.

Among the 13-member team is Corona del Mar High product and Orange

Coast College water polo coach Chris Oeding, an Olympic Games veteran of

note, who has served as the team’s captain.

Also on the team is Long Beach Wilson High senior Tony Azevedo, whose

presence is remarkable in the sense that national water polo players are

almost always in the 22-30 year-old range.

The World Cup serves as a pre-Olympics test event, and includeS the

eight best teams in the world. Three Olympic bids will be awarded.

The only teams to have secured Olympic bids are the United States, by

virtue of its gold medal performance at the Pan Am Games in July, and the

host Australians. If the United States finishes in the top three, then

Cuba wiil receive an Olympic bid.

The United States will compete in an opening round bracket with

reigning Olympic and World Champion Spain, Australia and Russia, the

winners of the 1998 Goodwill Games and the 1999 UPS Cup at Newport Beach,

hosted by Corona del Mar High.

At the last World Cup in 1997 in Athens, the U.S. won the gold medal.

The men’s team which will compete at the FINA World Cuk:

Brent Albright (Lompoc); Gavin Arroyo (Orange); Tony Azevedo (Long

Beach); Ryan Bailey (Long Beach); Dan Hackett (Irvine); Chris Humbert

(Lodi); Kyle Kopp (San Bernardino); Chi Kredell (Seal Beach); Robert Lynn

(Long Beach); Sean Nolan (Palo Alto); Chris Oeding (Newport Beach); Brad

Schumacher (Bowie, Md.); Wolf Wigo (New York, NY).