John Dobrott, Millennium Hall of Fame

Even though John Dobrott was a fast swimmer and talented water polo

player with good size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds), he knew his place in the

pool for Coach Bill Barnett’s Newport Harbor High Sailors.

In the fall of 1975, the Tars featured one of the best water polo

teams in Orange County history, going 23-0 and capturing Sunset League

and CIF Southern Section 4-A titles.

Last year, the Los Angeles Times unveiled its Top 10 all-time sports

team, and Barnett’s Tars of ’75 were ranked fourth.

“That’s of all the teams in any sport,” said Dobrott, a senior on that

memorable squad, which defeated Sunny Hills in the CIF finals, 8-5, as

Barnett won his fourth of 10 Southern Section championships between 1967

and ’84.

“No one came close to us,” Dobrott said of the Sailors his senior

year, a team led by Frank Anderson and junior Kevin Robertson, a future

U.S. Olympian, while George Newland and Greg Fults were also standouts.

“Kevin Robertson was one of the greatest ever to play the game,” added

Dobrott, whose role was not to score at Newport Harbor, but then the next

year scored more goals as a freshman than he did as a high school senior,

this time playing NCAA Division I water polo for UC Santa Barbara, which

finished fourth at the NCAA Tournament in 1976.

Dobrott, who scored over 220 career goals for UC Santa Barbara, led

the Gauchos to the NCAA championship in 1979, when they beat UCLA in the

title game at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, at a time when the Gaucho

aquatics program consistently rivaled the best in the country.

A three-time NCAA All-American and full scholarship winner, Dobrott

was part of major championships his senior year in both high school and

college. “That was pretty cool,” said Dobrott, who played two more years

for Barnett on the U.S. junior national team.

“(Barnett) was pretty tough, but he was a great coach. It was like

playing for the Vince Lombardi of water polo coaches. It was good for me.

It was a good experience (playing for him).”

A two-sport athlete and Tar of the Year in 1976, Dobrott swam for

Coach Bill Jewell and earned prep All-American honors in the 200- and

500-yard freestyle events. His senior year in water polo, Dobrott was

voted second-team All-Sunset League, second-team All-CIF 4-A and

second-team All-American. (Sounds like Newport Harbor already met its

first-team quota during the all-league voting when Dobrott’s name came

up.)

In 1974, a team of mostly Tar juniors lost to Back Bay rival Corona

del Mar in the CIF 4-A championship game. “We were the team slated to

win, then we got beat,” Dobrott said. “It was a tough one, but we came

back the next year and made sure that didn’t happen again.”

Dobrott, who played football his freshman year, swam on Jewell’s

varsity in the spring of his freshman year, prompting Barnett to lure him

away from the gridiron. Dobrott’s older brother, Mike, also played water

polo at Newport Harbor.

“I took to (water polo) real quick,” he said. “I got really caught up

in it.”

Following an outstanding collegiate career, Dobrott played for the

winning U.S. national team at the World University Games, the last

international event before the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, which the U.S.

boycotted.

In the final of the World University Games, the U.S., needing to beat

Russia by at least two goals to secure gold because of a system based on

goals scored, defeated their Soviet rivals by two and captured the

tournament.

After college, Dobrott played one season in Australia, then competed

in two more tournaments in Europe.

Dobrott, a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating

the millennium, still swims at Newport Harbor five times a week in the

morning hours in a Masters Program. He lives in Newport Beach and works

for a commercial real estate development firm, an industry in which

Dobrott has served since graduated from UC Santa Barbara.

He’s married to Heidi and has a 15-year-old son, John, a sophomore at

Newport Harbor who plays on the junior varsity football team.