Men's water polo set to make a splash

By Manuel Gamiz Jr., On-Line Forty-Niner

Thursday, September 10, 1998

The Long Beach State men's water polo team hopes to stir up some excitement as it kicks off a new season this weekend.

The team will include many familiar faces from last season's squad that won 12 games, the most by any 49er water polo team since 1991.

Head coach Ken Lindgren, in his 24th season at the helm, brings a 324-322-4 record, which ranks first on the Long Beach State win list. Coach Lindgren said he is optimistic about the team and believes this season can be special.

"I am excited about this team and what I think we can do this year," he said.

The team brings back 12 players from last season, including its starting goalie and three of the top four scorers from last season.

Last season, senior goalie Adam Carter played every minute of every game at goal for the 49ers and made 226 saves on the year.

"This season I feel Carter has a chance to be one of the best goalies in the country," Lindgren said. "He has talent, size, and is mentally tough and he thinks the game very well."

On offense, the 1997 team scored 221 goals, which is the most by any men's water polo team in the 1990s.

Top returnees on offense include seniors Jeff Coyler and Vince Trotter and sophomore Matt Sakatani. Last season, Coyler led the team with 51 points, Sakatani was third with 25 points and Trotter was fourth with 23 points.

"I expect we will have more of a balanced attack on offense this year," Lindgren said. "We have a little bit better shooters this season, as well as some real strong arms."

Lindgren, who earned master's and bachelor's degrees in mathematics from Long Beach State, said this season will be different because he feels he has solved one of the major problems from a year ago.

"One of the things that hurt us last season was that we were not a deep team," he said. "Too many guys had to play too many minutes and we were worn down late in games.

"I think depth is one area we have helped ourselves the most from last year," Lindgren said. "This year, we can field more than two quality teams for our practices and our players know that if they want to play in the games, they have to play hard all of the time in our practices and our games."

This season, Lindgren plans to spread minutes around to freshmen Tony Adair and Charles Horn and junior Corey Dolley.

"Those guys are the future of that position, but we expect big things from them now as well," he said.

The team plays Loyola Marymount University Sept. 12 at noon, in the campus pool.