Thursday, April 30, 1998
A shark in the water
Simmons attacks opportunity for third national title
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
Look out, get out of the pool!
It’s a shark.
No, it’s a piranha.
No, it’s Coralie Simmons!
How she loves to strike fear in the hearts of her opponents.
Widely regarded as one of the country’s best water polo players,
Simmons is a force to be reckoned with. Behind that dolphin smile
and laid-back "Hey, how’s it going?" lies a fierce competitor with
plenty of talent to fuel her desire to win.
Out of the pool, she’s as friendly as can be – laid back,
outgoing and jocular. It’s only Coralie, tame and relaxed.
In the pool, watch out. She takes charge. Her competitive fire
is tamed only by the cool water that envelopes her.
And she’s not afraid to say it.
"I hate losing," she frankly admitted. "With everything, I like
to win. Even when I was a kid I’d never let my brother beat me in
any game we played, even if he was younger than me."
So, you think women can’t play rough, physical sports?
Just watch her.
She swims with speed that defies all others. "Don’t let her have
the ball," is the other team’s motto, but this young lady is not
one to give them the satisfaction. Her response would be "Get out
of the way!"
Once she has the ball, ready to score, she emerges from the
water – easily up to her waist – like Neptune set to cast his
mighty trident upon the sea.
Then she makes the kill.
Such flair and showmanship – she never fails to win the crowd’s
roaring approval.
She handles the ball with such force and authority that boys
cringe in their seat just watching her take command of her
game.
Impressed? Intimidated? Maybe both?
In fact, Simmons rivaled and even shamed many boys in her high
school coed team. Lacking a separate girls’ team may have helped
because Simmons says she’s had to work harder to prove that she can
hack it with the guys.
However, she crushes their spirit as easily as she befriends
them.
"There’s always that one guy who feels a girl shouldn’t beat him
out," she said. "You just have to prove him wrong in the water.
She continued, "But I grew up with them, and they’re like my
brothers. So they’d get over it pretty quickly.
Simmons went on to the Senior National Team in her senior year
of high school. That, along with a recommendation from her old club
teammate, Nicolle Payne, who was a UCLA freshman at the time,
helped her a earn a spot on this collegiate team.
"I recruited Coralie mainly upon Nicolle’s recommendation, so I
didn’t really get to see her play in terms of scouting,"said head
coach Guy Baker. "She came in here her freshman year and put on a
show."
That she did. Her freshman year was a blast as UCLA won its
first national title. She also scored the most goals on the team
that season with 60 points.
She won more accolades the following year as the team won its
second national championship. Deja vu – she tied her season scoring
record with another 60 points.
Now, she’s looking to win her third national championship. She’s
already broken her own season-high scoring record with 65 points to
date, but who’s counting?
Simmons is a natural, but talent can only take one so far. Hard
work is what got her here, and hard work is what’s getting her to
the top.
"She’s got a lot of God-given talent, but her mentality is great
too," Baker said. "She brings it to practice every single day. She
keeps going and going.
"And basically," Baker continued, "when Coralie gets tired, the
team’s tired. She pushes herself to a point where she can’t go. I
think she’s still tapping into her potential limits."
Assistant coach Adam Krikorian added, "In a way I like to
compare her to Michael Jordan. What makes him great is his will to
win, his competitiveness. Coralie has that same kind of fire. You
can see when the game is close, she wants to take over and will her
team to win. That’s what makes her one of the best."
As one of the best, she’s also a starter for the National Team,
which is also headed by Baker. Now that women’s water polo is an
official Olympic sport, Simmons, along with the rest of the
National Team, has the Sydney Games in 2000 on her mind.
But the Olympics are a bit further down the line; she’s more
focused on three-peating the collegiate championship. The Bruins
have won it since Simmons was a freshman, and she’s not one to be
content with just two. She wants more.
"It’s a good thing to live by – always wanting to achieve the
best," she said.
Her approach is simple. She works hard with no nonsense, and she
loves what she’s doing. She’s a purist. Her enthusiasm for the game
is simple yet deeply sincere.
"I like seeing really good passes," she said. "It gives me the
chills. Even if I’m out on the bench, it’s the best when I see my
teammate getting a good counter-attack going and just making a
great play, especially without saying anything.
"We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t even have to talk in
the pool. We just have looks. It’s like having confidence in your
teammates, so you know they’ll be there to back you up."
For Simmons, playing water polo at UCLA gives her the best of
both worlds – being part of a closely knit team and, just as
importantly for her, winning.
"I love water polo because it’s such a great feeling to win with
a team. You shouldn’t dwell on the past too much, but it’s so good
to look back with someone else and say, ‘Yeah, that was a lot of
fun.’"
PATIL ARMENIAN
Coralie Simmons hopes to help the Bruins win their third
national title.