Thrown in the Deep End: Fordham Wat
Through inexperienc inexperience and a pandemic, Rams cont
By PATRICK MOQUIN Sports & Health Editor
The Fordham water polo team won three of four games at the Gary Troyer Tournament in California on Friday, Oct. 1, and Saturday, Oct. 2. The Rams, ranked 16th in the most recent Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) poll, proved superior against a gauntlet of unranked West Coast programs before losing 12-6 to #7 Long Beach State University in their final game of the weekend. A few months ago, even Water Polo Head Coach Brian Bacharach couldn’t have confidently predicted that the team could compete at this level. In fact, it would have been difficult for the coach to make any prediction at all: An unprecedented list of challenges lay ahead as he looked to carry on a tradition of immense success.
From his All-American playing days at the University of California, Berkeley, Bacharach always seemed to have a Midas touch as a leader. When the Bears won the NCAA Championship in 2006, he was one of the team’s captains. In his first season as an assistant coach at Fordham in 2013, the team went to the CWPA Championship after three years without qualifying. By 2017, the Rams were nationally ranked for the first time in more than three decades, a feat they repeated in 2019. But in May 2020, the heir apparent to longtime head coach-turned-assistant Bill Harris became the new leader of the program in a world of uncertainty — one that extended far beyond the Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center in the Bronx. For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic affected collegiate athletics mercilessly and indiscriminately, and the Fordham water polo team suffered accordingly. In a shortened 2021 spring season, the Rams had nine games scheduled but only played
New Leadership
one, a 17-11 victory over Iona College on Feb. 12. Bacharach was undefeated after one season as head coach, but the challenges ahead made future projections murky. “Expectations were mixed ... I knew that we had some talent coming in and I was excited about it,” Bacharach said. “I didn’t know if it was going to come to fruition as quickly as it has.” The first challenge was a common one to many teams taking a two-year break from competition, as a lack of returning talent resulted in a young, inexperienced roster. Gone were former captains Joseph Agabs, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’20, and Phillip Wang, GSBRH ’21. Statistical leaders like Jake Miller-Tolt and Tristen Knoflick, both Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’20, graduated as well. Going into the 2021 fall season, the team’s titans of yesteryear were replaced by relative unknowns — even to those who recruited them. Finding players for college water polo overseas is a widely accepted practice. Eight players on Fordham’s cur-
rent 22-man roster come from Europe, which means that extensive travel for coaches in the offseason is common. Evaluating talent in so many regions is usually difficult. During a pandemic, it’s practically impossible. In order to fill the massive hole left behind by many of the team’s graduating players, Bacharach had to recruit first-year students without traveling to watch them play due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Jacopo Parrella, GSBRH ’25, is from Naples, Italy. George Papanikolaou, GSBRH ’25, is from Athens, Greece. Lucas Nieto Jasny, FCRH ’25, is from Barcelona, Spain. All three played at the highest level in their home countries, but they were recruited to play for Fordham on the basis of film and highlight reels alone. Their respective impacts, along with those of four other first-year recruits, were literally unimaginable. “I had the best understanding of what we had coming in, but I don’t think there’s a coach in America right now who knows 100% what they’re bringing in,” Bacharach said.
“ When you’re a freshman, it’s an overwhelming experience, and it’s particularly overwhelming when you’re an international freshman. ”
Brian Bacharach, water polo head coach
Rocky Beginnings When games began on Sept. 2, Bacharach recognized that the team wasn’t completely ready to compete, as problems he anticipated before the season persisted. Older players were essentially two years out of practice. Outside of one game in February, the team had not played a full schedule since 2019. Meanwhile, younger players had to adjust to the speed and sophistication of college athletics. Even more issues plagued foreign-born players. In the pool, Bacharach said that players from overseas often find the American brand of the game less physical than in other parts of the world. New players to the stateside game had to learn the referees’ tendencies, which required playing time. In a more meaningful sense, many of these teenage student-athletes must attempt to compete in the midst of highly stressful moves to a new country. They are taking classes in what is often not their native language. The change in culture re-
Lucas Nieto Jasny, FCRH ’25
quires time to adjust and their families and friends are an ocean away. Bacharach described “lapses” in their play during practices and games, and it was impossible for the coach to find fault in their inattention. Sometimes, distractions are inevitable. “When you’re a freshman, it’s an overwhelming experience, and it’s particularly overwhelming when you’re an international freshman,” Bacharach said. “Everything is coming at you at once, and it can be a lot. There are times where you’re going to lose focus.” Despite all of these struggles to adjust early in the season, the team found success right away. In their second game on Sept. 4, the Rams defeated Harvard University, ranked 11th in the country at the time, in the Crimson’s first regular-season home loss since 2018. But by Sept. 12, the team had played seven games in nine days and compiled a meager 4-3 record.
COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS
In matchups against #14 California Baptist University and #12 Princeton University on the weekend of Sept. 11, Fordham lost 13-12 and 13-6, respectively. The Rams were nearly unranked on Sept. 15, falling from 16th to 20th in that week’s CWPA poll. In a sport where games are stacked so closely together, Bacharach acknowledged that teams rarely prepare for every opponent on the schedule beforehand. Instead, opponents learn about one another throughout the game and react accordingly in the time remaining. It’s as elegant as it is chaotic and involves rapid shifts in momentum, strings of goals and hectic scrambles for possession. Though the team showed flashes of potential early on, Bacharach said that players were failing to make the necessary adjustments against high-tier opponents. Issues beyond the pool weren’t helping. If not for a new wave of leadership, it’s likely that the team’s middling play would have continued.
Dimitris Koukias, FCRH ’22
Bailey O’Mara, GSBRH ’22
Upperclassm While many of the team’s older stars departed in the previous two years, a few remained for the 2021 season and immediately made themselves integral. As a sophomore in 2019, Bailey O’Mara, GSBRH ’22, was selected as an All-American goalkeeper and set the single season Fordham record for total saves at 351. His return to the pool for a full season in 2021 was a resumption of a stellar career. He is now a co-captain. Former All-American players Dimitris Koukias, FCRH ’22, and Jason Hiremath, FCRH ’23, were also returning to the team and were identified by Bacharach as part of the team’s core. “The captains and this older group
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Turning t At the Bison Invitational in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, Fordham faced off against the host, #15 Bucknell University, in its first game of the event. Despite entering as the underdog, the Rams busted the game wide open, taking an 11-4 lead in the third period on the way to a 13-9 victory. A pair of first-years shined in the decisive win, as Parrella and Papanikolaou scored seven goals combined. The victory was the beginning of a five-game winning streak for the Rams as they swept the Bison Invitational and defeated #20 United States Naval Academy the following weekend.
COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS
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O’Mara attempting a save at the
