If one takes a look at the map of NCAA men’s water polo teams, there is one squad that immediately stands out. Half the nation’s teams are clustered in California and the other half fits nicely between New York and Virginia with the lone exception being a school located in the heart of the Mountain West. The United States Air Force Academy calls Colorado Springs home and this exceptional institution of higher learning has routinely fielded a top twenty caliber water polo squad.
Jeff Heidmous returned to the helm of the Air Force Academy this past season and is the winningest coach in the program’s history. He led Air Force from 1986 through 1999 and posted a 232-202-1 career record. All seventeen of his teams finished the season nationally ranked in the top twenty with five of his teams finishing in the national top ten. Air Force won WWPA titles in 1990 and 1994 and led four teams to NCAAs. A two-time WWPA Coach of the Year, Heidmous was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2002. I caught up with Coach Heidmous to discuss his Falcons and below is our interview.
What does Air Force need to do to finish strong and secure a top four finish at WWPAs?
We are limping into the WWPA Tournament as we’ve lost six of our last seven games. We knew going into this season there would be some growing pains with a last minute coaching change, an uncertain goalkeeper situation and limited playing experience for much of the team; but were hopeful we could come together by November. Unfortunately that has not been the case so far. We have not consistently played well in any weekend or any game yet this year. At times this team looked like we could develop into a WWPA Final-Four finisher, but for every step forward there seemed to be a couple steps back. Based on our season record, I don’t see us being seeded any higher than sixth going into the tournament, so we’ll have to break seed on the first day to secure a top four finish in the tournament. We are all still pointing towards the WWPA Tournament, but we’ll need to come together quickly with only a week and a half to go.
Can you tell us a little bit about Bobby Geiger and what makes him the outstanding player that he is?
Bobby is very competitive and willing to train to win. Everyone loves to win, but few are truly willing to sacrifice and train to win. Because of his willingness to train, he is in great shape and he needs to be fit to be effective because he is at his best when he is the most tenacious and relentless player in the pool. He’ll make a great fighter pilot.
Cruz Smithson has done a tremendous job for your squad. What makes him the effective player that he is?
Cruz has great balance, leverage and instincts when playing with his back to the cage. He‘s good at getting position to draw ejections as well as finishing shots out of set. The bonus with Cruz is that he also shoots well from the perimeter, passes well in six v five offense, understands the nuances of the game well, and plays unselfishly.
Can you tell me a little bit about the challenge of recruiting players to a Service Academy?
Attending and graduating from Air Force is an awesome educational, personal growth, character development, and career opportunity; but it’s not for everyone. Air Force is one of the most highly selective colleges in America, so good grades and high test scores are required, but additionally cadets must possess the desire to serve their nation in the armed services. The challenge is in overcoming misperceptions about cadet life, communicating the long term benefits of graduating from Air Force, and sharing what a privilege it is to serve our nation. All cadets are normal 18-23 year old men and women, out of uniform they are like most college kids. The difference is they all share a common bond in wanting to do something positive with their lives and love their country enough to want to give back. Specific to water polo, the pool (pun intended) of water polo players who can play at the NCAA Top-Ten level is relatively small (especially compared to more widely played sports like basketball or baseball). That pool is then significantly trimmed by our academic standards. Of the pool of water polo players that can qualify academically, that pool is then trimmed further by the willingness to serve our country. In the end, the challenges become our greatest strengths. For those who do come, it is a tremendous experience to be surrounded by teammates who all want to do well in school and life, and want to give more to our country than they take. The burden on me is not the recruiting. My ultimate burden is in providing the players who do come to Air Force an NCAA experience worthy of their commitment and sacrifice to our nation.
I noted that Air Force will only play two home games this season. Can you tell us a little about that challenge of constantly playing on the road?
It is what it is. There are twenty plus teams on the east coast and twenty plus teams on the west coast. We are the only team geographically isolated. In a perfect world, we’d play half our games at home like most other programs. It is a competitive challenge to play 90-95% of our games every year not only at someone else’s pool, but having to fly to do it. Most programs fly once or twice a fall. We fly to compete seven times a fall. We try to space out the trips to avoid back-to-back weekends on a plane and we bring tutors on trips to help the cadets keep up with their studies and to administer exams so the players are not behind when they return. In the end, the players learn to love it; especially when we fly on military transport. This fall we will fly in a C-17 three times. Most the guys are looking to become pilots and even the ones who aren’t will end up supporting the Air Force’s flying mission. So they take turns sitting up with the pilots for take-offs, landings, occasionally air refueling, and in-and-out throughout the flight. Often enough the pilot is a former Air Force water polo player so they have a lot to talk about during the flight. It is clearly a competitive disadvantage to fly so often and play 95% of our games on the road, especially when our fourth or fifth game of a weekend is our opponents second or third, but through the 90’s we proved we could make it work. If teams were unwilling to travel to Air Force to play we took pride in beating Top-Ten teams at their place. The goal this next decade is to get back to the success we had in the 90’s.
As I sat down to pen the conclusion to this article on Veteran's Day, I could not help but think about the great commitment that each Air Force player will be undertaking upon graduation. Quite simply, it makes you want to root for this team and hope that Air Force can recapture their form of the 1990s and make an NCAA Tournament run. All of these kids are being prepared to provide the ultimate level of service to our country and that is something that we should all be eternally grateful for.
