Natalie Benson has created a sort of domino effect for the Huntington Beach Water Polo Club.
Or, for the more aquatically inclined, maybe it’s been more like a tidal wave.
The club has been on the upswing since Benson took the head coaching job a little more than a year ago. After all, who wouldn’t want to play for a two-time Olympic water polo player considered to be one of the best women’s players in the history of the sport?
Count me in, say players like Katie Rigler, a senior at Rosary High where Benson, 27, also played in high school.
“You feel like you’re playing for yourself but also for her, because she has so much to offer you, so much to teach you,” Rigler said. “She cares so much about not only us winning, but also bonding as a team. She really covers everything that makes a good team and she’s just always thinking of new ways to improve the team. It’s not just a job to her, it’s her passion. It’s contagious to be around.”
This summer, Rigler and the other 18-and-under Huntington Beach Water Polo Club girls’ players coached by Benson showed the water polo community what they could accomplish. They finished 12th at the Junior Olympics in San Jose, while the HBWPC 16-and-under girls took the bronze medal.
Considering the team had just been brought together in mid-April, it was quite an accomplishment. And the 18-and-under girls got another one over the weekend, when they took fourth place at the prestigious Speedo Top 40 tournament in Los Alamitos, featuring top club players from around the country.
“For how well they knew each other, I thought they performed very well [at JOs],” Benson said. “I think that was the first time that both a 16 and an 18-and-under girls team has qualified for JOs in the same year for our club. It is really gratifying. I have girls who want to play for me and want to work hard, and I want to make them successful. That’s really all a coach can ask for, somebody who’s dedicated and willing to put it all out there.
“It’s really neat for me to see them retaining the information I’m telling them, applying the information in games. I’m finding myself not having to remind them as much about the basic fundamentals. It’s gratifying for me, and I hope it’s really gratifying for them. I think our team can obviously do much better than we did this last summer [at JOs].”
