If you’re talking about men’s water polo and the city of Long Beach, you’re likely talking about Tony Azevedo, known to some water polo fans as “The Savior.”  It’s easy to see why: when he was at Stanford, he won the Peter J. Cutino award—collegiate water polo’s highest honor—four consecutive times.  Imagine a college football player winning the Heisman four years in a row.  This will be Azevedo’s third Olympics, and he was a standout player on both the 2000 and 2004 teams, making the Olympic All-World team, and leading his team in scoring at the 2004 games.

But before all of those honors and achievements, Azevedo was playing for Wilson High School, earning 3-time CIF Player of the Year honors under his father, Rick, who coached the team—Rick was also head coach at Long Beach State, and head coach of the National Team for a time (Tony’s sister, Cassie, was a standout player at Long Beach State and now plays professionally in Italy).  With strong finishes in recent international play, Azevedo is determined this year to take home a gold for the U.S.

He won’t be alone, of course, and won’t even be the only Long Beach player in China—not by a long shot.  Azevedo is by far the most famous player on the team from Long Beach, but he’ll be joined by Adam Wright, Matt Sagehorn, and Chay Lapin, all fellow alums of Wilson, as well as Ryan Bailey, who went to Millikan.  Robert Lynn, an assistant coach, was also an All-American water polo player at Wilson, and coached there for a time.  

The USA Men’s Water Polo team hasn’t medaled since 1988, and hasn’t won a gold since 1904, the first Olympics to hold a water polo competitions—check back later to see when the team is playing and when the games will be on, so you can root for them to bring the gold back to Long Beach—I mean, America.