In addition to Firstie Mike Mulvey (in this article), Plebe Kyle Wertz is a water polo standout for the nationally ranked Water polo team.
Kyle's Dad, Mike, is a '77 Grad and Chapter member.
No regrets for Mulvey at Naval Academy Ex-Lancer player learns responsibilityBy Zach Jones
TODAY'S LOCAL NEWS
October 5, 2008
CARLSBAD – Michael Mulvey admits that it was hardly love at first sight. The Carlsbad High alum didn't want anything to do with the Naval Academy the first time he visited the Annapolis, Md., campus as a high school senior.
“I thought it was impressive, but I didn't have a good time,” he said. “When I first walked around, I thought, 'I definitely didn't want to come here.' ”
AdvertisementFour years later, the former standout for Carlsbad's 2005 CIF championship team is again the center of a successful water polo program, this time 3,000 miles from home with the Midshipmen. An All-America honorable mention with last year's NCAA semifinal team, Mulvey now finds himself the offensive catalyst for the No. 13 team in the country.
But a lot has changed since he hopped in the pool for his “Plebe” year. Back then, the Southern California native was dealing with the culture shock of military life and wondering if he'd made the right call in choosing the Academy's high academic standards and discipline over the high-powered West Coast programs that had courted his services out of high school.
“Especially the first year, it was pretty much all the time,” he said. “Except when I was playing water polo, I think.”
Mulvey says water polo was an “escape” from the day-to-day grind of academy life.
“When you come out, people are talking to you and they're nice,” he said. “And then all of a sudden somebody flips a switch and the next thing you know it's just people constantly yelling. That kind of shocked me, like, 'Whoa, here I am.' Especially freshman year, water polo was like the only thing I had that was my own.”
A lot has changed since Mulvey was a talented freshman trying to work his way up the Midshipmen's depth chart and an overwhelmed first-year student trying to survive the rigors of his academic load.
For one, he has learned the responsibility that comes with the 76 goals he amassed last season (the seventh-highest total in Navy history) and the 38 assists he tallied in 2006 (also seventh). With 17 more goals this season, Mulvey will move into the program's top 10 career goal-scorers.
“There's more of an expectation on me,” he said. “I have a bigger role than I did last year. Last year, I could maybe hide behind some guys, but this year I have to do it.”
After making the deepest postseason run in program history a year ago, Mulvey concedes that similar success will be difficult with a much younger team. But there are other joys besides an NCAA title.
“I like it more now, because this is my senior year,” he said, “so it's our team. We have to take a bigger role in teaching, and if things go bad, we get blamed.”
Mulvey has also felt his geographic allegiances change. In the world of collegiate water polo, the center of gravity is firmly on the West Coast; the top 12 teams in the country are in California.
Navy is the highest ranked team outside the state. It's that underdog status – so unfamiliar at Carlsbad – that he has embraced.
“I have a lot of friends on the West Coast, but usually when there's an East Coast team playing a West Coast team, I root for the East Coast team now,” he said. “No one expects us to do anything, so you want to see somebody do well.”
But it's not water polo or regional rivalry that Mulvey focuses on these days. It's the light at the end of his academy career, one that's finally visible after three long years.
“You work out so much, and you're so tired all the time, that being able to manage your time and working through the fatigue and your mind starting to wear down is the biggest challenge,” he said.
When he graduates in the spring, he will do so as an officer specializing in surface warfare. It's an occupation that has taken on new ramifications during the past decade.
“I've always known that this is what it was going to be like,” Mulvey said. “I've had a lot time to think about it, I guess, so it's not a huge shock.”
The career that almost didn't happen is winding to a close. It wasn't love at first sight, but after four years Mulvey and the Naval Academy have agreed to be friends.
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Zach Jones: (760) 752-6751; zach.jones@tlnews.net
