Starting goalie on the county’s No. 1 water polo team: This guy is big, strong, with a fingertip-to-fingertip reach exceeding his sprawling 6’4″ height.
Imagine confronting him at the Bishop’s goal, having to solve him to score. A tough assignment.
Modest, only responding in answer to an interviewer’s questions, George Hagestad allows as how his blocking must be pretty good. Prodded further, he says, “I’ve been told” his passing, as well, is “pretty good”–“pretty accurate, I’ve worked so long on it.”
In the cocoon of the Doug Peabody-led water polo program, which goes year-around at San Diego Shores, Hagestad, a young man in a big man’s 195-pound body, feels support and acceptance.
“Doug, really”-he calls his coach by his first name-“he’s, by far, the most influential person in my water polo career,” Hagestad asserts. “and one of the most influential people in my life.”
The tanned, beachy-looking 17-year-old junior calls his well-known coach a “leader, friend, and mentor.”
Besides helping him hone his skills in goal over the past several years to make him a top-flight player in the county, “There’s so many things he says that relate to more than water polo,” his tutee relates.
“He really steered me the right direction. Responsibility. Self-responsibility: taking ownership of things I’ve done wrong, and being humble for the things I’ve done right.”
Hagestad, the youngest of four siblings, the oldest of whom played golf at USC and recently qualified for the 2017 Masters tournament at Augusta, Georgia, sits with his guest in shade on benches just off the sunny grass area in the middle of the private school campus. It’s an idyllic setting to talk about the fun of competitive prep sports, but also about things that matter and people in our lives who accompany us there.
George, whose parents are John and Mary, has just experienced the departure of his close older brother, Richard, 19, moving out of the house to attend USC as well and play football there as a freshman. “For several weeks (after he left), I had a hard time,” confesses the student athlete. “For 17 years we did everything together.” His older siblings are eight and six years older, but with Richard, the bond is super close.
“The drives from home to school and the talks were always really special,” he shares. You can see and feel the warmth and closeness that are there. The two brothers still keep close contact via electronics, the one helping lead the CIF San Diego Section’s top polo team, the other at the bottom of the Trojan football heap trying to carve out a role for himself.
Thoughts of familial ties are sweet, of vacations spent at Hagestad’s cousin’s ranch in Baja, an hour from La Paz, on the coast. “It’s where a lot of my family memories are,” the youngest says. “It was just so fun.”
George also surfs, even with his bigger 6’4″ frame using a short board, but one a little bigger and heavier–“buoyant”–than the standard. The bigger size lends some lift to keep the board up while Hagestad is out in the water.
Water polo teams are renowned for spending early-morning workouts at 6 a.m. before school just doing swimming to build strength and endurance for the latter parts of games. There is an unspoken fraternity that erects around teammates to commit to the demanding level of physical work required for the long haul of individual games and the season.
In opposing a shooter, Hagestad, in goal, must tread water (there is no opportunity to push off the floor or the sides of the pool) and anticipate when the offensive player is going to make his attempt. Meanwhile, the shooter is also keeping afloat, treading, and trying to time his shot, depending on what he sees the goalie do.
What are you watching, as goalkeeper? “I’m looking at his eyes, his body,” says the veteran player. “Either he is going to shoot or pass.” This whole time, he has to conserve his energy and gather it to lunge upward if his opponent fires. Hagestad’s arms have to go out, extended, if needed. Or, in the case of a tricky skip shot, guard that the ball doesn’t bounce under his outstretched arm.
In a way, it’s a delicate dance between shooter and goalie. On the other hand, the attempted shot and opposing thrust to block it are instances of violence and power, tons of energy exerted.
In six hours, Hagestad will do this dance many times against Cathedral Catholic, another highly-ranked team. “It should be a tough game,” the junior says. “It’s at Cathedral, and it’s their Senior Night. The first time we played them, we beat them by one. Dennis Blyashov is a good player. I played with him last summer on Doug’s team.”
The fraternity includes players everyone is familiar with, from playing against but also from playing alongside on the same club team.
When his team is on defense, Hagestad is the quarterback who can see the whole offense in front of him. On offense, the goalie would seem to be out of the action, far away at the other end of the pool. But, not having to be alert to defend the goal at the moment, he can see things his teammates might not see: “I’m doing a lot of watching,” he says, “If I see somebody open and the (other) person doesn’t see them, I’ll tell them.” Is he known as a vocal goalie? Medium, he says.
In a final startling declaration, Hagestad says, “All the water polo and everything in my life goes back to my mom. She is pretty much the reason I’m in water polo and in school here. She has spent thousands of hours” helping him and supporting him.
What is her special gift? “She’s really good with people, and that’s a real big benefit to me.”