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With the departure of six starting seniors and an injured starter, men’s water polo coach A

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The defense of the men’s water polo national championship begins now.

Sort of.

After the euphoria that comes with a championship, a coach will usually tell his players something to the effect of, next year, we start at square one. For the Bruins this year, that is a more literal warning than usual. With the departure of six starting seniors and an injury to Michael March, another starter, there is little resemblance between this year and last year for the Bruins.

“Anytime you lose your starting seven, you can’t expect it not to affect the team,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “We hope it won’t affect us too much.

“We’ll certainly lack their experience and leadership.”

And individual talent. Last year’s team is one Krikorian lists as one of his greatest, not in the least because of star player Brett Ormsby. The talent and senior leadership of Ormsby was an integral part of the Bruins’ success last year, in the way he took over at crucial points in games. This year’s team lacks that star quality, perhaps because as Krikorian said, with only two seniors, the rest of the team has not had a chance to develop physically and mentally yet.

“In this sport, more than any other, you improve a great deal from your freshman to senior years,” Krikorian said. “A lot of these young guys, their bodies aren’t mature yet.”

But that is not to say this is a transitional year. The team retains two seniors from last year who played significant minutes in David Pietsch and John Blanchette, who suffered a concussion after 12 games last year and was out for the season. Perhaps more importantly, the team still retains the scary depth that made it so hard to play against last year.

“This is a very deep group,” Krikorian said. “Teams are going to have a hard time preparing for us. This year’s team can be just as deep as last year’s. We’re going to have 14 or 15 guys getting significant playing time, not including goalies.”

And the goal, so ably manned by Joe Axelrad a year ago, is up for grabs. The competition for the starting job is between redshirt junior Will Didinger, redshirt sophomore Matt Kellogg and freshman Chay Lapin, though Kellogg recently injured his leg and will be held out of practice for a few days.

“The race is still wide open,” Krikorian said. “Chay is doing really well and we expect him to fully contribute this season.”

The other defensive positions, however, are a different story.

Senior center defender Michael March, who was an important part of the team last year, injured his back in the off-season and will miss the entire season because of back surgery. His loss will be a huge one for a team in need of experience.

“He was having a great off-season with the national team,” Krikorian said. “He’s a big, strong guy. We’re going to miss his defense and his lefty shot. We hope Logan Powell and Pat Morrison can help take his place.”

March’s injury puts a blow to the elevated expectations the Bruins had this year. But because of the players missing from a year ago, this year’s Bruins feel less pressure on themselves than a usual team defending a national title would.

“We’re not defending anything,” Krikorian said. “This is an entirely new year. There is no added pressure. In fact, there is less pressure. The first championship for a group is always the hardest. After that, there is less pressure, but at the same time, you don’t want to fall into complacency.”

The leadership of Pietsch and Blanchette will be key for the team to avoid that complacency. With the general youthfulness and inexperience of this team, the two seniors will need to exercise all of the nuances of leadership learned from the seniors a year before in order to end this season the way they ended the last.

“Personally, my goal is to take a leadership role,” Blanchette said. “I’m looking to keep guys motivated.

“The team’s a little bit different from last year, and we need to keep everybody focused.”

The goal for this season, as Blanchette says, is to win a national championship. Though many would assume the goal is bit of a stretch, Krikorian agrees with Blanchette.

“We expect the same as last year,” said Krikorian. “We want to win again. Here at UCLA you always expect to win championships. The way I look at it, we have just as good a chance as any year. Many don’t see it that way, but I do.”

One reason for the decreased optimism around the UCLA program is the overall improvement of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. With UCLA’s loss of Ormsby, and Stanford’s loss of Olympian Tony Azevedo, the conference is losing its top two players, which opens up the upper echelon of the conference to more teams than usual.

“It’s looking like it’s going to be a very balanced year in the conference,” Krikorian said. “Stanford and USC are still very good. Cal is very talented and returning a good amount of players from last season. Pepperdine probably has the best player in the conference. There is certainly a bit more parity than there usually is.”

But, according to Krikorian, as important as winning is in the suddenly open race of the MPSF, developing players is a key for a team that sports only 10 upperclassmen.

“A lot of young guys will get playing time this year,” Krikorian said. “There’s no real rebuilding. In this sport there is just constant development of players. You can’t succumb to complacency.”

Pietsch, for one, expects to avoid any complacency.

Taking on the leadership mantle from his friends in last year’s graduating class, he plans to use the experiences of last year to help push this team to the championship.

“The hardest part is to get to the Final Four,” Pietsch said. “A national championship is the goal, but we have to get to the Final Four first. Losing those guys from last year is a huge loss, but this is a whole new team. We really grew together in the offseason.”

The team chemistry last year, which helped the Bruins in winning the championship last year, is flourishing in this year’s team as well.

“Our seniors really epitomize the team’s attitude and the program’s attitude,” Krikorian said. “It’s a very cohesive group we have here. With this team, there will be trouble only when guys start to think they’re superstars.”

And if there is one weakness on this team besides lack of experience, it is that. There is no superstar.

There will be no Ormsby to take the team upon his back. Even with the loss of Ormsby’s leadership, the Bruins still feel they are contenders for the national title.

“Championships are a product of good water polo,” Krikorian said. “This team has a lot of potential to be great. I’m excited about this season.”