Always grinning, the true freshman, James Hartshorne, saves and smiles his way into starting goalie position

The pool cap hides the shiny blonde hair, but it’s still easy to spot James Hartshorne in the water. You just have to look for the smile.

In the physical sport of water polo, there isn’t much to be happy about out in the pool. But Hartshorne is serving saves with a smile for the UCLA men’s water polo team, and it’s all coming earlier than anyone could have expected.

Six games into his career, he has been nothing short of impressive in goal for the No. 3 Bruins. It took a doomsday scenario for Hartshorne to even suit up for coach Adam Wright, but the true freshman from Irvine keeps making big saves, and Wright is giving him the chance to keep going.

“He’s done a great job, he’s continued to improve, he’s continued to get more confidence,” said Wright, who had planned to redshirt Hartshorne this year.

“It’s his show to run with.”

The show continues this weekend with UCLA’s three games in two days, but it started a month ago. Hartshorne was thrust into the fire right away at the SoCal Tournament at Spieker Aquatics Center, but never looked green.

His third start came against defending champion and No. 1 USC on Oct. 3. The Trojans kept putting balls into the back of the net and the Bruins went down by three in the fourth quarter, but none of that daunted Hartshorne. He kept UCLA alive with multiple saves in the final period, all while flashing the trademark grin.

UCLA lost that one to USC, but in the team’s next game at Spieker, Hartshorne was front and center once again. He blocked two shots from No. 4 Stanford with less than 20 seconds to play, protecting UCLA’s one-goal lead and giving the Bruins the crucial Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win.

“We don’t call him Big Game James for nothing,” sophomore attacker Josh Samuels said after the win.

Not bad for a guy who was swimming around with redshirts to start the year.

“Being thrown in, it was kind of like, you see what they do, and you cover your area,” Hartshorne said. “I’m getting the system down better with more practices with the big guys.”

The bad news came quickly for UCLA. Just three weeks into the season, the two goalkeepers on the roster ““ redshirt sophomore Matt Rapacz and redshirt junior Andrew Mesesan ““ both went down with shoulder injuries.

Enter Hartshorne, who had to prove capable as a replacement despite being much smaller in stature than his peers. Take Rapacz, or Mesesan, or even Chay Lapin, the school’s all-time saves leader who graduated at the end of last year: All three stand tall at 6-feet-5-inches.

Hartshorne is listed at just 6-feet-1-inch and 170 pounds, which everybody on the pool deck seems to think is pretty generous. Redshirt junior attacker Cullen Hennessy jokingly puts him around 5-feet-8 and-a-half-inches, but knows he’s no joke in the cage.

“He cuts down angles well, and he’s fast,” Hennessy said. “It’s funny; many people, I think, don’t give him a lot of credit because of his size, but he’s done a hell of a job.”

“(Taller guys) have the reach, I just need to have the speed to compensate,” Hartshorne said.

The quickness clearly hasn’t been lost on the coaching staff, or on concerned alumni.

“He’s got a big heart,” said women’s water polo coach Brandon Brooks, the former U.S. national team goalkeeper who still finds time to work out with Wright’s team. “He’s just willing to throw himself in front of the ball.”

But don’t let the relentless optimism fool you. He’s been around Westwood for only a few months, but he carries himself with the poise of a seasoned veteran.

Wright had to up the training regimen after the loss to Cal on Oct. 9, and Hartshorne jumped on board with his coach. He wasn’t there when the Bruins lost in the national championship game last year, but he knows they have to do one better.

“I’ll be honest, it was a little lackadaisical,” he said of the training before the loss. “We were getting a little bit too comfortable with the daily schedule. Mixing it up, keeping us on our toes is good. It’s going to be worth it.”

Now, Hartshorne ““ who is averaging 9.50 saves per game, tops in the MPSF ““ is the anchor of a unit that wants to call itself the best defensive team in the country. No matter that he’s a true freshman, or that he was thought to be a temporary replacement.

The defense has his back, and any goalkeeper is only as good as the guys in front of him.

“No matter who’s in there, we still feel confident in our defense and our chances to win,” Hennessy said.

There are going to be balls that get past Hartshorne now and then. But he calmly takes responsibility for that with his “that one’s gone, get the next one” mantra. It’s going to help as UCLA continues its grueling MPSF season.

“I keep getting starts, so I’m just going to keep rolling with it,” Hartshorne said.

He’ll probably have more reasons to smile, too.