Team USA contributor joins UCLA men’s water polo team
After experimenting with land sports as a child, freshman defender Chancellor Ramirez found his calling in water polo.
By Sari Zureiqat
Sept. 22, 2013 12:00 a.m.
He tried soccer when he was 7- or 8-years-old , but Chancellor Ramirez said that it just didn’t work out.
“It was just way too hot; I hate running. At halftime my dad would have to take water and dump it on my head to cool me off,” he said. “After one season of (American Youth Soccer Organization) I was done.”
He tried tennis, too, without much luck.
“(Tennis) was fun,” Ramirez said, laughing. “But the running back and forth – it just wasn’t my thing.”
And even at his first water polo practice, a 9-year-old Ramirez, then a swimmer, said he absolutely hated it.
“I (wanted to) quit,” he said. “My parents talked me into going for the rest of the week, and then after that I loved it. Didn’t miss a practice.”
Now a much more developed water polo player, the UCLA men’s water polo freshman defender rose to be a contributor on the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team – the group that eventually forms the Olympic team.
At the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Ramirez scored two goals for Team USA. He did this the summer after high school, before the start of his UCLA career.
Building up to this level, however, took a big commitment.
By age 13, Ramirez had made it to the Youth National Team, and later, the Junior National Team, competing around the world every summer.
While in high school, Ramirez practiced four to five nights a week with his club team during the off-season, and occasionally with the Junior National Team in preparation for important games, which took its toll.
Ramirez said finishing his school work was hard, and he was forced to take advantage of lunch breaks to finish what he needed to do.
“I could never really just hang out with friends a lot of weekends. Most of my friends would go do their own thing and I would be in Orange County somewhere, Inland Empire, just somewhere else,” Ramirez said. “It would be school and water polo, that’s about it. (But) I don’t have any regrets.”
Throughout junior high and high school, Ramirez “played up” in higher age groups on his club team, by his coach’s decision, in order to develop his skills.
“I had a tough time when I was younger,” Ramirez said. “There’d be games where both age groups would be within a couple miles of each other and I’d have to run back and forth between each pool after each game and that was pretty draining.”
His dedication even impressed his new Bruin teammates – UCLA freshman attacker Jack Grover, who competed with Ramirez for a c nine years in their club team, high school team and zone teams, stills remembers Ramirez’s devotion to water polo at a young age.
“I thought it was crazy how he’d always go and play up on the age level above us, and then he’d come, maybe play four games in one day when everybody else is playing two. And he’d still do really well,” Grover said.
“He had games where he’d score a ridiculous amount of goals, and it was legitimately because of him that we were still in the game.”
Beyond his sacrifice and self-proclaimed love of water polo, Ramirez attributed his success to his athletic goals, two of which – playing on the Senior National Team and playing at a top university – he can now check off his list.
And at a top university like UCLA, coach Adam Wright has both high expectations and commendations for the precocious player.
“He’s very strong, but he looks like an angel. Eventually he’ll be a leader and he’ll be a little bit more vocal,” Wright said. “(But) I’ve seen him in situations where somebody’s trying to incite him and he doesn’t break. That’s a great demeanor to have, especially in our sport.”
In preparing for the upcoming season, the 6-foot-2 “angel” thinks only of what he can do to benefit the team and check off another one of his goals: winning an NCAA championship.
“I don’t want to be a freshman who’s on the side,” Ramirez said. “I want to contribute right away.”
