Stanford’s were-Wolf

Stanford’s were-Wolf

roams into Westwood

Poloist leads No. 1 Cardinal against No. 5 Bruin team

By Esther Hui

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Wolf Wigo just sounds dangerous.

The Stanford water poloist plays hard, and his aggressive
presence has been known to spark tempers in the pool. But most
athletes will say his intensity brings the level of play up in the
games, and the 6-foot-2 -inch senior would hardly have become
Stanford’s leading scorer for three of the past four years by
playing conservatively.

"He’s the guy that makes things happen," Stanford head coach
Dante Dettamanti said. "I can think of five games last year when he
scored the go-ahead or winning goal. When he needs to score he can
really score."

"In the pool I’m pretty aggressive," Wigo said. "I’m one of the
smaller guys on the team so I have to be intense. I have to be
really fired up."

What is amazing about Wigo is that he has built up such a
reputation even while suffering from a degenerative back disease
which has almost completely deteriorated the cartilage in between
two discs in his back. The twisting involved in shooting goals in
water polo is simply bone rubbing against bone for Wigo, an almost
constant pain since his sophomore year.

"The pain was so bad his sophomore year that we had to keep him
out of the water for two weeks prior to the NCAA championships,"
Dettamanti said. "That was the year we lost in sudden death
overtime against Cal in the championship game. Wolf had missed so
much training it was hard to play him in those games, though in
hindsight I probably should have. Even though he was out of shape
he was probably a better player than a lot of the guys we had in
there."

"I’ve thought about surgery but I don’t think it’s worth it,"
Wigo said. "The surgery would fuse three bones together, and there
would be no flexibility. The doctor said I’d never get back to the
same level I was before the surgery.

"My sophomore year there were some days I couldn’t walk because
my back hurt so much ­ I couldn’t even get out of bed. It’s
not nearly that bad yet this year, but I can feel the pain pretty
much every day."

UCLA (10-8 overall, 2-4 in MPSF) will face Wigo and the rest of
the Stanford Cardinal (7-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation) Saturday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. A win for
Stanford will secure its conference title and a No. 1 seeding for
the NCAA tournament. A win for the Bruins would guarantee a berth
to the NCAA tourney, something which is on the minds of all on the
team who experienced last year’s early elimination.

Changes in the starting lineup for the Bruins will be the
addition of freshman Luther Weidner at the two-meter position.
Weidner was a top player for the Bruins against Pepperdine and Air
Force, and Baker hopes that the rearrangement will help the team
overall.

"Luther’s been playing very well," UCLA head coach Guy Baker
said. "He gives a big physical set at the two meter position, and
he can establish the hole position for us at the beginning, and we
can save Mark (Sutter) for later on in the game. Hopefully it’s
going to make us a better team."

Sunday night the Bruins will travel to Lo Jolla to play UC San
Diego, but the game on everybody’s mind is UCLA’s matchup with
Stanford.