Keeping the balance
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 24, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MARY CIECEK/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
Robin Beauregard (top) and senior Coralie
Simmons complement each other with their intensity and
quiet leadership.
By Emily Whichard
Daily Bruin Contributor
They are the ying and the yang of the women’s water polo
team. They balance the U.S. National Team membership with Bruin
pride, Olympic achievements with NCAA championship desire, and the
drive to be their best with compassion for their team members.
Sophomore Robin Beauregard and senior Coralie Simmons returned
to UCLA after two years of representing the United States. They
bring with them a world of experience and two shiny Olympic silver
medals.
In addition to their long list of accolades, both women have
provided invaluable leadership to the Bruin squad. The same water
polo experiences may have molded Beauregard and Simmons as players,
but they take on very different roles as leaders for UCLA’s
team.
Head Coach Adam Krikorian views their roles as the perfect
balance.
“Their main connection is their value as a pair,” he
said. “Robin is a quiet leader with a unique way of reading
her teammate’s needs. Coralie’s intensity for the sport
translates into a consistent work ethic day in and day out. I tell
the team to learn from her approach to practice.”
Beauregard takes her responsibility for the team’s
emotional state seriously.
“Other girls will inevitably be looking to you based on
experience,” she said. “I try to get them all to relax
a little in the high-stress big games. If it’s not fun, then
why are we playing?”
Freshman teammate Thalia Munro looks to Beauregard for support
and leadership.
“She’s so respected on the team for the quiet way
she paves the way for you to follow her,” Munro said.
“She can say three words and change your whole
outlook.”
Munro recalled a moment after a discouraging loss to No. 1
Stanford when Beauregard’s voice of reason helped her cope
with the disappointment.
“She told me to just let it go,” Munro recalled.
“She said, “˜It’s just a game and sometimes the
ball just doesn’t skip your way.'”
Krikorian appreciates Beauregard’s attention to her
teammates’ needs.
“She would be a great coach,” he said. “Every
coach wants to have the ability to read the players and the team as
well as she does. I rely on her a lot.”
It will be a while before Beauregard considers a transition to a
deckside role in the water polo world. Despite looming elbow
surgery in the next few months, she plans to play on the national
team in Japan after leading the Bruins in their pursuit of the NCAA
title in the coming month.
“If I’m still enjoying myself, I plan to play as
long as my body will let me,” she said.
That’s good news for the Bruins. Beauregard took on a
double major in psychobiology and physiological science so that she
could continue her collegiate career. She still has two years of
NCAA eligibility ahead of her.
The question of Beauregard’s body cooperating with her is
a serious one. She has already gone through knee surgery, in
addition to sustaining her chronic elbow injury.
“In games I don’t feel pain,” she said.
“As long as it’s fun I’ll keep
playing.”
Simmons views the injury-laden Beauregard as an inspiration.
“Looking at her gives me strength to play through,”
Simmons said. “It’s easy to suck it up when I think
about how much harder it could be with injuries like hers.
She’s so tough.”
With or without injuries, Simmons has plenty of toughness of her
own. She is notorious for a stoic work ethic that keeps her
teammates motivated.
Her teammates insist that watching Simmons practice is enough to
convince anyone why she is one of the best players in the world.
According to them, she gives 110 percent in every workout.
Munro tries to mirror her own play after Simmons’
example.
“She is the most intense player I have ever played with.
She demands a lot from herself and her teammates,” Munro
said.
Krikorian appreciates the standard to which Simmons holds her
teammates.
“If you’re not working hard enough, she’s been
known to give people a hard time in practice,” he said.
“With her work ethic and knowledge of what it takes to be the
best, she’s got every right to do it.”
Simmons is aware of what it will take for UCLA to take home the
NCAA title.
“The teams we’re competing against have great
leaders of their own. I try to take it to that level in practice.
We have what it takes to win the championship and we just
can’t let down,” she said.
Simmons’ intensity for the sport won’t fade anytime
soon. She plans to return to the national team after graduating in
June and continue her water polo career in Japan.
But right now international prospects are taking a back seat to
her desire to bring home the first-ever NCAA title for
women’s water polo.
Beauregard says she will look to her USA and Bruin teammate
Simmons to help her lead the team.
“You really expect more from yourself because
there’s someone out there keeping you accountable. When
it’s crunch time in big games we look to each other,”
Beauregard said.
Simmons and Beauregard will continue to look to each other in
the years to come, whether their colors are blue and gold or red,
white and blue. Both plan to pursue Olympic gold in Athens in
2004.
But in the meantime, they will continue to maintain the Bruin
balance.
