Rich Guerra and Dave Fasi

Though they're co-captains of the Harvard water polo team in the same season. Rich Guerra and Dave Fasi are products of two different eras in the team's history.

As a senior, Guerra is one of two players left who can remember the 1979 season, the last year of the club-sport status. He has no troubles describing the state of affairs that year: "Sad."

The squad lacked experienced players, and Coach Steve Pike, now in his fourth year at Harvard, was just settling in. "I remember the first time I played against MIT--22-2. It was pathetic," says Guerra.

"It was so relaxed before. People didn't work hard like they do for a varsity sport. When it's varsity, you start treating it like a real team--with regular practices and team discipline."

When Fasi arrived at Blodgett Pool in the fall of 1980, the team was starting to change. Since then, he's noticed the differences between those players on the club team and those who came later. "We have a lot better relationship with the coach now. Last year's seniors all remembered what it was like when it was really informal and relaxed. Steve's been trying to make things stricter, and he couldn't do that with them."

Today's team is almost totally a product of the squad's varsity era. Among the starters. Guerra is the only survivor from the '79 freshman class.

Watching the pair during a game, there's not much to distinguish them by. Both are typical Crimson starters--under six feet tall and only a little more than 150 lbs., darting past bigger opponents in a game in which sheer size and strength count for a lot. Both have been instrumental in Harvard's rise to the second spot in New England, behind archrival Brown.

Foreign Policy

Adept at playing the crucial "hole" position in front of the opposition's goal, Fasi usually leads the team in scoring. Guerra tends to play on the offense's perimeter at left wing.

Both are very typical of Eastern collegiate water polo stars in that they made transcontinental trips to come here. Guerra hails from the hotbed of water polo talent, Southern California, where there are four separate divisions for high school competition.

"It's all that swimming--you know, sun and fun and all that stuff. Almost every school has a pool and a team," he explains.

Fasi comes from another sun-and-fun spot. Honolulu, where his father was mayor for 12 years. (He finished second in a gubernatorial race this fall.) Actually, there are only four high school squads there: the big polo action is sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union, which stages the annual Hawaiian Invitational, involving 50 to 60 teams. Fasi was named an All-American while playing for the regional AAU squad in his junior year.

Interestingly, neither Guerra nor even Fasi chose to come to Cambridge thinking they would play polo here. Guerra says he didn't even know of the club team's existence when he was applying. And Fasi remembers that "out of six schools I applied to. Harvard was the only one that didn't recruit me for water polo." He wasn't planning to play here until he heard in May 1980 of the switch to varsity status.

Get Serious

In the past couple of years, the squad has changed from a bunch of swimmers having fun practicing polo together to something of a truly coherent team. Even so, the attitude is still loose enough that the captain's role is more that of all-purpose friend rather than somber team leader.

Guerra complains jokingly of the teasing he received for being a little overweight in September. His most popular nickname was "Michelin Man."

If there is any difference in their roles, Coach Pike pinpoints it. "Dave is the leader in the pool"--something never more clear than in a pair of games versus MIT earlier this month. In the first, Fasi's absence due to an injury was a big factor in MIT's 11-7 upset win. In the rematch, he was an offensive catalyst in a 25-14 Harvard rout. In contrast, according to Pike. Guerra is the one on the deck who keeps everyone loose before practice--as in a pre-game warmup when he helped the team get psyched for a game with Notre Dame by leading a rendition of the Irish fight song. (Harvard won, 21-9.)

Fit S

Fasi, as an advance standing senior, isn't yet sure whether he'll be back for a fourth year, though he's strongly tempted to stay at least one semester next year--especially if it's a strong recruiting year--to see how far the team can go. He'll finish out this season at least, as Guerra will finish his Harvard polo career, when the aquamen face Yale Friday night at Blodgett.

With the Crimson finishing fifth at the Easterns this past weekend, and Yale as a tallen power in New England, a win shouldn't be too big a problem. The big challenge will be to break the pitiful Piodgett season attendance record of 40