Freezing darkness, a small-fitting red with silver speedo, four years of aurora practices and a pool deck smelling like chlorine and wet concrete. Another morning of repetitive discipline, head first cold plunge. The water knows the swimmer better than anyone else.
That swimmer is Diego Serrano, a senior at Van Nuys High School. Six months ago, he was in the same kind of pool for different sports, playing water polo in the fall before entering to swim in the spring.
Serrano spent the fall playing water polo and the spring swimming. Most high school athletes who share a pool now pick one sport and stay with it. Dual-sport pool athletes have become less common in the United States since the 2000s, according to Swimming World Magazine, and Serrano’s last spring at Van Nuys shows what the older path still looks like.
Water polo is a contact sport. Seven players are in the water at once, with a ball, defenders, whistles and constant fighting for the position. Swimming is different. It is one athlete in one lane, racing the clock and the person beside him. The pool is the same, but the mission is not.
For Serrano, swimming came first in life, but water polo became the sport that stayed closest to him. He said he has been swimming since he was about 3 or 4-years-old, but he started water polo around 7-years-old.
“My first memory of water polo is the heat of the summer and the deep blue of the deep end,” Serrano said. “I loved the intensity of the workouts and the diverse skill sets it required and I instantly fell in love with it.”
His coaches have watched him carry that same commitment through both seasons.
Coach George Davancens, who coaches water polo and swim, said Serrano stood out early because of his work ethic and leadership.
“He was the youngest captain I’d ever had,” Davancens said. “I made him a captain when he was a sophomore.”
The pool looked different during water polo season. Instead of lane lines and quiet repetition, there were caps, whistles, passes and bodies moving against each other in the water. No more individual intensity but collaboration and competitive physical contact.
One game still follows Serrano, senior night. Van Nuys lost by one point after two overtimes, and Serrano said he still replays the finish in his head.
“I poured my heart out in that game, and it came down to one controversial point”, Serrano said. “I try to remember it as a sentimental moment with my family and brother who I was fortunate enough to play with, instead of focusing on the what-ifs of that night.”
Serrano’s environment during the two sports may be the same, but the game’s atmosphere is definitely different.
“Water polo is more intense and diverse, for sure,” Serrano said. “We do swim sets just like on swim teams, but we also work on shooting, endurance, elevation out of the water, grappling, team plays, positioning and passing.”
The path he took is getting narrower. Since 2000, no American athlete has reached the Olympics in one pool sport and also been a Division I All-American in the other, according to Swimming World Magazine.
Not every swimmer wants to cross into water polo. Devcanes said some swimmers avoid the sport because they worry it will affect their technique.
“A lot of swimmers don’t want to do water polo because they’re afraid they’ll mess up their stroke,” Devancens said. “It hasn’t ruined Diegos.”
After graduation, Serrano does not see himself fully leaving the pool. He said he wants to continue water polo and will do what he can to play in college, but school comes first.
“My education will always take priority,” Serrano said. “If it comes down to it, I am happy with keeping water polo as a hobby if engineering forces my hand.”
There are parts of the routine he will not miss. The early mornings, especially the 5 a.m. wakeups, are at the top of that list. But for now there is still water left in front of him, and a few more chances to push off that wall before Van Nuys becomes a stored memory.
