Sunday, September 27, 2026
And now for something totally different . . .
While browsing the internet this past week, the following announcement from Long Beach State Water Polo popped up unexpectedly.
A good notice about a most
familiar name from long ago
What a great week indeed for
Federico Gulisano
Federico is a Sophomore on Long Beach State's nationally ranked Water Polo team.
But not just an ordinary
Water Polo player
Federico entered the game tied
for the team's lead in goals with a
season total of 36 scores
Today's game between the Fordham Rams from the Borough of the Bronx in New York City and the Long Beach Sharks (Sharks? More on this later) featured two of the best NCAA DI Water Polo teams in the country.
in the country are found in California
Fordham making a West Coast swing to play tougher competition made perfect sense to me.
In looking at the two teams rosters, it became quickly apparent that the two school's Water Polo programs had a decidedly international flavor.
Long Beach State's 20 man roster included ten international players from seven countries of Australia, Brazil, Hungary (2), Iran, Italy, Serbia and Spain (3).
Not to be outdone, Fordham 24 man roster featured a whopping 18 players hailing from the eight foreign lands of Canada, Croatia (2), Germany, Hungary (5), Italy (4), Malta (2), Serbia (2) and South Africa.
Interestingly, all six American Rams come from sunny California. This explained the large contingent of Fordham fans in the stands with us.
Now, back to Long Beach State's Federico Gulisano. We knew him and his wonderful family when we coached the Catania Elephants American football team in 2008 and 2009.
Federico's Dad Antonello ("Tony, call me Pony") was our starting Strong Safety on those fun, magical Elephants' teams, the first two that I had the privilege of coaching overseas.
Pony and his effervescent wife, Ika, welcomed Laurie and I into their family where we enjoyed interacting with their four children.
Ika and Pony
Unfortunately, the world lost a bright light when Ika passed away last year after a courageous battle with cancer.
She had that rare quality to make every moment a better one for all of us.
Pony with his youngest son
Federico in 2008
Federico in 2008 with his aunt
at one of the fabulous BBQs hosted
at the their ancestral family compound
Thus, we headed out for the 90 minute drive to our first Water Polo game of the decade to support old family friends.
The Home of the Sharks
The Fordham Rams
#4 Ranked Nationally
9 Wins - 1 Loss
at
The Long Beach State 49ers
No, wait, that's not right anymore.
The school was founded in 1949 and adopted the nickname 49ers as a tip of the hat to that inaugural year and used a typical 1849 California Gold Rush 49er as their mascot.
After 70 years of mascot bliss, in 2019, the Long Beach students passed a referendum to change the school's mascot to the Sharks.
The reason given was the politically incorrect way that the Gold Rush 49ers had treated California's Native American population back in the day.
I knew none of this before today.
The Long Beach State Sharks
#6 Ranked Nationally
9 Wins - 3 Losses
The traffic was Sunday morning light and we arrived at the Sharks on-campus Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
We found ourselves a nice facility
as the teams were warming-up
But, what was that building on the far left?
Long Beach State's famed
Pyramid Athletic Events Center
It is MASSIVE!
Cobalt blue in color, it opened in 1994. It is 345 feet wide at each base edge and 18 stories high.
Introducing the two teams
#20 Federico Gulisano during
the American National Anthem
The 28 players representing 12 different foreign lands were all at attention and respectful during the song.
Federico with an entry pass
Federico rising out of the water . . .
. . . he shoots, he scores a
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!
He would score two goals today to take over the sole possession of the team's lead in this category.
The game was as competitive as you would want between two of the nation's top collegiate teams.
First Quarter
Tied 3-3
Halftime
Fordham 6-5
Third Quarter
Fordham 10-9
Fourth Quarter
Tied 10-10
We were headed to OVERTIME!
In Water Polo, the regulation quarters are eight minutes long.
In OT, the teams play two, three minute periods. If the score is still tied, then they go to a Sudden Victory period.
First OT Period
Fordham 11-10
Second OT Period
Fordham (10-1) 14
Long Beach State (9-4) - 10
The Sharks, with scoring tough to come by all day opted to pull their goalie with about 90 seconds left in the second OT period still trailing 11-10. The Rams responded with three long range, empty net goals including one by the Fordham goalie.
After the match we met up with Federico who was both surprised and a bit bewildered by our visit after not seeing him in 17 years.
In retrospect, we should have warned him about coming to the game via a message to his dad, Pony.
Federico is the young man in the
middle in case you are not sure
As it turned out, Federico happy to see us once we explained our connection to his family all those years ago when he was still quite young.
On the way home from Long Beach, we made two stops in Santa Monica.
First up, food shopping at Eataly
No fish for us today . . .
. . . nor fresh vegetables
We focused on pastas, tomato sauces, olive oil and wine.
We were hungry so one more stop to make.
Also in Santa Monica,
Comfort Food at its finest
The Huskies dropped out of
the Top 25
against Minnesota on Saturday,
that's a 0.50 GPA by the way
The 8:00 p.m. Pacific time Kickoff made sure that much of the country was asleep and did not see this "effort."
As if the Husky game was not bad
enough, the Rams blew a 16-0 lead
in tonight's featured game that most
of America DID see
NFC West Standings
San Francisco 49ers 3-0
Seattle Seahawks 2-1
Los Angeles Rams 1-2
Arizona Cardinals 1-2
Sometimes, being a fan of a team or two is really difficult.
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