SAN DIEGO SHORES WATER POLO CLUB

Some 2,500 kids have have gone through Doug Peabody’s San Diego Shores program

By Michael Gehlken,

Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:11 a.m.

Sandy Huffaker

San Diego Shores Coach Doug Peabody.

San Diego Shores Coach Doug Peabody also coaches water polo at The Bishop’s School. Sandy Huffaker

In Doug Peabody’s Kearny Mesa office, space is hard to come by. Trophies and plaques, framed photographs and poems, bookcases and boxes cover everything.

Behind Peabody’s laptop, next to photos of his family and a major life influence, USA Water Polo Hall of Fame coach Dick Draz, a herd of papers are scattered, some still warm from the printer’s clutch.

Peabody, 46, cycles through the sheets with the purpose of a tour guide, highlighting an era that is now 18 years old.

It hasn’t been perfect, he admits, but what is? Besides, the lessons, the experiences, the college careers, the championships and, perhaps most of all, the extended family created along the way are more than enough compensation to the proud father of the San Diego Shores.

Through the years, roughly 2,500 kids have come through his club water polo program that was founded in 1992 and annually named the country’s most prolific from 2000-2005. Mercifully, the long list of participants is not included among his desk’s papers.

But other papers denote the 232 Shores alumni have gone on to play water polo in college, not including the Class of 2010.

Another sheet archives the Shores alumni who have won an NCAA championship. Every year since 2002, a Shore alum has been on either the men’s and/or women’s title team.

Nico Sardo is proud to be on that list. He is proud to be a Shore.

“Everybody who starts out (in the program) usually stays with it, and it creates a core group growing up,” said Sardo, 22, who won NCAA titles at USC in 2008 and 2009. “You become best friends. It’s like a family.”

This month, the Shores added to their long legacy.

The club, which fields boys’ and girls’ teams from ages 12-under to 18-under, had five medal winners and placed three others at the recent Junior Olympics in Los Angeles. It was a comeback of sorts for the Shores, who had a 12-year medal streak snapped in 2009.

A pile of gray tank tops hang over a chair in Peabody’s office like vines wrapped around a tree.

“The club gave every athlete who went to the Junior Olympics that exact shirt,” said Peabody, who also provided them a black and yellow T-shirt — Shores colors. “I told each team, ‘You’ve got to start looking like a team.’ We all banded together; the coaches did a great job.

“It was the family. The family was back together. Everyone was rooting for each other and showing up large.”

Peabody, who also coaches water polo at the Bishop’s School, isn’t done yet.

This summer, the Shores opened a developmental program called Splash Summer Ball, available for ages 4 through 9. His daughter Emmy, 6, and son Lukas, 4, were among those to participate.