Water polo star makes a splash in the pool

Grant Curry is the leading scorer in Palomar’s water polo team as he makes resounding waves at Wallace Memorial Pool with each goal.

The team won three of four games at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Sept. 16 where Curry made 20 of the 64 goals that day. However, the utility player credits the 30 percent goal score to his 19 other teammates.

“I think the assist is better than the goal,” Curry said. “I think I should give it all to the guys who are making the assist because that’s more difficult than putting it into the cage.”

From attacking and making goals to defending their defensive line, Curry’s more than seven-year knowledge of water polo has lent himself to be a versatile player on the team.

“It’s kind of neat that he doesn’t necessarily have to score for us to be successful,” head coach Jem McAdams said.

McAdams illustrates that Curry’s versatility allows him to play defense, make assists on his own as well as steals from opposing players and to pass them on to his teammates.

Water polo became the perfect meeting point for Curry between the two contrasting sports that garnered his focus in his youth, swimming and baseball.

“I was always a swimmer when I was younger and I played baseball as well so I always had an arm and I kind of wanted to create a point in my swimming than swimming wall to wall,” Curry said.

His passion for water polo was then intensified by Varsity Head Coach Brett Ormsby at Cathedral Catholic High School where he told the rising senior in 2012 that he “had a gift and a talent in water polo.”

As team captain, Curry would go on to snag two California Interscholastic Federation titles at Cathedral that he believes are his biggest accomplishments to date.

While the pool has become his second home and driving force, his heart is kept by Leila, a snow white Maltese that he describes as a show dog.

“She’s the love of my life. I wouldn’t be able to live without that dog,” Curry said.

The 20-year-old La Jolla native made his way to Palomar by way of Pennsylvania where the now sophomore student spent a year at Bucknell University as an attacker on the university’s water polo team in 2014.

Curry became Collegiate Water Polo Association’s Rookie of the Year and make All American his year at Bucknell that he said was, “just incredible, that whole season was a highlight really.”

His return to San Diego in 2015 was bittersweet for Curry as he states that Bucknell was a good fit for him academically and athletically but financial limitations made him reconsider his options.

“When I left Bucknell I was in a pretty bad mental state, I didn’t really like being at Palomar,” Curry said.

The finance major, with an emphasis in accounting, took a year off from water polo as he transitioned into a new routine on campus. The separation from a game he’s played since he was 13, added with a time-consuming commute and a lack of community on campus left Curry questioning his return to the game he showed early promise in.

“When I transferred out of Bucknell it was a decision-making point in my life where I needed to say whether I would continue with water polo or drop it and at that point was when I really wanted to drop it,” Curry said.

In Fall 2016 Curry made Palomar’s water polo team. The community and support system he found with his teammates is what he contributes to making a difference in his life and on campus.

“I truly believe it’s worth it to come up here and play for this team,” Curry said.

Curry describes water polo as a mix of wrestling, basketball and soccer where the highly physical sport incorporates team aspects to score a win.

McAdams said it’s a sport that is better understood and appreciated by going out and watching a game next to someone who knows the meanings behind the whistling echoes throughout the pool.

“There’s so many different aspects to the game and I’m just really good at scoring goals so if you want to see a lot of goals being scored then I’m great to watch,” Curry said.