Men’s water polo team continues its winning ways with third state championship, and with players like co-captain Micah Kamai, it’s easy to see why.
Micah Kamai is rhapsodizing about the joy of playing water polo.
“It’s super athletic,” says the co-captain of the 2018-19 men’s Rustlers squad, which in November 2018 won its third straight state water polo championship. “Your heart rate goes through the roof, but it’s also a strategic thing,” says Kamai, who is moving on this summer after two years at Golden West College. He’ll play water polo on a scholarship at Whittier College, a Division 3 contender in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. “So even though you have to swim super fast and shoot the ball really hard, you also have to think about it,” Kamai says. “It’s kind of like playing chess.”
Kamai, who turns 22 in August, almost didn’t get the chance to excel as a member of the men’s water polo team. Two serious injuries while attending basic cadet training in the United States Air Force Academy—his original choice after high school was to play on the Air Force team—torpedoed plans for a career in the military. And the injuries to his back and head, which happened on separate occasions, could have sunk his plans to get back in the pool and play. But Kamai recovered enough to become a standout member for two years on the men’s water polo squad, whose tradition of success goes back decades.
26 STATE TITLES
In defeating LA Valley College, 12-10, for the state championship last fall, the squad notched its 26th state championship, the most of any community college in the state. In the last 11 years, the Rustlers have won eight state championships.
Kamai embodies the grit, tenacity, and drive that have made GWC’s men’s water polo team—and the college’s Aquatics program overall—near-perennial winners.
“I think that the continuity of the program and the consistency of good athletes coming into the program has really helped us thrive,” says GWC Head Water Polo Coach Scott Taylor, who played water polo at Golden West in 1989-90 as a goalie. He worked under former Head Coach Ken Hamdorf as an assistant coach starting in 1999 before being named head coach in fall 2002.
“I think I was very fortunate to work under a great teacher and mentor,” Taylor says. “The history of the program is something that carries on. Our No. 1 goal with these athletes is matriculation, whether they come to us straight out of high school or maybe they didn’t get into their first four-year school of choice, and they come to us for a year or two, get their grades up, and play water polo.”
“They get more exposure. The other thing is we get a lot of kids who maybe went to a four-year school where it didn’t work out. So they come back for a year or two and regroup academically, then they get a lot more experience athletically.”
EARLY INTO THE WATER
Kamai spent most of his formative years growing up in Irvine. He began playing water polo when he was 8 and played all four years at Irvine High School.
His older brother, Zachary, almost attended GWC to play water polo; but instead joined the Air Force. Zack, as he is known, is 26 and remains active in the military. Taylor knew Zack through water polo circles. Micah and Zack’s father, Marold, was one of the head coaches of the Irvine Kahuna Water Polo Club. So it was no surprise that Marold Kamai urged Micah to consider playing water polo at GWC and getting his general education courses under his belt when his Air Force career didn’t pan out.
Micah’s first injury happened in 2016 when he was midway through boot camp. “I ended up getting a thing called rhabdomyolysis in my lower back,” says Micah, referring to the serious syndrome caused by direct or indirect muscle injury. “I couldn’t really walk at all.” Micah was sent back home but was told he could re-enlist in basic training.
A YEAR OF WORK
He spent a year working for his father’s company, which specializes in third-party logistics and supply chain management, before going back to Air Force basic cadet training in June 2017—only to suffer a head injury from a fall. “I went through a few months of questioning why all this was happening,” says Micah, whose dream was to become an Air Force pilot. “I was super bummed.” Micah took his dad’s advice and enrolled at GWC in mid-August 2017. “I needed to start somewhere,” Micah says.
He ended up thriving in water polo and in the classroom, where he took some business classes for a planned career in business operations and the global supply chain. Micah praised GWC’s athletic department and, in particular, its water polo program. “I ended up walking into our first meeting and knowing a few guys that I actually played with or played against when I was younger,” Micah recalls. “After that first meeting (with Coach Taylor), I was really comfortable. I knew he was going to be a really good coach.” Adds Micah, “He is very relatable. He can connect with pretty much all the players. He has this aura that makes you respect him a lot. He’s almost like someone you want to impress, which makes you want to work hard. And, he’s approachable. You can go up to him with almost any concern. He’s kind of like that person that you have in your back pocket when things hit the fan.”
IN A NEW POSITION
A center defender his whole life, Micah switched to center forward on the GWC water polo squad.
“We practiced twice a day, six days a week,” he says. “When you’re spending all that time with your teammates, you become best friends. I pretty much saw those guys more than I saw my house.”
Academically, although he was a 3.7 GPA student in high school, Micah enrolled in GWC’s Student Mentor Program the first semester of his first year to hone his time-management and other classroom-related skills.
“What I appreciate about Golden West is you can experiment with classes, unlike at a four-year college, where that’s much more expensive to do,” Micah says. Micah won the Orange Coast Empire League’s Character Award after his first year of playing water polo. Taylor, recognizing his leadership traits, made him team co-captain his second year. “There are people who are definitely more talented than I am, but I think I put the most work in,” Micah says. Micah was on the GWC swim team his first year after also serving on the swim team throughout high school.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Micah is excited to move onto Whittier College. “Once I’m done with college,” he says, “most of my water polo career might be done; I may join a masters team or become a coach during the summers.” Micah’s younger brother, Brayden, will start his second year at GWC in the fall. Last year, the brothers played together on the squad. Micah looks back fondly at his water polo career at GWC.
“Coach Taylor has been doing this for many years, and he knows every single type of player and how to coach every single type of player,” Micah says. “They’re a well-oiled machine.” Taylor grew up in Costa Mesa and attended Costa Mesa High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in geography and a master’s degree in sports management and athletic coaching from the United States Sports Academy. Taylor believes one of the reasons for the success of GWC’s water polo program is that he and his staff hold each student-athlete accountable and responsible for their actions.
“I think that’s probably the main thing, you know, just holding them accountable, being responsible—just knowing that our expectations when they come in the program are high for them to achieve academically, number one, and then athletically, number two, and then to matriculate on.”
Taylor says the GWC community is tremendously supportive of the water polo program.
“They’re supportive of our entire aquatics programs, in fact,” he says. “I think we get good support from the community and local businesses. Our college president and athletic directors have always been very supportive. And we appreciate all the support.”
