They Broke a Century League Lock : At Santa Ana Valley, Fialdini’s Revenge Shakes Up the Top 3

Coach Don Cholodenko has brought about some big changes on the Santa Ana Valley High School water polo team. The Falcons, who once enjoyed as much success as a certain coyote chasing a road runner in the desert, are 21-0 this season.

Consider it once took the Falcons 12 seasons (1966-1977) to win 21 games.

Big changes? How about huge?

The Falcons also clinched their first Century League championship two weeks ago with a victory over Foothill, 12-11.

Though Cholodenko has changed the school’s water polo program, he hasn’t changed the school.

That was obvious to one unidentified player/social commentator, who, when asked if he wanted to buy the $50 team picture package, quipped, “What do you think this is, Villa Park?”

Now there’s a guy who understands demographics.

Villa Park, along with Foothill and Tustin, have taken turns winning the Century League title since the league’s formation in 1975. Those schools are surrounded by suburbs, swimming pools and junior aquatic programs.

Cholodenko has had to teach some of his players to swim.

But he also has taught them how to win. Santa Ana Valley is 94-31 since his arrival six seasons ago. However, even in these good times the Falcons still did not fit the mold of an Orange County water polo power.

His top player--5-foot 11-inch, 265-pound Gerry Wines--displaces an alarming volume of water. The team’s second-leading scorer, Paulo Fialdini, is a little confused on the best method to score goals. He kicked one this season.

This season’s exploits may be news to some, but Santa Ana Valley has been winning since Cholodenko became the head coach. In his second season, the Falcons had their first winning season at 14-5 but were cemented in fourth place behind Villa Park, Tustin and Foothill.

Each season the team improved. Santa Ana Valley was 16-6 in 1982, 18-5 in 1983, but was unable to break the lock of the three league powers. That is, until last season when a 17-6 record, including a victory over Tustin, earned them a third-place finish and the school’s first playoff appearance.

Included in this season’s 6-0 league record, are victories over Tustin, Foothill and Villa Park. Each win was by a goal, causing some to intimate that Santa Ana Valley has been lucky rather than talented.

“To beat one of those schools by one goal, maybe,” Cholodenko said. “But to beat all three by one goal, that was a little more than luck.”

Until this season, Santa Ana Valley had never beaten Foothill or Villa Park. Last season’s victory over Tustin was the Falcons’ first over the Tillers.

The foundation upon which Cholodenko has built his team is the massive Wines. He set a school scoring record with 96 goals from the hole position. He is one of the few Santa Ana Valley players to have junior swimming experience.

Records aside, Wines is more concerned with changing Santa Ana Valley’s image.

“This year, I’m not really trying to score all the time,” he said. “I’m just trying to take games one at a time and show everybody that Valley is not a nobody school.”

In the Falcons’ double-post offense--two players in front of the goal instead of one--Wines is helped in the hole by the 5-7, 150-pound Fialdini.

Fialdini, a transfer student from Brazil, came to California just to watch the 1984 Summer Olympics and decided to stay. He has scored 61 goals. He plays by reflex, which explains the booted goal against Garden Grove. Like the drop-kick in football, it’s legal, but not often executed.

“The pass was too far in front of me to get with my hand so I just kicked it in,” he said.

Said Cholodenko: “It’s kind of amazing some of the things Paulo can do. He just watches the college players and then tries the moves he sees in practice and if they work, he uses them in the games.”

The title-clinching win against Foothill could have been called Fialdini’s Revenge. He scored the Falcons’ first five goals and finished the game with seven. Last season, suffering from the flu, he missed the Foothill game, and Santa Ana Valley lost, 17-6.

Another unlikely star is senior Ky Tran, the Falcons’ best ball handler. A victim of peer pressure, Tran took up the game as a freshman only because some friends were involved. He didn’t plan to keep playing, but he wound up as the team’s third-leading scorer.

One-goal victories have a way of testing defense. Santa Ana Valley’s is led by another Brazilian, Claudio Tausz.

“We’ve had to play our best defense this season,” Cholodenko said. “And Claudio is our best defensive player.”

Senior co-captain Tim Houser: “This team has just come together better than the last few. This season, we’re not fighting among ourselves. Everyone is together and that is one of the big reasons we were finally able to beat Foothill, Tustin and Villa Park.”

Now that the program has become a winning one, Cholodenko still reminds his players of some unpleasant memories. Like 1976, when the Falcons lost to Villa Park, 21-2. Or when the school was a member of the Freeway League in 1975 and lost to Sunny Hills, 27-1.

But the turnaround has not made Santa Ana Valley a place where high school water polo players are eager to play.

“I don’t have a lot of kids banging on my door to play here,” Cholodenko said. “The kids that play water polo at Valley are the ones who live in the district.”

In rebuilding the program, Cholodenko has been lucky on a couple points. He credits assistant coach Fred Lammers with with molding the Falcons’ younger players.

And since water polo at Santa Ana Valley once had the same storied tradition as the UCLA ice hockey team, there hasn’t been a lot of pressure to win. Well, not from the outside anyway.

“I don’t think anybody would have really cared if I had come in here and continued to lose,” Cholodenko said. “But I would have.”