State champion Central coach makes water polo a 'Naperville thing'

Some say water polo is still trying to become a Naperville thing.

It's no soccer, for which the area is known for producing standouts and stars.

And not that long ago, even the players didn't really know what water polo was. As swimmers, they knew whatever this rough and rowdy game was, it required a lot of treading water and it kept them in the pool.

But those who say water polo isn't a thing need look no further than the Naperville Central High School boys team and the once water polo-clueless leader who coached the squad to an undefeated season and the state championship.

Bill Salentine, known to his teams as “Sal,” has replaced swimming with water polo as his true passion and gained recognition as boys coach of the year from Illinois Water Polo. Meanwhile, the sport has grown to attract more dedication - and domination - from its Naperville players.

It's a powerful mix that combined to produce a 35-0 season for the Redhawks and a “fantastic” achievement symbolic of the successes of all the water polo players Salentine has coached.

“Mostly it's the kids. Winning is secondary,” Salentine said. “If you have good kids, winning will take care of itself.”

Pool time

The sport didn't start with winning ways at Naperville Central. It started with two athletes in 1993 who asked their swimming coach to sponsor a new game. Salentine still remembers their names. He obliged their request.

“I was just looking at it as a way to keep the swimmers in the water longer,” he said.

Strategy was an afterthought when water polo started as a coed club and remained that way when it became an official school activity in 1996 and a varsity sport about 2000. The idea was just to swim up and down the pool, staying in shape in the process, and playing the ball when it “would get in the way sometimes,” Salentine said. “Now it's a half-court offense and a strategy instead of just swim and counterattack,” he said.

Opposing coaches, who often would shut out the early Naperville Central squads, helped Salentine come to understand water polo beyond its obvious emphasis on swimming and stamina. They encouraged him not to shy away from powerhouse teams like Fenwick High School in Oak Park or Brother Rice or the Latin School in Chicago.

Tom Musch, longtime teacher and coach at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, was one of these early instructors.

He remembers sharing the basics - how to run a practice, how to teach throwing and catching, how to set up an offense and defense, how to encourage the proper form for a “base” position, treading strongly with more than just head and shoulders out of the water.

With this direction, Salentine quickly progressed beyond the fundamentals. Yet he says it's not so much his coaching that advanced, but the dedication of players to the sport.

More pool time

Once an afterthought, now water polo is a goal unto itself.

“Some of the kids swim to get in shape for water polo,” Salentine said. “Now it's kids playing this game year-round and they're trying to get better.”

Many of the 20 or so subdivisions in Naperville that have neighborhood pools began offering summer water polo leagues about 10 years ago.

Kevin Bell got to play on one of them in Naper Carriage Hill. A four-year water polo player under Salentine at Central until his graduation in 2006, Bell was one of the first to join the team with some experience gained during his junior high summers. His brother, Naperville North boys water polo coach Martin Bell, is five years older and didn't get the chance.

The whole system produced a crop of solid seniors and other players for this year's Redhawks, including four who earned all-state honors: Nick Walker, Kent Emden and Kyle Jackson on the all-state first team and Phil Emden on the third team.

Like “Sal” says, it all comes back to the players and to keeping it simple: Good players will achieve good things.

Musch says there's more to the equation, and Salentine brings it.

“It's one thing to have the talent,” Musch said. “It's another thing to get them to perform.”

Balanced focus

With all this focus on performance, there can come pitfalls.

There's the decline of the three-sport athlete, for one. Salentine, a PE teacher at Naperville Central for 24 years, laments that as much as any other coach.

Growing up around the country as his father's government job moved the family from state to state, Salentine says he played soccer and basketball but focused on swimming. He understood the team concept, but thrived in the sameness of swimming no matter the locale.

“The constant was the black line at the bottom of the pool,” he said.

He went on to swim with the B.R. Ryall YMCA in Glen Ellyn and in college at Eastern Illinois University, his love for the sport never-ending. But some kids have limits.

With increased dedication to morning conditioning sessions and afternoon practices comes the risk of burnout, pressuring and pushing too hard for kids to take. Salentine's demeanor helps avoid that. In Hawaiian shirts at the beginning and end of each year - the guy once lived in Hawaii, just one of his family's many stops, so he's got to dress the part - “Sal” keeps it light. Bell described him as “easygoing.”

“He always made it a fun environment to be part of,” Bell said. “He is competitive and he certainly wanted our team to succeed, but he didn't want to do that at the mercy of having it be too businesslike.”

The team didn't quite reach the pinnacle of success the first few times the boys made it to the state final. They lost the title game in 2005, 2008 and 2010, each time falling to Fenwick.

But when it came time to play Stevenson this year, the team was relaxed and ready to complete its undefeated season with a championship, bringing water polo one step closer to becoming, possibly, a Naperville thing. And when it happened, it brought more praise for Salentine - Hawaiian shirts, easygoing attitude and all.

“The thing I'm proud of is there are people he's worked with who don't think he puts enough emphasis on winning,” Musch said. “It's equally important to try to win as it is to be a good teacher and teach life skills. He balances the two really well.”